You know how you can work in a starbucks because they have chairs and fee wifi?
WeWork was that, but more professional/office space oriented. Like, you could schedule meetings in their spaces, have teams working there. The idea was that small businesses could use the spaces as an office rather than buying office space. Plus Wework would handle all of the office admin stuff.
Seems like a good idea, but I think that it was very much silicon-valley’d up to the wazoo, where a good idea was completely mismanaged by a corporate team that had no clue how to do anything other than raise VC money for projects.
And that is the fundamental reason that we have had so many high profile Silicon Valley area companies that have crashed and burned. When you design a system where the incentives are to draw investors in, that is where the focus will be. Actual product be damned, it doesn’t matter if it is shit, as long as you draw in enough investors and buzz to do an IPO and cash out the stock. Or even better, get bought by Meta or Alphabet.
Getting back to the Toys R Us revival, I’m sure it will never recapture the magic of the 90s, when bikes, LEGO, and N64 games were all under one roof, but aside from games having become more of a digital purchase, two of the three potentially have wider demographic appeal now than they did back then. I’d be cautiously optimistic if I were a Toys R Us investor. Maybe not a great time to be starting up again though…
I don’t know if it’s true in the US, but in Europe bike distributors are going bust left right and centre as they overstocked inventory during COVID (among other reasons), so it’s actually a pretty great time to pick up some cheap stock if you were looking to set up a new retailer.
Yeah, but there’s a general slowdown for retailers. I guess they can take advantage of some silver linings if they have enough initial funding to ride out this slow period.
Brick and mortar will continue to suffer from the same problems it has had for decades now, though. Mostly, lack of inventory variety and consequently the inability to get consumers exactly what they want.
It works for stuff that is, say, perishable or you need right now, like food; custom, local-made stuff, like arts, crafts; and specialty items not found anywhere else due to geography or other reasons. Not sure what else really makes sense for local retailing at any large scale. Maybe stuff that benefits from really good customer service/in person encounters.
None of which it seems matches up with toys or games. Bikes, sure, as you need to figure out sizes and stuff, but Legos? Better selection online, and you already know the product. Same with most toys or games. No one can keep enough variety in stock to suit everyone, and you usually end up with only the unpopular crap sitting on the shelves. All the stuff people want sells out quickly in my experience.
For most consumer goods it simply makes more sense to order online and get exactly what you want, delivered to you. Probably a terrible idea in terms of climate, energy, and resources, but it is what it is.
Also buying online - at least on Amazon - runs the increasing risk of counterfeit goods
I dunno. There’s so many times where I’d like to see the thing before I buy it. Or in the case of clothes, try it on. I’d rather not deal with buying g the garment, returning a bad fit, and waiting for another to arrivr
Clothes and apparel will continue to be sold in stores from now til someone drops the bomb. People want to see, touch, and try on clothing, shoes, jewelry and all sorts of adjacent items.
Clothing is a good candidate for brick and mortar…unless you have a non-standard size. I cannot find shoes locally, for instance, because no one caries 8 6E shoes. I like to wear pants with a 29" inseam, and nearly no one has those either. Of course, if it wasn’t for places having really good return policies, it might be different, but buying a lot of clothing online is about the only option if you don’t live in a major metro area. But yes, I agree, especially for high fashion or people with “average” sizes for whom there is a good selection, in-person is always preferrable. I’d certainly rather buy, say, shoes in person if I could.
But nearly everything else? It’s either electronics, which other than TVs I’m nearly always making my decision on specs and price, or hobby stuff, where the very specific details for each item matter, and I only order the exact thing I want, or commodity stuff, where either it doesn’t matter that much or it’s super-reliable and you know exactly what you are getting so you don’t have to see it first. In those cases, sure, I might buy locally if these things actually existed locally, but they don’t. So online is no big deal.
Clothes, shoes, and groceries seem like candidates for the last things to go purely online, but Hobby Lobby seems to be doing really well, too, so there must be a reason lots of people like to buy craft supplies at stores.
Based on experience, it’s because crafts are often a same-day activity for when you’re shopping a lot of that stuff. Same with home improvement stores.
Yeah, craft stuff (Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc.) are fine for brick and mortar. More specialized stuff, like die-cast collectibles, plastic model kits, wargames/boardgames, miniatures, etc. while fun to get locally are damn near impossible to find if you are in a smaller market, because running a shop, especially one that actually stocks a lot of different stuff, is economically challenging if not impossible in small markets. Or at least it seems that way, as I haven’t seen anything remotely like a big, well-stocked hobby shop of that sort in ages, and certainly not in the boonies.
We have a pretty well stocked boardgame store in the small town down the road. But they don’t really do miniatures outside of very popular mainstream things like the Star Wars stuff. I’m pretty sure I’d get back into hobby model kits if I found a good selection anywhere. As a kid I got really into ship models(WW2 and later) which I could get from our local grocery store. Nothing like that anymore.
Yeah I forgot about home improvement. I don’t see that transitioning to online very soon, unless there’s a big new idea out there about selling big, bulky stuff needed asap.
Oh, man, I remember when there were all these five and dime type stores, or as you point out, local small grocery stores with some eclectic stock. Then, it was the department store that was killing off small shops. Now, it’s online. But the same dynamics really apply. In addition to the economies of scale, etc., you simply cannot keep up with the variety of things people want.
As we get more and more stuff, and more and more choices, the idea of a single modest sized store being able to meet the demands of customers becomes untenable.
Oh hello me. I occasionally find 29" inseams in at Kohl’s. When I do I but multiple pairs :). It doesn’t always matter because somehow different brands tools they use for measuring inches must be broken.
Mid to late 80s there was a pharmacy in a little shopping center I could ride my bike to. It had a soda fountain with cheap floats and a standing rack full of Nintendo games. Smart man Mr. Phillips was.
