Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Found this brick & mortar gem today...Seattle-based Nordstrom is actually up this past Christmas season. Not to say Nordy's doesn't have an on-line platform.
Retail isn't dying at all. It's evolving.
Once upon a time, you went to craftspeople to make something custom. Then the craftspeople began to carry a range of stock and would seek out reputable suppliers back when that was hard and distribution selection was limited.
Then someone said...he I don't need to know how to build any of this, let's just sell distribution of the locals and we'll do fine.
Then enter Sears that said...that's genius...let's move to the kingpin of distribution by water, rail and in the middle of manufacturing and use a catalog and they won't even come to the store...and people will know what they want, but can't get because there isn't a nearby store.
Then the local stores dropped the craftspeople entirely and just went to product knowledge of what they needed to order.
And then the local stores got bigger and grew departments that knew one area but not all.
And then the local stores got bigger still, owned by a central group and worker expectations started dropping to the point that....
It started to make sense ordering online, because everything's returnable and nobody knows what it is anyway.
So retail can't really bring production back....but it can start to deep dive into an area and....I swear this old management book said it....train and develop people to know the various uses of these products...but people can do that on yelp as well, so they need an experience segment to go with it.
So the malls are going to give up a bit of rentable space for different activities, and retailers are going to stop trying to sell everything on price...and they'll do just fine. Its just evolution. Retail's not dead. I'd expect the retail relationships start to evolve to more than just purchasing...and to become better defined instead of broad based in their target audience.
In the meantime, Sears....hand the baton to Amazon...and Amazon...realize the second you start selling regular stuff for a profit...your competition is going to pop up like weeds.
My husband and I started a retail gaming store in August. We knew from the beginning that we'd never compete with Walmart or Amazon on prices, so we needed to offer something unique. What we have built is a place where people of all ages can hang out and play games, not just buy them. It's too soon yet to say anything about our long-term success, but we've been growing our community of players and covering our expenses so far. As said above, retail isn't dying, just evolving. That's the beauty of the market: it evolves by rewarding those who are best able to meet the needs and desires of consumers. Sometimes that means lower prices, sometimes better customer service, and sometimes it means thinking outside the box!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
