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America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

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Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#381

Post by photojosh »

jogjayr wrote: post #220
cwbrandsma wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not disagreeing completely, but your location might be influencing your answer. I live in the northern portion of the USA, we get freezing winters and blistering summers. Come mid-winter...I am not going downtown to walk around outside, we don't hang out outside (unless we are talking winter sports, and then FULLY clothed). In summer, there needs to be shade. Fall and spring, we get wet. But really, it seems like…

Completely agree that weather makes a huge difference to how much you enjoy strolling outdoors over being in a mall. My main complaint about malls is how _loud_ they are: visually and auditory-ly (someone please tell me what the right word is). Malls are crowded, adorned in bright, garish colors, filled with stale food court food smells. There is very little seating other than at food courts, water fountains are hidd…

Not an answer to your question exactly, but to the whole premise: Gruen transfer [0]. We have a great TV show by that name here in Australia that deconstructs advertising.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruen_transfer

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#382

Post by ganoushoreilly »

woolvalley wrote: post #373
ganoushoreilly wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other side of that is Santana row caters to high end buyers looking for high end brands that most malls won't carry. It's a bit of an edge case. They do have a Fogo de Chao though so that makes it cool in my book :D .

Espetus in San Mateo is far better than Fogo de Chao. :D

I'll have to check it out, though when i'm in San Mateo I usually end up at Sushi Sams.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#383

Post by _rpd »

phirschybar wrote: post #370
_rpd wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People want to buy from their local stores. Why? I love my local baker, but for brand name items, I'm going to order online. > BOPIS (buy online pick up in store) Why is this attractive to anyone? If I am making the effort to fight traffic and parking to visit a physical location, I want to handle the item. "BOPIS" seems like the worst of all worlds to me. > knowledge of what is in stock nearby This is crucial. Thi…

> Why? I love my local baker, but for brand name items, I'm going to order online. really? even for things like bikes, sporting goods, clothes, running shoes, ... I could go on. And the thing is: you'd still be ordering online, just not from amazon. if you order directly from brands and the brand can inform you that there is a local shop that has it within miles, why not get it there? why waste the resources of havin…

> > Why? I love my local baker, but for brand name items, I'm going to order online.

> really? even for things like bikes, sporting goods, clothes, running shoes, ... I could go on.

I have personally ordered all of these online, although there are some types of clothes that I don't like ordering online.

> And the thing is: you'd still be ordering online, just not from amazon. if you order directly from brands and the brand can inform you that there is a local shop that has it within miles, why not get it there?

Because I have to schedule a trip to the location. To me, this is like asking: "why not travel to the post office to pick up your mail?" Well, because instead the item can be delivered to my door step.

> why waste the resources of having to have it shipped (long distance) only to potentially have to ship it back?

In both cases, the item is traveling the same distance from manufacturer to my door step. It is more efficient to ship the item from the warehouse directly to my door step vs. first shipping it to some random location miles from my door step. The only difference is whose resources are used to ship the item the last few miles: my vehicle or a UPS truck. I guarantee the UPS truck is dozens of times more efficient.

With Amazon Prime (90 million US subscribers) shipping and most returns are free, so I'm paying twice if I use my vehicle to pick something up from a store. The current Amazon return process (explicitly to take this argument off the table): box arrives at door step, open box, try out item, take out preprinted return sticker, put return sticker on box, put box on door step, let Amazon know to pick it up. It is no effort. This is rare enough that the efficiency impact is minimal, although possibly less rare for clothes. The situation may change if returns become full fare.

> BOPIS ... is a solid option when there is limited stock

This is a super rare situation for me, but I agree that BOPIS is superior in this situation.

> best buy and home depot are killing with this right now

I'm quite surprised by this, is there a good article about this around?

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#384

Post by gorbachev »

CalRobert wrote: post #360
gorbachev wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in them Scandinavian countries, and my brother and I often spent the entire weekend outside out of sight from my parents. My earliest memory of that is when I was 7 years old. I now live in the US and have kids about the same age. The issue is not homogeneous culture or any other thing people with no brains come up with, but traffic density, at least in my case. Where I used to live we could roam without ha…

My single greatest fear for letting my kid walk free when she's old enough to is that she'll be killed by a driver. This is compounded by the fact that as long as you say "Sorry mate didn't see you" it's OK to kill people with your car (weird really - can you do that for killing people by any other means?) My wife and I have semi-seriously considered moving to northern Scandinavia for both this reason and its compara…

That's what really gets me.

There was a case not far from where I live where a driver turning right mowed down a 4-year-old child walking with his grandmother on a CROSSWALK. He wasn't running or anything like that, just crossing the street. The child died. They didn't even charge the driver. Fucking ridiculous. It was 100% the driver's fault. New York Times published an article written by the child's mother who questioned the logic of first of all call it an accident and second of all how the driver wasn't charged with anything, not even reckless driving.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#385

Post by xkcd-sucks »

humanrebar wrote: post #365
gbacon wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A recent video called “Why The Kids Need Stranger Things”[0] made exactly this point about the nostalgia of the Netflix series and how malls were a symbol of free-range kids[1]. Circumstances have changed so much that the creators assert Stranger Things could not be set in the present day. [0]: https://youtu.be/qHl-BQXYg3s [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-range_parenting

> ...Stranger Things could not be set in the present day. Also, lots of plot points are ruined if people can just text each other, take photos, or record video as needed.

