Re:Amazon soars to more than 341K employees, adding 110K peo...
by matwood on Friday February 03, 2017 @01:23PM
(#13561930)
Part of that is Amazon (online shopping in general), part is the whole buy local, and part is fleeing from traditional malls. People either want really cheap (online) or boutique type shops in nice outdoor shopping areas.
I've seen the same thing happening with chain restaurants for years.
Re:Amazon soars to more than 341K employees, adding 110K peo...
by antisthenes on Friday February 03, 2017 @02:00PM
(#13562242)
Retail is inefficient. To make a retail purchase, you have to drive to the store and back, while a delivery driver can pick an optimal route and make multiple local deliveries with their vehicle before returning to the warehouse.
To give a more concrete example, to purchase a souvenir, some personal hygiene products, some computer hardware and some spices, I'd have to make 4 stops, spend at least 2 hours and $6-8 worth of gas.
None of these things are day2day critical, like food, or essential to physically inspect before purchase (like home improvement goods)
Sports Authority - 460 stores
Kmart/Sears - 78 stores
Aeropostale - 154 stores
Walmart - 269 stores
Where I live, a lot of these are already gone and the retail space has been vacant since the summer. Same thing in a lot of the malls I used to frequent. Hell, the Mall Of America's 4th floor was vacant for decades after they closed down all the bars. The sad thing is, nobody is filling the vacuum when all these stores close. They just sit vacant for years.
And 2017 doesn't look to change that trend:
A giant wave of store closures is about to hit the US: http://www.businessinsider.com/stores-closing-macys-kohls-wa...