Having spent most of my working years in the retail industry, this article tweaked my interest:
charles hugh smith-The Inevitable Decline of Retail
It is a personal opinion about the future of the retail business. It runs in the face of today's lifestyle where malls and shopping are often the centers of leisure time activity.
After twenty three years of retirement, our own lifestyle has changed, and "buying" has been replaced with "getting rid of", except for food and more mundane pleasures. Our home is no longer a showplace, where interior decorating, entertaining groups, buying the latest appliances, or showing off our latest "new stuff" is important. We're in to comfortable recliners, minimum housework and many fewer visits to the Mall and NO movies except for what's on TV.
For most of my career, I worked for one of the very largest retail businesses, and was an integral part of changes that eventually ended with the closing of that business. (Hint... before the rapid rise of Walmart.) It was the handwriting on the wall.
So now with the rise of internet buying, and a profit squeeze throughout the industry, we are seeing major declines in the number of national retail businesses and an even faster decline in the "downtown" and mom-pop-family businesses.
On the face of it, except for increasing vacancies in malls, and shrinking strip centers, the idea that the "buying mantra" of the suburban lifestyle is in any danger, has not been in the forefront of "news".
Should it be? Better still, what do you see in the future? Is shopping a part of your leisure time activities? A trip to the store every day? Three times a week? For pleasure? For basic needs? For social interaction? Entertainment...(movies)? How many hours per week?
Do you see retail shopping as an integral part of your retirement years? Will internet shopping eventually cause retail store shopping be replaced with another type of activity? Will the 100,000 sq ft. stores be the only source of goods?
Is the current decline in stores simply a natural shake out of the weakest, or given the current extended economic decline, a forecast of a change in lifestyles.
............................................................................................
As a matter of interest... when I started in the business, the larger stores (in which I worked) had sales of about 6 million dollars, and employed (all departments) about 250 persons... and were open 80 hrs/wk. Today, the larger stores have sales of +-#30 Million, and are open 168 hrs/wk, often having less than 250 employees.
charles hugh smith-The Inevitable Decline of Retail
It is a personal opinion about the future of the retail business. It runs in the face of today's lifestyle where malls and shopping are often the centers of leisure time activity.
After twenty three years of retirement, our own lifestyle has changed, and "buying" has been replaced with "getting rid of", except for food and more mundane pleasures. Our home is no longer a showplace, where interior decorating, entertaining groups, buying the latest appliances, or showing off our latest "new stuff" is important. We're in to comfortable recliners, minimum housework and many fewer visits to the Mall and NO movies except for what's on TV.
For most of my career, I worked for one of the very largest retail businesses, and was an integral part of changes that eventually ended with the closing of that business. (Hint... before the rapid rise of Walmart.) It was the handwriting on the wall.
So now with the rise of internet buying, and a profit squeeze throughout the industry, we are seeing major declines in the number of national retail businesses and an even faster decline in the "downtown" and mom-pop-family businesses.
On the face of it, except for increasing vacancies in malls, and shrinking strip centers, the idea that the "buying mantra" of the suburban lifestyle is in any danger, has not been in the forefront of "news".
Should it be? Better still, what do you see in the future? Is shopping a part of your leisure time activities? A trip to the store every day? Three times a week? For pleasure? For basic needs? For social interaction? Entertainment...(movies)? How many hours per week?
Do you see retail shopping as an integral part of your retirement years? Will internet shopping eventually cause retail store shopping be replaced with another type of activity? Will the 100,000 sq ft. stores be the only source of goods?
Is the current decline in stores simply a natural shake out of the weakest, or given the current extended economic decline, a forecast of a change in lifestyles.
............................................................................................
As a matter of interest... when I started in the business, the larger stores (in which I worked) had sales of about 6 million dollars, and employed (all departments) about 250 persons... and were open 80 hrs/wk. Today, the larger stores have sales of +-#30 Million, and are open 168 hrs/wk, often having less than 250 employees.
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