The future of retail outlet stores

Originally posted by Impediment
I wanna try the Walmart pickup just once so I can say I did it.

Click, buy, pick up.

If you're talking about picking it up in-store, be careful. They have an asinine policy where they'll lie about their inventory, and stores are able to offer you a "reasonable replacement" with a similar item if they don't have your purchase. You can turn down the replacement and pay nothing, but it could waste you a trip to the store. They bank on customers thinking it's a sunk cost and taking whatever replacement is offered.
Source: I worked for a company that worked out of Wal-Marts for a bit, so I'd get all the employees sharing Wal-Marts sh*t with me, knowing that it was safe to b*tch if it wasn't another Wal-Mart employee who could snitch.

I doubt retail will die out totally. Sometimes there are things that people need to buy IMMEDIATELY. A ton of people are no good at planning and may need an item quicker than delivery of said item would allow. Never underestimate the amount of people that run out of baby food, toilet paper, deodorant, etc. with no back up and need to go and buy it right away.

That said, they will likely be scaled back quite a bit.

Originally posted by Digi
The "people prefer to buy {X} in physical stores" argument rings a little hollow for me. The level of online shopping that happens today would have been inconceivable 15 years ago. And look at what's happening: groceries can be bought and shipped from online purchases. Clothing is becoming more and more online. Hell, I've purchased well-made, good-fitting suits online. And I'm in my 30s. B&N is the only non-indie book store with a significant retail presence, and it's been squeezed mightily as well in recent years. I go to B&N plenty, and there's lots of people. But not to buy books. It's a place where you can buy a coffee and biscuit, work on your laptop for hours on end without interruption, and you don't smell like a coffee shop by the end. Super convenient, but not a great business model long-term imo. And look at how Kindle has destroyed Nooks.

And once current teenagers hit the market in 5-10 years, how much more market share will shift from retail to online with their market entry? Now add in some better quality controls - which Amazon already has in the form of verified purchases and their reviews - and what's stopping us from clothes shopping? Or grocery shopping? Or...anything?!

I'm also embedded in the board gaming hobby, and this is an issue. "Support your local FLGS!" is a common mantra (friendly local game shop). But we all have bills to pay, and Amazon is objectively cheaper for the same stuff. And "board game cafes" are opening that recreate most of what we use FLGSs for (shared gaming space, occasional impulse purchases), but with a more sustainable model that includes legit F&B. So they're adapting and surviving, but it's no longer "retail" per se.

There's a fear that we turn this into "no retails stores" vs. "retail stores are fine" which is of course a false dichotomy. Retail store will always exist. But collectively, they're in huge trouble imo. Toys R Us is getting headlines atm. But the decline in shopping malls has been going on for years. Tech closures are common. And we'll continue to see these announcements until only the "too big to fail" crowd remains (Wal-Mart, etc.) along with local hybrids with a sustainable-but-not-scalable model (like the board game cafes I mentioned, or other indie shops with huge markups but "local" appeal), and online retailers.

this is what killed toys r us, and what is killing most of retail. mismanagement, and debt, debt, debt.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/15/news/companies/toys-r-us-closing-blame/index.html

Toys "R" Us' debt problems date back to well before Amazon (AMZN) was a major threat. Its debt was downgraded to junk bond status in January of 2005, at a time when Amazon's sales were just 4% of their current level.

A year later the company was taken private by KKR, Bain Capital and real estate firm Vornado. The $6.6 billion purchase left it with $5.3 billion in debt secured by its assets and it never really recovered.

But much of the chain's resources were devoted to paying off that massive debt load rather than staying competitive.

When Toys "R" Us filed for bankruptcy in September 2017, it disclosed it had about $5 billion in debt and was spending about $400 million a year just to service that debt.

wrong, the millennials are to blame.

Toys R Us sucked ass. Even as a kid I never liked the store and got weird vibes (maybe b/c the one I went to was in a run-down area lol). It was dirty, I could tell everything was over-priced, cashiers were slow, unpleasant experience in general, etc.

You won't be missed. I had better times in WalMart actually 😉

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2018-03-16/retailers-stuck-in-the-industry-s-middle-are-in-danger

That brings some data into the discussion, which is always welcome. The tl;dr version is that "budget" stores and "high end" stores are doing fine, while the bottom is falling out on stores in the middle of the spectrum. The article cites online shopping, but also suggests that the overall economic disparity in America - where "the middle" is quickly disappearing - may have something to do with it.

Good points, everyone. I still shop @ brick & mortar stores for food & clothes/shoes, but that's about it. I feel like I need to see the food before buying this (check the expiration date, make sure everything is in good shape, etc.). And, I like to make sure clothes & shoes fit before I buy them.

However, I dislike shopping & will definitely shop online if I have a choice. Online shopping is so convenient/inexpensive in comparison - there's also the time factor. Do people really want to have to go find somewhere to park, and then spend a good amount of time shopping at stores these days?! I was never a fan of brick & mortar shopping when that was the only option out there, and I like it even less now as I've gotten older.

That being said, here are some of my specific memories of some retail stores:

Toys R' Us - went under this year, which is no surprise. That being said, as a kid in the '80's, I used to really enjoy going to that store - it was pure heaven.

Barnes & Noble: Never been a big fan of this store, but it's one of the only chain bookstores still around. They rarely have sales & though they have a cool toy section, everything is overpriced. That being said, they do have Starbuck's 😉

Border's Books & Music (defunct): Though their CD's were overpriced, I really dug their book & graphic novel section.

Blockbuster Video (defunct): They couldn't keep up with the new home video technology (i.e., streaming) & because of this they just went by the wayside. If they had gotten on the streaming bandwagon early on (like Netflix did) I think they could have competed...maybe. As it stands, there's no reason to go through the hassle/inconvenience of going to a video store to rent DVD's (and worry about late fees, etc.) if you can just stream them from the privacy & convenience of your own home.

Best Buy: This is another retail store that is also a sad shade of it's former self. This was my go-to store back in the '90's & early 200X's if I wanted any kind of music CD's, DVD's, electronic equipment, etc. Now, I don't even like going to the store because they have an extremely poor selection of CD's & DVD's - i.e. shelf space is about a third of what it was back in the day. And, they have a sub-par selection re: their electronics. What they do have is extremely overpriced....despite the fact that they used to have the best prices around for electronic equipment!

General comment about music CD's: I used to collect CD's (though have cut way back these days). However, if you want new classic rock CD's from the '60's - '70's, you will be hard pressed to find any in regular retail stores like Target, Wal-mart, etc. - unless you come across a small quantity somewhere...but they almost certainly won't have the entire catalog of a specific group/artist, i.e. Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, etc. You'lll probably have to go online for these.