Will stores become obsolete?

[BvBPL]

We are a long way from stores being obsolete. There’s a lot of value in being able to handle the merchandise before purchase, being able to take possession of goods immediately, and having local customer service, among many virtues of stores. The values of remote purchases will have to come a long, long way before they compel people to abandon stores.

 

[Lexicus]

We are a long way from stores being obsolete. There’s a lot of value in being able to handle the merchandise before purchase, being able to take possession of goods immediately, and having local customer service, among many virtues of stores. The values of remote purchases will have to come a long, long way before they compel people to abandon stores.

I would tend to agree but I think the generation currently growing up probably won't think of the things you list here as "value". That's not some kind of "kids these days" rant but just an observation that things change, sometimes faster than we think they will.

 

[stinkubus]

Amazon is going to decimate retail employment in the coming decade and our society is not prepared to deal with the fallout.

 

[Narz]

We are a long way from stores being obsolete. There’s a lot of value in being able to handle the merchandise before purchase, being able to take possession of goods immediately, and having local customer service, among many virtues of stores. The values of remote purchases will have to come a long, long way before they compel people to abandon stores.

I've been compelled to mostly abandon stores, except for clothing and food, for over a decade now.

 

[Lexicus]

I've been compelled to mostly abandon stores, except for clothing and food, for over a decade now.

I typically have to order clothes online because stores rarely have clothes that fit me. I'm not that tall, but I'm apparently much skinnier than the typical person they market male clothing to in the US.

 

[Zelig]

That's not true. Consuming 1 big mac is not recommended by experts to be dangerous enough for them to recommend to the general population to avoid doing so, if possible.

Arsenic is more important from a dietary perspective than Big Macs.

 

[warpus]

Link me to one non-insane dietary specialist who recommends a daily intake of arsenic.

 

[Zelig]

Evidence for arsenic essentiality

 

[warpus]

Doesn't matter if it's essential or not. No nutritionist is going to say "Make sure you ingest your daily dose of arsenic today!". Which has been my point all along.

 

[Zelig]

No nutritionist is going to say "Make sure you ingest your daily dose of Big Macs today!" either.

 

[warpus]

Re-read my initial point if you want to continue this conversation please.

 

[metalhead]

This one certainly falls under the "danger to others" thing though. You aren't just messing with yourself when you drink and drive. If you leave out the "and then drive my car" from this then it would be a good point, the government shouldn't be able to stop me from getting insensately drunk and then passing out in the gutter if I want.

But if I can feed my kids trans fats, or a restaurant can serve me trans fats without my knowledge or consent, for no other reason than we're all so independent and the government ought to leave us alone, then what's the difference? It's not reasonable to expect people to know or understand what trans fats are. Most of the time, you won't even know they're in the food you eat. At least with stuff like sugar, or smoking, the general public can be expected to be in on the dangers and it's on them if they don't react accordingly. Stuff like trans fat is far more insidious, which is why the whole idea of personal choice kind of falls apart.

 

[Lexicus]

But if I can feed my kids trans fats, or a restaurant can serve me trans fats without my knowledge or consent, for no other reason than we're all so independent and the government ought to leave us alone, then what's the difference? It's not reasonable to expect people to know or understand what trans fats are. Most of the time, you won't even know they're in the food you eat. At least with stuff like sugar, or smoking, the general public can be expected to be in on the dangers and it's on them if they don't react accordingly. Stuff like trans fat is far more insidious, which is why the whole idea of personal choice kind of falls apart.

Well, those examples you listed seem to involve people being fed trans fats by others, in some cases without knowledge or consent, so "my body my choice" again wouldn't really apply.
By the way, I'm not arguing that the government shouldn't make an effort to prevent people from eating trans fats (I generally believe the government should encourage people to make healthy choices and I believe we should have the FDA and similar agencies), I'm just saying your analogy was flawed.

 

[Zelig]

Re-read my initial point if you want to continue this conversation please.

Have done, my point still seems applicable.

The distinction you're trying to draw is imaginary.

 

[BvBPL]

I've been compelled to mostly abandon stores, except for clothing and food, for over a decade now.

Would you purchase a car, a washer/dryer, or a marble countertop without seeing it first in person? What about a bike, a greeting card, or Christmas tree?

For all the wonders of online shopping, it is particularly poor at obtaining a match to a wingnut of unknown size.

I typically have to order clothes online because stores rarely have clothes that fit me. I'm not that tall, but I'm apparently much skinnier than the typical person they market male clothing to in the US.

Do you buy online because it is easier and better to buy online or because brick and mortar retailers simply don’t carry your size? If it is the latter then buying online isn’t so much an improvement as a way of dealing with a flaw in brick and mortar retailers.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I ordered my microwave online, and now that I've tried it out, it's okay... except the manual was obviously written by a metric system-illiterate American and they couldn't be bothered to include a conversion chart.

Hello - our food here in Canada has metric measurements on the labels. Don't yap at me about how many ounces something is. I never understood ounces, even before we went metric over 40 years ago.

 

[Hygro]

Cocaine should never be legal.

Why not?

 

[Broken_Erika]

I used to know people who did it.....

 

[Zelig]

Would you purchase a car, a washer/dryer, or a marble countertop without seeing it first in person? What about a bike, a greeting card, or Christmas tree?

Well most people have inferior product judgement skills to the wirecutter team, so even if they're buying a washer locally, they'd do better by just seeing what wirecutter recommends and then going to a store to buy that.

 

[Narz]

I used to know people who did it.....

Alcohol is worse than cocaine - cause more mental/emotional/physical damage, harder to quit (most coke heads eventually quit, alcoholism can go on for decades). Also since booze is morally ok "normal" and cocaine is "bad" it's much more socially acceptable to get addicted to alcohol.

I avoid both personally