why bricks and mortar are stronger than silicon
Anecdotal evidence suggests eBay is morphing into eNay, as in, “No, I’m not buying it.”
At the dawn of e-commerce you could put a broken pair of Vaurnet’s up for bid with the word VINTAGE and the things would sell.
It didn’t really matter what you had, people in cubicles across the country were fascinated with the ability to shop while working. eBay was the only destination on that highway of information.
Then Craigslist came along and there was another round of economic orgy. People loved CL. They bought their kitchen table, found a mechanic and had sex with strangers through the bare bones portal.
Those fun days seem to be over. Craigslist killers and the hustlers casing your house have scared people away from interacting with the whole morass of the community at large. The amount of flakes who string you along or pitch insulting lowballs makes a CL transaction several steps below a flea market experience in terms of destroying your faith in the human race.
People still shop online of course, but the Internet turned into boomtown, a virtual outlet mall, with etsy and the millions of Shopify independents creating a specific look with their HTML and hipstamatic photos that turn on target audiences.
That being said, brick and mortar retail seems to be having a Renaissance. It may be because we at Mixed Nuts are the only people in a twenty five block radius offering people a chance to hold an item in their hand before paying for it.
Is it too far off to say retail can be the only exercise some city folk get?
There is more to that thought, there are more thoughts too, but its time to go to work.