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Amazon is crushing these places, because they are simply no fun to shop at. Unless you are furnishing your first apartment, in which case it is helpful to have everything basic together at low prices, it's simply easier to order your new toaster from Amazon and wait 2 days. No-one needs a toaster faster than that. No one needs to spend a precious hour or two of existence driving, parking and physically walking through a store to find the toaster display, then standing in a queue while the miserable checkout person scans the 45 items of the person in front of you (who is presumably furnishing their first apartment) as slowly as humanly possible.
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Dec 4, 2016 20:29
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Inferior Third Season posted:This sounds loving terrible. Now instead of a cashier going one-by-one through my things at a checkout register, I'll have to do it myself at my car when loading it up to make sure I didn't get charged for something I picked up but didn't set back in place just perfectly enough for the sensor. "Now instead of giving your list to the grocer and chilling while he got your goods for you from the shelves behind him, you have to trail round this huge cavernous store with a wheeled trolley picking things up yourself, then having them scanned one by one at the door. Sounds like a nightmare!"
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Dec 5, 2016 18:29
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In the UK, most supermarkets deliver. You go to the website, select the goods you want and a delivery timeslot, and a van turns up with all your groceries. It works great. Some US cities have similar services.
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Dec 6, 2016 18:43
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fishmech posted:Honestly I feel like Barnes & Noble isn't hosed - but only because all national competitors to them have already died. They are dying of the same disease that B&N have got - people don't read so many physical books any more. Especially big readers. I'm *so* glad that my husband, who devours novels, doesn't have 500 books cluttering our house anymore. B&N, down the street from us, probably isn't.
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Dec 6, 2016 23:17
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Seems like a more libertarian way of doing things would be to allow individual store managers free reign. So if a store in Colorado wants to dump the soda aisle because it doesn't make much profit and replace it with a vast selection of skis for the local slope, then he gets to do it. If it doesn't work out, he's fired. Case in point: The K-Mart in Manhattan has a garden department. Anyone in Manhattan rich enough to have a garden has a gardening service to deal with that. I assume that they just receive a standard shipment for a store their size and have to put it out on sale, because that's policy.
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Dec 8, 2016 18:33
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Horseshoe theory posted:It's in Penn Station and it's three floors (I work near it). Gosh, there must be more than one, I was talking about the one at Astor Place, which is also three floors. The real estate locked up in that place must be incomparable in value. Three enormous floors in one of the most expensive areas of the country, and it's devoted to a store that generally has about 20 people in it. It even has a private entrance to the subway.
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Dec 9, 2016 16:48
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Dmitri-9 posted:Thats the problem with real estate, it's such a good investment now it doesn't matter how efficiently it's used. Real estate developers will be full of joy when it gets sold off cheap in the inevitable bankruptcy.
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Dec 9, 2016 17:11
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Service merchandise sounds like an attempt to transfer the U.K. shop "Argos" to the USA. But I think time has moved past that model. It's a bit like Amazon but you have to actually go there. You fill out a form, wait 20 minutes until your ticket number comes up, and then your goods magically appear from the bowels of their warehouse out back. It was big in the U.K. because there wasn't anywhere else you could go to get things like Barbie's dream house or a fridge until supermarkets started expanding into that.
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Dec 10, 2016 19:44
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A Buttery Pastry posted:Maybe I'm not being clear, but what I'm saying is, my local Ikea has both. Some poo poo you can get yourself in the warehouse between the showroom and the checkout, while other stuff you have to go down the road to another warehouse where a worker will find your stuff for you. IKEA has smaller stuff on the shelves, larger stuff in the warehouse/on order. If Service Merchandise was like Argos, there's nothing on the shelves but a few example items. Even a teddy bear or a set of knives comes up from the warehouse.
