One of my daughters actually works for Amazon in Seattle as a financial analyst. They actually let her
bring her dog to work with her! This might sound silly, but it actually works for Amazon. Needless to say, their employees love this, and it means they can pay less, or perhaps retain employees longer. Once you get used to certain benefits you cannot imagine not having them.
I don't see why most people would be happy to have filthy and disease carrying animals in the workplace.
You are
sadly misinformed about domestic pets. Yes, there are pet owners out there that have no business caring for another living thing but the majority of them are responsible - and certainly classifying pets as 'filthy and disease carrying' speaks a great deal to your ignorance.
If a human went to the bathroom and never wiped themselves, walked around in a litter box, rarely bathed, licked their genitals and anal area, and walked around naked, rubbed their butts into carpets and furniture, then would you not consider them filthy? Most people would.
Isn't it interesting that there are almost no diseases that can transmit from dog or cat to person, yet us super hygienic people pass diseases around to each other as casually as taking a breath.
Brick and mortar stores have their own advantages, but it really is questionable whether these are truly advantages or just added costs for them:
- salesmen can push goods (only works if they are good at it)
- salesman can upsell (only works with customers who don't know what they want)
- salesmen can provide useful information for customers (if they are smart)
- customers get to handle your goods and create open box items
- customers, especially impulse buyers, get instant gratification
The biggest advantage of a brick and mortar store is that you can actually see and handle the merchandise you are interested in. Online only stores can not overcome that very obvious and necessary advantage. Inherently you would get far more open box items with an online only store because you can't see and handle the products.
That's assuming a local B&M actually has the merchandise.
Brick and mortar stores are just as capable of ordering things, just like they did long before the Internet was created.
The problem is economy of scale. Often the internet business will have a lower price simply because they sell more units than an individual store, and some sort of deal with the shipper to bring shipping costs to practically zero, they all have the convenience of having the product shipped to your door so you don't have to drive across town, and up to now, no sales tax, at least in the USA.
Of course, that's also assuming there is one within driving distance - which there is not for most people.
So you're OK with a future where you never get to see and handle a product before you buy it?
These are the same people who complain about getting "used" stuff from Amazon because of the preponderance of try and return purchasing.
Forcing online vendors to become tax collectors for all 50 states does take away one of their advantages over brick and mortar stores. But there still are plenty of other advantages left for them that will result in all but the biggest and most successful retailers eventually closing their doors.
No, according to your arguments all brick and mortar store should disappear. It should all be online the way you are talking.
The brick and mortar camera shop is going to disappear just like the small book store, the the shoe repair shop, the neighborhood bakery, your local travel agent, and full service gas stations.
Quaint, convenient, and nice to have, but unable to compete for a wide variety of reasons.
Not just quaint and convenient, but necessary for the good of any community. Try to imagine life and communities with no local stores and everyone simply ordering their things online. That would be a miserable existence.
There are local stores & services that are always going to be needed and cannot easily be replaced by online shopping - grocery, cleaners, auto repair, clothing, to name a few.
Why would you need this things when Amazon could set up a service to offer such things?
A friend of mine brags that he hasn't set foot in a grocery store in years. His local store offers online sales and delivery.
He places an order to the store website, they take his money, pack his order and send it to his house.
His dry cleaner picks up and delivers to his office and his car dealer sends someone over to pick his car up and then drive it back to his office when it needs service.
I've tried local camera stores in the past and they always fell short either on selection or price.
Sure, because unfair online advantages have put the brick and mortar stores that used to offer the large selections out of business. Take it all to the ultimate conclusion and we would never need to leave the home for any kind of shopping. Don't you find that thought depressing?
Not sure about this, though I know where you are coming from. What we traditionally lament is the demise of the Mom and Pop stores that offered personal service, not tremendous variety. In order to get variety from small stores, they need to exist as swarms.
What I don't like are the colossus stores, the type that has -Mart in it's name. They don't offer much variety, they just offer great heaps of disposable products.
They are great for disposable product. Best prices on toilet paper, tissue and cleaning supplies are generally at the Megal-Mart. They also are the loss leaders, so buying nothing but these sorts of items from them not only nets the best price, it costs the company money.
