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Ghosts of Bricks and Mortar in the Mist
Jul. 23rd, 2011 02:56 pmIt was a fairly typical retaily week for me. I received two packages from online retailers, and ordered a new book/CD combination that shipped yesterday. Meanwhile, other than gasoline and groceries, and one rather unusual trip to buy a gas grill, I didn't buy-buy anything at all. That would appear to be our modern world, and on a week when we finally said Bye Bye to Borders, it's kinda sad.
It's not just the digital stuff, either. The days are ending when we are able to shop for something, much as that concept is usually abhorrent to me. Earlier in the week, in a fit of anomaly, I actually wanted to go out and do so: Eleanor had asked for some new casual t-shirts, and there was one particular Disneyesque one I wanted to get for myself, so I worked a trip to the Disney Store into my plans.
Stop laughing at me. I know, YOU knew all along that this onetime boutique spot was long gone, not only from where they'd been in all the malls here, but indeed not a single one remains. And here's where Google- which can find anyone, anything and probably pictures of he, she and all of it along with a map of how to get there- is a George W. Bush.
If you try to search online for a place to buy something offline? Or just generally try Googling a business by name or description? You get what Gene Wilder famously referred to in Young Frankenstein as "doo-doo!" In my Disney example, for instance: after discovering the three dead outlets, I tried "Disney merchandise Buffalo," and kept getting sent to sites like buffalo-dot-retailguide-dot-com and citysearch-dot-com, all of which had dead links back to the closed stores. Official phone company sites, and their infinite-monkey numbers of knockoffs, are just as badly out of date. In the end, I just gave up and figured I'd try a department store in my travels.
One bullseyed mascot dog later, I was still shirtless. Tarjay had exactly one Donald shirt and one frilly Minnie Mouse t. Zazit. Now granted, the one on The Transit is being remodeled, but their selection, I have to say, was pitifully thin even for the reduced square footage. Trips to other big boxes would likely be just as futile, so I've pretty much resolved to suck it and place an Amazon order for the two of us.
As long as there's at least some brick-and-mortar competition, services like Amazon have incentive to be very good, and I've found even their free shipping to be remarkably fast compared to the promised dates. I just wonder how tempted Bezos will be to pad his bottom line once they've killed most of the big boxes, when you'll have even less Shop Locally opportunities to compete with them.
And that, friends, is something that $1.00 off my next .mp3 purchase just won't compensate for:(
It's not just the digital stuff, either. The days are ending when we are able to shop for something, much as that concept is usually abhorrent to me. Earlier in the week, in a fit of anomaly, I actually wanted to go out and do so: Eleanor had asked for some new casual t-shirts, and there was one particular Disneyesque one I wanted to get for myself, so I worked a trip to the Disney Store into my plans.
Stop laughing at me. I know, YOU knew all along that this onetime boutique spot was long gone, not only from where they'd been in all the malls here, but indeed not a single one remains. And here's where Google- which can find anyone, anything and probably pictures of he, she and all of it along with a map of how to get there- is a George W. Bush.
If you try to search online for a place to buy something offline? Or just generally try Googling a business by name or description? You get what Gene Wilder famously referred to in Young Frankenstein as "doo-doo!" In my Disney example, for instance: after discovering the three dead outlets, I tried "Disney merchandise Buffalo," and kept getting sent to sites like buffalo-dot-retailguide-dot-com and citysearch-dot-com, all of which had dead links back to the closed stores. Official phone company sites, and their infinite-monkey numbers of knockoffs, are just as badly out of date. In the end, I just gave up and figured I'd try a department store in my travels.
One bullseyed mascot dog later, I was still shirtless. Tarjay had exactly one Donald shirt and one frilly Minnie Mouse t. Zazit. Now granted, the one on The Transit is being remodeled, but their selection, I have to say, was pitifully thin even for the reduced square footage. Trips to other big boxes would likely be just as futile, so I've pretty much resolved to suck it and place an Amazon order for the two of us.
As long as there's at least some brick-and-mortar competition, services like Amazon have incentive to be very good, and I've found even their free shipping to be remarkably fast compared to the promised dates. I just wonder how tempted Bezos will be to pad his bottom line once they've killed most of the big boxes, when you'll have even less Shop Locally opportunities to compete with them.
And that, friends, is something that $1.00 off my next .mp3 purchase just won't compensate for:(