State of Retail

They say that traditional retail is in jeopardy of disappearing because of the internet, and I can kind of see this happening from firsthand experience. I'm a bit skeptical about the demise of brick and mortar stores, but stats tell a different story as more and more people are buying online. I know I prefer just getting something online, not only because it removes the hassle of shopping and driving, but also because it's often cheaper. However, I also think that people like the shopping experience, and maybe it's good to get out of the house now and then rather than sitting on one's computer all day. Plus, even though this seems like the next wave, I really can't imagine buying groceries online. Amazon thinks differently.

Either way, some retail stores seem like they are having trouble, especially some of these big chains, not to mention malls. I'm not a fan of malls, anyway, but when you into them and they are empty, I find them completely depressing. We experienced this back in LA, and I see it whenever I go into the retail district up here. The one tiny mall we have is always empty, and certain big chain stores like Kmart and JCP have 3-4 customers max. Walmart still seems to draw them in.

My original point that has gotten lost in my rambling is that I was attempting to buy some jeans at JCP online, and it kept failing on me. Like many stores, you get free shipping if you pick them up at the store, but more importantly, I can easily return the clothes if they don't fit. The pitfalls (and there are many) of online shopping is that obviously you can't try them on, and you have to pay for return shipping. Once you find something that fits, it's easy, but it takes a little legwork to get to that point. Buying online from a store that's in the vicinity (I'm reluctant to use the word “local”) means that you often get the free shipping, and if it doesn't fit, you can easily return it for free.

Anyway, this didn't seem to work out with JCP. Every time I ordered a pair, they canceled it because they didn't have the jeans in stock. I tried about three times, slightly varying each time, and I kept getting cancelation notices. Talk about a pain, why not just say they are out of stock before I go through the whole ordering process? I finally gave up and looked to Amazon, which happened to have free shipping and free return shipping. Say no more.

While I have some issues with big internet companies taking over the world, you have to give Amazon some credit, they sure do have their act together. The older more traditional stores seem a bit behind the curve, but I guess that's why their all going out of business. I'm not sure what the future holds but I'm guessing there is both good and bad on the horizon.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to tim putala for the pic.

-->