And, ubiquitous rectangles of light with all actors' attention directed thereto, makes for really bad cinematography

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#386

Post by CalRobert »

gorbachev wrote: post #384
CalRobert wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My single greatest fear for letting my kid walk free when she's old enough to is that she'll be killed by a driver. This is compounded by the fact that as long as you say "Sorry mate didn't see you" it's OK to kill people with your car (weird really - can you do that for killing people by any other means?) My wife and I have semi-seriously considered moving to northern Scandinavia for both this reason and its compara…

That's what really gets me. There was a case not far from where I live where a driver turning right mowed down a 4-year-old child walking with his grandmother on a CROSSWALK. He wasn't running or anything like that, just crossing the street. The child died. They didn't even charge the driver. Fucking ridiculous. It was 100% the driver's fault. New York Times published an article written by the child's mother who ques…

I don't know how to change the mindset. A kid in san diego was killed in a bike lane while I lived there and everyone poured sympathy on the DRIVER, ffs, and blamed the kid for being there. It makes one weep, especially because people (Americans, at least) accept it.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#387

Post by apexalpha »

jacobolus wrote: post #313
fsloth wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's so weird. We in northern europe have no problem in letting our kids roam (Finland, but I presume the situation is similar in at least scandinavia).

I would guess that even in northern Europe there has probably been a substantial reduction of kids’ roaming distance and time spent unsupervised compared to 2 or 3 generations ago. This seems to be a worldwide trend (if not to the same extent in every place). In the US one of the big problems is a culture of legal liability for every possible thing, and a general culture of fearfulness, excuse-making, and ass-coverin…

>This seems to be a worldwide trend

Yes there is a trend to 'protect' kids from everything. But in my country there is a clear counter-culture advocating agianst what they call 'rubber stone' society where everything is done to avoid possible danger.

There are now ads running on TV saying 'let boys be boys', let them climb trees, go out and explore etc...

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#388

Post by eecc »

cwbrandsma wrote: post #122
pascalxus wrote: post #60

Malls hold no interest for me whatsoever. There's nothing there worthwhile, other than employment. Malls have nothing: no libraries, no Good Cafes, no places to hang out, no parks, no museums, no zoos, limited live music, no outdoors. And the few things it does have: like some book stores and places to eat, are all engineered to get you in and out and back to the Mall's singular focus: Spend, spend, spend: shop till…

I'm not disagreeing completely, but your location might be influencing your answer. I live in the northern portion of the USA, we get freezing winters and blistering summers. Come mid-winter...I am not going downtown to walk around outside, we don't hang out outside (unless we are talking winter sports, and then FULLY clothed). In summer, there needs to be shade. Fall and spring, we get wet. But really, it seems like…

In Northern Italy - where the weather can be bad, if not ugly - they developed the Portico, where the buildings overhang the sidewalks and provide protection from rain and wind (see http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I00007AaJoUp4oKU/s/750...)

Sure, they don't completely isolate humans from weather conditions but these solutions significantly improve the livability and prolonged usability of an urbanization, without burning bathtubs of gasoline to keep running.

Humans are not obliged to colonize every single corner of the planet...

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#389

Post by rimunroe »

rimunroe wrote: post #353
VLM wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is extremely good at that, and they have a strong financial motivation to do so. I'll agree with and extend your remarks on a tangent that at one point in human history literacy was nice but not required to participate in the economy. Currently shopping by catalog and spec and datasheet is for the cognitive elite like engineers, but soon enough its going to be a required new higher minimum of economic particip…

> Currently shopping by catalog and spec and datasheet is for the cognitive elite like engineers, but soon enough its going to be a required new higher minimum of economic participation. Sounds like you you're mistaking "wealthy people" for "the cognitive elite"! The shopping behaviors you're describing are just those of people who have either the time or capital to spend trying to get marginally better stuff. > [...…

Also, I didn't comment on it but the idea that engineers are smarter than other people in the first place sounds like a wildly unfounded assumption

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#390

Post by phirschybar »

_rpd wrote: post #383
phirschybar wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why? I love my local baker, but for brand name items, I'm going to order online. really? even for things like bikes, sporting goods, clothes, running shoes, ... I could go on. And the thing is: you'd still be ordering online, just not from amazon. if you order directly from brands and the brand can inform you that there is a local shop that has it within miles, why not get it there? why waste the resources of havin…

> > Why? I love my local baker, but for brand name items, I'm going to order online. > really? even for things like bikes, sporting goods, clothes, running shoes, ... I could go on. I have personally ordered all of these online, although there are some types of clothes that I don't like ordering online. > And the thing is: you'd still be ordering online, just not from amazon. if you order directly from brands and the…

here is one: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2016/10/13/opportunit...
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