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I want to see the fabric and touch it and try it on. I am willing to pay more to do it instead of ordering online and returning most or all of it. If I am familiar with a line, say JJ Jill's, I am more apt to take a chance on ordering online. Obviously something like getting Levi's jeans for my DH doesn't matter. They are consistently the same.
I would never order a sofa or chair online...... I want to sit on it. I don't like furniture that is so soft it practically swallows a person.
I would hesitate to order major furniture online, too, but I have recently had excellent experiences
I ordered a set of armchairs from Wayfair and couldn't have been more pleased! Free shipping, excellent packaging, exactly the color I wanted, a fraction of store prices
I also ordered a nice coffee table from Wayfair, again and excellent experience!
I ordered a mattress, box spring and frame from Macys direct delivered to my daughter's new apartment, smooth sailing all the way!
It just all depends.....guess we have to go with the times
Has anyone else noticed it is impossible to find size narrow shoes in stores? Ordering those is always undependable concerning fit. Nordstroms is the only store that has any kind of selection anymore.
I have not bought shoes at a department store in ages. Asking someone every time to bring out a size is annoying. (“We didn’t have size 10 but I got you 9 just in case” LOL) Either DSW or Zappos all the way for me. That ship has sailed long time ago.
I think it's a combination of a few things. In 2008, stores got stuck with huge amounts of inventory that they had to give away to get rid of. Since then, they often have low inventory. You ask for a size and they will say, I will order it for you. I can do that. If I wanted to order it, I would have stayed home. And the other thing is the sales people are either non existent or hound you. You go into a dressing room and you need another size and you wait, and wait and wait and finally either go get it yourself or say ********** and leave. There are some really good people who have been doing it a long time. I like buying from them.
It didn't surprise me at all when Sears went under. You couldn't get a salesperson to help you if your life depended on it.
Funny, I shop at the Arrowhead Crossings Sears and in the past year or so, the store often has more staff than shoppers from just about anytime I am in there.
A well writtten article on what happened to the demand for mall shopping
American Malls and Department Stores are Dying Off
Why the death of malls is about more than shopping
Some of those jobs can be found in the massive distribution centers Amazon has opened across the country, often not too far from malls the company helped shutter. One of them is in Breinigsville, Pa., 45 miles from Schuylkill.
But those are workplaces, not gathering places. The mall is both. And in the 61 years since the first enclosed one opened in suburban Minneapolis, the shopping mall has been where a huge swath of middle-class America went for far more than shopping. It was the home of first jobs and blind dates, the place for family photos and ear piercings, where goths and grandmothers could somehow walk through the same doors and find something they all liked. Sure, the food was lousy for you and the oceans of parking lots encouraged car-heavy development, something now scorned by contemporary planners. But for better or worse, the mall has been America’s public square for the last 60 years.
So what happens when it disappears?
Think of your mall. Or think of the one you went to as a kid. Think of the perfume clouds in the department stores. The floating Muzak. The fountains splashing below the skylights. The cinnamon wafting from the food court. As far back as ancient Greece, societies have congregated around a central marketplace. In medieval Europe, they were outside cathedrals. For half of the 20th century and almost 20 years into the new one, much of America has found their agora on the terrazzo between Orange Julius and Sbarro, Waldenbooks and the Gap, Sunglass Hut and Hot Topic.
That mall was an ecosystem unto itself, a combination of community and commercialism peddling everything you needed and everything you didn’t: Magic Eye posters, wind catchers, Air Jordans, slap bracelets. The giant department stores that held its flanks–Saks, the Bon-Ton, Bloomingdale’s, Elder-Beerman–were miniature malls unto themselves, with their own escalators and sections and scents.
Victoria's Secret is a store for women size 8 and under. Even size 10 wouldn't fit into their lingerie.
Many years ago I shopped at a Victoria's Secret and asked the little gal for a size 7 panties. she literally looked at me is disbelief and said "7? That's a large!" To which I replied "well, so am I!" She continued to stare, slack-jawed, so I took my "fat behind" and left. I believe I ended up buying some underpants at
Sears, you know, the pack of six for $5? Well, I guess there's something for everyone.....
Also consider back in the 1980's and 1990's there was a wave of mergers and acquisitions that saw many department stores gobbled up by larger conglomerates.
This often resulted in local department stores loosing a unique local flavor as decisions were made by management often far away.
Here is a list of closed/defunct department stores; look how many were merged/bought then finally went out of business.
Many department stores were started by an actual person or family, and thus had sort of a "signature". Shoppers had their preferences which built loyalty. Stores also competed against each other which made things interesting.
While I agree on line is a part of it, I think a much bigger part is poor management -- poor quality product, poor service, and poor selection.
