The future of retail (Atlanta, Oxford: bankrupt, cabinets, cost)

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Further evidence that retail is changing. Blockbuster is in Chapter 11 and closing stores. Their business model doesn't work as more people opt for Netflix or getting films on-line.

Macy's is hiring more people for its on-line business. The department store model is nothing like it used to be. Downtown Rich's and Davidson's (now Macy's) were Atlanta icons. Department stores have consolidated. I think Macy's is the only significant one left. They used to be Federated but I guess they changed it to a recognizable name.

And does anyone buy CD's anymore? B&N and Borders have significantly reduced that section. DVDs are the next white elephants and will Blu-ray last?

Still a lot of old people left in this country & they buy cds, DVDS. Not everyone has a Blu Ray system yet. Many dont even see the difference. You & I may be tech savy, but many dislike technology & need hard copies of their entertainment. Which is why I brought up the E readers like Ipad, Kindle & the Sony device....they have NOT come up with a standard for them yet. Once that happens than books will start to die. I dont buy cds, most albums have no value as albums, its better to just download the SONGS I want and keep pressing. You may or may not think the same way, but hey I read AJC on my phone. Im typing this post from my phone & I am sure others do the same. The only way to kill CDs forever is to have retailers sell the files instore. Sorto how Apple does it. Soon Microsoft will have its own store doing the same type of business. Online shopping just helps the flow of business. Online being the only way to get product will never be a reality. Yea some malls will die off, but who cares.

[MathmanMathman]

Already college textbooks are being offered as ebooks. Only a few but I'll expect that number to grow. Considering that textbook prices are about $150 and above now, they had to come up with a way to reduce the price. I think the ebooks are about half the cost of a textbook.

I hope the ebook is yours to "keep", ie. the file doesn't disappear after a certain amount of time. Some people were bothered a while back when a book they purchased for the Kindle disappeared. I forgot the reason but Amazon was able to reach out and delete it. I don't like that. However, an ebook textbook should be easier to use with keyword searching and adding your own electronic notes, etc.

There is a movement to create free online learning to avoid those high prices from the textbook publishers. Seems crazy to keep producing new books about calculus, biology, physics, etc. For the undergraduate, that stuff hasn't significantly changed. One site edited by profs could cover a topic adequately and stop all this reinvention of the wheel with a new textbook about an old topic.

Wikipedia is sort of going in that direction but I'm worried about its accuracy. I've heard that some people intentionally enter erroneous content and then there are entries altered depending on the person's political proclivities. And lately Wikipedia is pleading for money to keep it going.

[DTL3000]

I think physical books are always gonna be around but they may end up in a situation similar to vinyl records. I think LPs have actually increased in production and sales over the past several years. You won't see a lot of big box stores selling them but you you'll probably have a bunch of small stores staffed by extremely well-read folks. Sort of like how record stores are staffed by extreme music junkies into all sorts of obscure stuff.

What's gonna suck is figuring out how to replace all those retail, shipping, and printing jobs. The world is changing so fast that hardly anyone can keep up and I feel sorry for people who get cut out of the market due to technology. I think a lot of ok paying brick and mortar jobs are being done away with forever and that's going to leave a lot of people screwed. It seems like soon we are going to have well-educated technology related jobs(IT, Medical, Education, etc.) and menial labor jobs that can't be digitized(garbage collection, landscaping, etc.) with nothing in between.

[AcidSnake]

I've had those same concerns myself. Truth be told, our country never came up with any suitable replacement jobs for the textile, clothing, and shoe factory jobs that went overseas. Many of the semi & non-skilled jobs left seem to stay stuck below ten dollars an hour, while inexplicably, every other cost in the world from electricity, gas, and water, to groceries & transportation have gone up.

I accepted the social reality long ago that not everyone is college material, so there will always be a large portion of our society that's geared to certain low-skilled occupations. But when our country squeezes even those portions between a rock & a hard place, there's gonna be major problems.

Who knows if the higher ups in this country are even considering that? So far though, it seems that they are not, if they ever cared to in the first place. At some point, something's gonna give, and it won't be pretty.

Originally Posted by DTL3000

What's gonna suck is figuring out how to replace all those retail, shipping, and printing jobs. The world is changing so fast that hardly anyone can keep up and I feel sorry for people who get cut out of the market due to technology. I think a lot of ok paying brick and mortar jobs are being done away with forever and that's going to leave a lot of people screwed. It seems like soon we are going to have well-educated technology related jobs(IT, Medical, Education, etc.) and menial labor jobs that can't be digitized(garbage collection, landscaping, etc.) with nothing in between.