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Dec 10, 2016 20:03
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Jarmak posted:This works for prepared goods but I can't imagine letting a random clerk pick my meat and fresh vegetables for me. Thanks to the ridiculous standardization of industrially farmed food, it works fine. If every single cucumber on the rack is identical, any one will do. Since the food tends to come from a warehouse rather than a store, it tends not to have been picked over or bruised.
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Dec 11, 2016 19:39
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OneEightHundred posted:I don't really understand what the appeal of Kmart is even supposed to be, it's like someone decided to just make a Wal-Mart clone except with prices higher than Target. Also no fresh foods, just frozen dinners and food science's finest HFCS concoctions.
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Jan 11, 2017 16:25
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glowing-fish posted:One of the strange things about this thread, is that I started it coming from a background of living mostly in the Pacific Northwest. Prosperity is probably key. The sole mall near me seems full and busy. I live in a pretty hipster area. Areas with dropping and aging population don't have so much use for malls.
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Apr 30, 2017 02:31
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I'm a 100% average size. Everything fits  Actually, that's a lie. Everything fits *badly*. And I'm anything from an Extra Small to Large depending on what the shop feels would neg/flatter its customers most.
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May 4, 2017 22:15
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Mozi posted:Maybe God is bisexual. Well, Zeus was. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganymede_(mythology)
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May 5, 2017 18:07
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SHY NUDIST GRRL posted:Gun sales have recently plummeted (gee I wonder why) Investment idea: Buy gun company shares in Republican presidencies, sell in Democratic presidencies.
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May 8, 2017 18:27
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got any sevens posted:I've never stepped inside one of these or rue21. Rip Gymboree sells cheapish kid's clothes. I dress my kid in a lot of their stuff. I may be the only one who would miss them.
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May 17, 2017 11:55
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If the consumer doesn't like Amazon any more, there are plenty of other ecommerce sites out there. The only thing Amazon has got over them is cheap, fast delivery. That goes, the customer will go.
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May 17, 2017 14:52
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Chuu posted:I get tons of recruiter spam from Amazon and have always ignored it, a big part because of all the stories about how it's a terrible place to work as a developer? Yeah, me too. It makes them look really desperate - my skill set is a long way from e-commerce. I assume they spam everyone with a CS degree and a LinkedIn account.
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May 24, 2017 15:15
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hobbesmaster posted:Recruiters are paid on commission and if they don't perform are fired fast. Most of those are probably outside recruiters too. Sure. But I don't get this spam from "cool" companies like Google. Just Amazon. Makes me feel that they are desperate enough for warm bodies to work with spammy recruiters. The places that people are desperate to work at don't need to do this - candidates come to them.
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May 24, 2017 15:35
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fishmech posted:
That's because people don't tend to die young anymore, so death isn't something you need to deal with personally until middle age. But the Republicans are working on it. So more people might have this valuable experience soon.
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May 27, 2017 03:01
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Is that fixable? I mean, I want it to be, it's not a rhetorical question, but everybody always says the margins are crazy thin in food service. I sometimes think about ways to fix the fact that kitchen workers can never take sick days, and it seems like even if there were a pool of temps to draw from, kitchen team dynamics are so crucial that you can't really slot someone in just for the day. I really wish they could take sick days. Norovirus is no joke.
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May 30, 2017 17:54
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Halloween Jack posted:Maybe this isn't very plugged in to retail, but I'm curious to see what's going to happen to the fashion industry in the next 20 years. Everything I've read about it paints it as an industry that survives on unpaid internships and extremely low-paying jobs held by young people whose parents can afford to continue supporting them well into their 20s. That class of people is going to shrink dramatically. The 1% are going to do fine, and it's the kids of the 1% you are describing.
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May 30, 2017 18:48
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Craptacular! posted:Dash Buttons are a fine way to help an elderly person manage their own inventory. "Mom, if you're running out of stuff, push the button." That sounds like a super bad idea for a forgetful older person. They'd end up with a lot of laundry liquid.