I can remember Sears when you could get anything. From furniture to appliances to tools to fishing to farming. If they didn't have it in the store, there was a specialty catalog. But their service and product selection went to nothing. They got rid of much of what made them and tried to focus on fashion. Walmart came along with lower prices on everyday clothes and others had better selection of fashion.
Quality went down as they sold more Chinese junk rather than high quality products. The brand went from being recognized for quality and dependability to crap. Like someone said above, Sears was the Amazon model before the internet. But that backed out of that line of service. If they'd been smart, they would have been Amazon. Then bought Kmart. Dumb financial decision to buy what in many cases was the other anchor store in the same mall and was already struggling.
Many other major retailers went under well before the internet came along -- Woolworth, Montgomery Ward, etc. Got taken over by Harvard MBAs who understood finance, but not customers. Sold cheap junk when Walmart was selling higher quality at the same or lower prices. Now Walmart is following in their footsteps being filled with cheap Chinese junk. As Walmart is now, Sears and Kmart once were. As Sears and Kmart are now, Walmart will be. Add in more competitors all selling the same junk, no service to draw customers into the stores, and the ability to shop when you want in your own home with free shipping, and it's no wonder they are going out of business.
I agree. I don't go in the department stores much anymore. Not because of their location but because of the products they sell. They focus on high profit cheap chinese made junk and I am not in the market for such. I go out of my way if necessary to buy a quality product at a fair price. That is why I buy so much online now. I don't shop online because it is easier or more convenient. I would much rather be able to put my hands on the products and look at them and compare to others but there aren't many places you can go to buy quality products at a fair price.
Walmart has gotten just about useless. They focus on selling cheap chinese made junk. Home Depot and Lowes have started going down that path now too so I find myself buying less and less from them as well. I buy most of my tools online now because for many, in particular specialty tools, they either do not carry them because they won't sell enough volume or they sell cheap junk versions. No thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pink Jazz
Interestingly, one of the best performing department stores currently is Kohl's. What could be helping them are modern stores and the fact that most of their stores are located outside of malls.
I completely disagree. Stores being scattered all about town in open shopping centers and strip centers has been done over and over and they eventually die. The malls go through periods as well and will make a come back. In most parts of the country the weather is rarely ideal for outdoor shopping. Here in the Southeast it is 100 in the summer, cold and raining through the winter. I despise outdoor shopping centers and rarely visit them simply because of the weather. Our local mall is typically very busy and it is most likely due to our weather. Nevertheless though, developers insist on building ourdoor shopping here and you can see the constant churn of stores goign out of business....especially the restaurants. It is sort of hard to pay the overhead and turn a profit when it is 45 and raining or 96 with 75% humidity for weeks on end and most people avoid being out in the weather.
Interestingly, one of the best performing department stores currently is Kohl's. What could be helping them are modern stores and the fact that most of their stores are located outside of malls.
I completely disagree. Stores being scattered all about town in open shopping centers and strip centers has been done over and over and they eventually die. The malls go through periods as well and will make a come back. In most parts of the country the weather is rarely ideal for outdoor shopping. Here in the Southeast it is 100 in the summer, cold and raining through the winter. I despise outdoor shopping centers and rarely visit them simply because of the weather. Our local mall is typically very busy and it is most likely due to our weather. Nevertheless though, developers insist on building outdoor shopping here and you can see the constant churn of stores going out of business....especially the restaurants. It is sort of hard to pay the overhead and turn a profit when it is 45 and raining or 96 with 75% humidity for weeks on end and most people avoid being out in the weather.
I'm with "Pink Jazz" on this. I'd much rather spread my umbrella or brave a small amount of heat or cold than deal with parking around columns, paying for parking, and not being able to see my car when I get out of the store easily. Going to a mall makes a small errand a major project.
I'm with "Pink Jazz" on this. I'd much rather spread my umbrella or brave a small amount of heat or cold than deal with parking around columns, paying for parking, and not being able to see my car when I get out of the store easily. Going to a mall makes a small errand a major project.
Your malls must be completely different than all the ones I have visited. The ones I have been to have multiple entrances and the large anchor stores usually have their own entrances. You can just park right in front of them, walk in the store and walk right back out to your car. Now of course the smaller stores you have to actually go inside the mall but you can select from an entrance and go in close to the store. Most shopping centers are spread out and you park in front of one store and if it is busy you may be a good distance out or down from the store, you go to that store and then to visit another, you either walk 3/4 of a mile around buildings or you get in your car and drive around, park, go in, go out and repeat. To me it is a huge hassel and just about unbearable when it is close to 100 degrees with high humidity. I despise big shoppping centers myself.
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Well, I guess there's something for everyone.....