[FlyiMetro]

Well shipping AINT going anywhere. Logistics & the transport of goods will always be here. The problem I see is globally what does the world buy from USA, GA or Atlanta? Coke is headquartered in Atlanta but not produced in Just Atl, Ga or States so the question is what is? People are concerned about the lost of jobs, but ask yourself where you spend & invest. Are you at Wal Mart Every week? Do you replace a working car every 4 years? Where are Iphones assembled? Etc etc...Does Atlanta need 4 Belks & 5 Macys & 7 JC Pennys?? Well? This topic is bigger than just retail. But UPS & Fed Ex should be fine.

[TimelessClassic]

Originally Posted by DTL3000

What's gonna suck is figuring out how to replace all those retail, shipping, and printing jobs. The world is changing so fast that hardly anyone can keep up and I feel sorry for people who get cut out of the market due to technology. I think a lot of ok paying brick and mortar jobs are being done away with forever and that's going to leave a lot of people screwed. It seems like soon we are going to have well-educated technology related jobs(IT, Medical, Education, etc.) and menial labor jobs that can't be digitized(garbage collection, landscaping, etc.) with nothing in between.

I agree. The information age is already widening the gap between the educated class and the less-educated class.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by FlyiMetro

Still a lot of old people left in this country & they buy cds, DVDS. Not everyone has a Blu Ray system yet. Many dont even see the difference. You & I may be tech savy, but many dislike technology & need hard copies of their entertainment. Which is why I brought up the E readers like Ipad, Kindle & the Sony device....they have NOT come up with a standard for them yet. Once that happens than books will start to die. I dont buy cds, most albums have no value as albums, its better to just download the SONGS I want and keep pressing. You may or may not think the same way, but hey I read AJC on my phone. Im typing this post from my phone & I am sure others do the same. The only way to kill CDs forever is to have retailers sell the files instore. Sorto how Apple does it. Soon Microsoft will have its own store doing the same type of business. Online shopping just helps the flow of business. Online being the only way to get product will never be a reality. Yea some malls will die off, but who cares.

With all due respect, I listed to MP3 and Ogg music all the time, but I still buy commercial CDs (usually used from sites like half.com) as an archival format. The chances of those discs lasting a long time is better than my own burned CR-R discs, and I can always re-rip those discs if I somehow lose the copies I've made of my own discs.

Books will never die ... digital formats tend to have a limited lifespan, and digital media will generally last a few decades at most. A good book will last for over 100 years.

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by TimelessClassic

I agree. The information age is already widening the gap between the educated class and the less-educated class.

Aka Those WITH Paperwork vs Those WITHOUT Paperwork..

Education & class are not the same things. Im not trying to be arguing, but a racist nurse with a BS who uses bad english is less than a waitress who uses good english & has universal social skills (meaning she can serve whites, blacks, gays, jews, handicaps equally) Education never equals class & class never equal education.

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

With all due respect, I listed to MP3 and Ogg music all the time, but I still buy commercial CDs (usually used from sites like half.com) as an archival format. The chances of those discs lasting a long time is better than my own burned CR-R discs, and I can always re-rip those discs if I somehow lose the copies I've made of my own discs.

Books will never die ... digital formats tend to have a limited lifespan, and digital media will generally last a few decades at most. A good book will last for over 100 years.

I dont do ebooks yet because the format has no standard. Thats what I have been saying. At least with digital audio there are two main standards MP3s & AACs....

Now what is this limited lifespan you speak about? Digital files have an end date? Digital Media will last a few decades? Digital Media is not even that old yet?? What do you mean by this? As long as you have the files backed up, you will have the files. No matter how one stores them. If you have a GB of files in a harddrive it doesnt just evaporate.....does it? What do you mean?

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by FlyiMetro

Now what is this limited lifespan you speak about? Digital files have an end date? Digital Media will last a few decades? Digital Media is not even that old yet?? What do you mean by this? As long as you have the files backed up, you will have the files. No matter how one stores them. If you have a GB of files in a harddrive it doesnt just evaporate.....does it? What do you mean?

I'm willing to bet that the commercially-produced CDs I have will outlast any single piece of media (hard disk, tape, CD-R, DVD, etc.) that you choose to store your digital music on.

Of course, responsible people will continue to update, will make regular backups, and all that, but I've personally seen more than a few people lose their entire music collections due to a hard disk crash or an MP3 player failure (due to their own stupidity, true, but it still happened).