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May 31, 2017 13:51
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:I mean, there are probably a few dishes that are cheaper to buy at a restaurant than to make at home, stuff that takes specialized equipment maybe. I'd say sushi. Where are you going to get 5 different types of fish in tiny portions? Grocers tend to sell fish by the pound not the oz. It also needs special knives and equipment, though I guess that's a one-off purchase.
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May 31, 2017 13:57
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But I don't need 8 big nigiri sushi meals, I can barely finish 1. That's the issue.
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May 31, 2017 14:21
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Badger of Basra posted:Sometimes it seems like y'all could never enjoy any retail experience, ever. I think a good proportion of people don't. Hence the rise of internet shopping.
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Jun 14, 2017 14:59
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Raylen posted:Not sure what thread this should go in but Amazon buying Whole Foods is kind of hilarious. They really want to get their cashier-free stores going with this acquisition. Or replace Amazon Fresh with a more trusted brand and set of products.
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Jun 16, 2017 15:25
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Sushi conveyor belts aren't a very long way from automats.
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Jun 18, 2017 23:26
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Another advantage of internet supermarkets - much less shoplifting (probably still some from the warehouse workers, but most places are pretty draconian about searching bags.)
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Jun 20, 2017 00:00
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I do give a gently caress about people stealing just for shits and giggles. Shops factor shrinkage into their prices, not their profit margins.
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Jun 20, 2017 02:12
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Paradoxish posted:So why don't you blame the shops for this? You are driving at some sort of gently caress capitalism message? Honestly I kinda like capitalism and the way most people get to eat regularly these days. But playing silly dick Communists seems to be all the rage round here though. Good luck with the purges and famines. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jun 20, 2017 02:26
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:Stealing is bad, especially if you are a garbage person who does it recreationally instead of some poor orphan who is stealing a loaf of bread for survival or something. Plenty of homeless folks out there really need to steal to eat. I guess "gently caress the man" recreational hipster organic food thieves provide some cover for them. Maybe.
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Jun 20, 2017 02:28
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Amazon is extremely convenient for kid's toys. You can get whatever you want, and it arrives in 2 days. And you avoid the trip to the toy store which means no tantrums.
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Sep 19, 2017 16:08
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boner confessor posted:ha haaa, your plan of attack will crumble in the face of your child's persistence Dumb babies are easily fooled by a fake phone to chew. Toddlers... are not.
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Sep 20, 2017 18:09
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boner confessor posted:this is probably because of secondhand stores. babies and young children grow out of shoes and clothes so quickly that you can get very lightly used stuff at thrift stores or even from people you know who have boxes of that poo poo sitting around in their house. every couple months my wife takes a box of stuff to the local thrift store and swaps it out for the next size up Baby stuff is very easy to online shop, and baby registries encourage this. Plus, when you are 8 months pregnant you don't really feel like trailing round a mall.
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Sep 26, 2017 21:15
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Bird in a Blender posted:Rich people, especially the conspicuously rich, do not want hand-me-downs, they want it brand new. I live in a pretty well-off area and the folks here are swapping bales of baby clothes same as anyone. The difference is you get the occasional designer label, sweet.
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Sep 26, 2017 21:38
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The best thing about retail is that you can try clothes on in the shop to get an idea of your fit in that brand, and then go home and order everything online because they only had jeans that fit you in lime green.
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Oct 6, 2017 14:37
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call to action posted:i can't wait until amazon jacks their prices to the moon after they've put everyone else out of business Their prices are comparable/higher to places like Target already. They are just more convenient.
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Oct 10, 2017 19:55
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If Amazon gets too expensive, there are certainly competitors. Walmart springs to mind currently, for a lot of the random poo poo you can get on Amazon. As a thrifty housewife, I recommend Walmart online for buying soap'n'stuff.
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Oct 10, 2017 20:15
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"Rural" is starting to basically mean "white working class." Even if they are most certainly in a town or city.
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Oct 16, 2017 19:35
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