A look at the current state of American shopping culture.
Brick-and-mortar is out and online is in. I get it. Getting in the hot car, driving and dealing with the god awful, bumper-to-bumper traffic, walking and having to find the correct aisle and then the actual item within the aisle. It's a pain in the ass. It's stressful. It takes a precious hour out of the day. But I'm not going to vilify in-person shopping because there's just something about it, or so my childhood memory tells me.
Others seem to disagree with me on that point, evident by the lack of customers in the few stores I've visited in the past couple of weeks compared to what I remember as a child and teenager.
Party City was a forgotten ghost town (in fairness, I did go on a weekday afternoon, but still). Some shelves were completely empty. Deflated balloons were littered throughout the store. Employees were seemingly forced to tidy up shelves and inflate balloons due to lack of other work. A sad state of affairs just waiting for the corporate call to tell them they're closing up shop.
The fall of media rental stores like Blockbuster have been obvious for years now, their downfall beginning with the rise of Netflix and Redbox. No longer are the days of excitedly going there on a Friday afternoon after school to pick out some movies or video games for the weekend—now we plop down on couches and look through streaming services or pay the $5 Amazon rental fee. No longer are the days of perusing the rows and rows of movies trying to find the best one—now we browse through the rows and rows of digital movies on Netflix trying to find the best one. No longer are the days of arguing with parents about this movie being too this or that and to find another one—actually, wait, I just grew up and can now watch whatever I want (but I bet this problem still exists).
Halloween stores still offer plenty of costume and decoration options, but online retailers' return policies and size accuracies allow customers to easily make online purchases without trying anything on. The same holds for clothing in general: measuring size at home is extremely simple, and while there is value in trying something on at the store to see how it looks and fits while actually wearing it, return policies are often generous enough that it can be ordered, tested, and returned, if needed.
Malls encompass all of these. Out of the last two malls I went to, one was only crowded because that's where COVID-19 shots were being given and the other was significantly less crowded than when I went in my teenage years. Many stores were closed, others had minimal employees out front just waiting for a single customer to enter. Unsurprisingly, the term dead mall exists, defined as "a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate or a low consumer traffic level, or that is deteriorating in some manner". Causes vary, but commonly-cited ones include big box stores, internet shopping, and a shift in consumer behaviors. Malls used to be an experience. Kids would get dropped off there by their parents and go spend hours walking around and eating and shopping. No longer.
The retail apocalypse is "the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains worldwide. The current apocalypse resulted from mandated business closures due to COVID-19, which eclipsed the so-called apocalypse then underway, from about 2010." Reasons for said apocalypse include:
over-expansion of malls, rising rents, bankruptcies, leveraged buyouts, low quarterly profits outside holiday binge spending, delayed effects of the Great Recession, and changes in spending habits. ... experience-spending versus material goods and homes, casual fashion in relaxed dress codes, ... the rise of e-commerce, mostly in the form of competition from juggernaut companies such as Amazon.com and Walmart
Accenture did an analysis on how COVID-19 would change behavior:
- Consumers attitudes, behaviors and purchasing habits are changing—and many of these new ways will remain post-pandemic.
- While purchases are currently centered on the most basic needs, people are shopping more consciously, buying local and are embracing digital commerce.
- To manage isolation, consumers are using digital to connect, learn and play—and they will continue to.
- Moving forward, we will see an increase in the virtual workforce as more people work from home and enjoy doing so.
And I see this in my everyday life. Amazon trucks are more prevalent on the roads, companies offer excellent deals for online options, etc. I believe (source needed) the driving factor here is convenience. Ordering something from the comfort of a living room and having it show up days later without any extra effort is wonderful. It's progress. It's the reason I choose not to drive to a store 15 minutes away unless I absolutely have to.
I don't foresee in-person shopping ever returning to the level it was once at. Consumers have seen the light of online options and there is no turning back. Companies must embrace digital commerce or face being less successful than their competitors who do adopt and adapt.
Some predictions for the future that I will never follow up on after publishing this essay: