“convinced me that I should just order them myself (without giving a counter-person their “cut”).”
I have read that in a fairly short time the brick and mortar retailers will be gone. Even Wal-Mart. They’ll just have warehouse operations and deliver stuff to you. It’s already happening. Several years ago Amazon.com handled a significant percentage of the everything sold in the US. This trend is being driven by high minimum wages and more and more government interference with the employer. Warehouse operations will be largely automated.
When the meat cutters at Wal-Mart unionized Wal-Mart fired them and outsourced cutting. Now they outsource most of their stocking. (Ask the guy stocking the shelves where to find something and he’ll likely tell you he doesn’t work there.)
It is government regulation driving this trend, not greedy business.
Where are all these illegal aliens going to work? There are only so many lawn maintenance jobs. And, if nobody else is working I guarantee they’re not concerned with the state of their lawn.
“I have read that in a fairly short time the brick and mortar retailers will be gone. Even Wal-Mart.”
I can believe that; when malls here in NJ starting filling space with tattoo parlors and more food-focused places, that was the writing on the wall. Even Wal-Mart is a necessary evil where people go to save money, not to enjoy themselves.
This is a dilemma for Dems and the cities they trashed; they were accustomed to forcing employers to hire their unemployable denizens, and are left with empty storefronts. Companies that could figure out how to move jobs around the world can figure out a way to move them out of cities filled with gibsmedats with outstretched hands...