Brick & Mortar Stores

[Left Seater]

Are Brick and Mortar stores on the way out? So much of what we purchase today can be purchased online and delivered that I stared wondering. Just in our house we have the following:

Grocery delivery thru Shipt: we put things in our basket thru the app and they deliver it when we direct them too

Dry cleaning: is picked up from a door hanger on Tues and Friday and returned 3 days later

Dog food and pet meds: tThese come on a set schedule each month

Human meds: delivered by the local Rx when needed

Amazon Prime/ Amazon Now: delivers odds and ends in about two hours

Stitch Fix: sends outfits the wife might like every two weeks and she either keeps them or ships them back

Fast Gas: dude buys gas wholesale and will fill your car at home for usually about $.20 per gallon cheaper than the local station

Wine clubs and the local liquor store: both deliver

Granted all these things save an ass load of time but will they make brick and mortar stores die off? These services are great when you know what you want. But when you don’t it can be hard to order online. Here’s hoping the local independent hardware store, liquor store and suit shop don’t lose their storefronts.

Thoughts?

[Mikey]

We do a large pct of our shopping through Amazon Prime, and meds mailed out by Caremark CVS.

I won't buy food, at least fresh produce and meat, unless I can look at it first. Try to avoid most processed stuff. A regular Saturday morning trip to Costco and the local farmers market gets probably 85% of our groceries.

The wife won't buy clothes unless she can try them on first, even with free return shipping. Me...I don't GARA. XL shirt always fit.

We belong to several wine clubs but I like to browse the ever changing selection at Costco, which also has better prices then anywhere else. They are by far the largest retailer of wine in the US so they can get very good prices.

[smackaholic]

I'm as guilty as some about doing this. I have even used B&M stores to examine an item, then bought it on line and that really is a little d of shitty thing to do, but lately I have made an effort to throw business to the B&Ms as I do not want to see them go. They pay property taxes and employ people in my neck of the woods. I also believe that all inter web purchases should be required to collect sales taxes in the states of the purchase.


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[Moving Sale]

I support my local businesses. That might be because I have local businesses that are worth supporting and you guys don't or maybe you don't give a shit about your neighbors.

[Bucmonkey]

No fucking way I buy food w/o seeing/smelling/etc...rest of the shit is Prime or bought on site when food shopping...

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

I don't have a Prime account because I don't sit around buying useless shit I don't need or will be obsolete in a year or two anyway. Only if I can't obtain them locally will I buy products online. "But, but, but, it ships so fast!" Cool. You know what ships faster? Getting in my car and going somewhere. "But, but, but, I don't have time to drive places!" That's because you're on the internet all day handing over your money to Jeff Bezos. As for food, I don't need some pimply faced teenager who just jerked off in the handicap stall on his lunch break rubbing his grubby hands all over my poorly-selected produce.

[Jay in Phoenix]

^^^^^^

This is spot on.

When it comes to food, clothing or most products, I want to select them myself, IN the store. About the only things I'll get online are music and movies, but only if I can't find them locally. What the hell is wrong with getting off your ass, prying away from the computer and going out and doing something?

It'll be a sad day if/when brick and mortars are out as we know them.

[Screw_Michigan]

I don't have a Prime account because I don't sit around buying useless shit I don't need or will be obsolete in a year or two anyway. Only if I can't obtain them locally will I buy products online. "But, but, but, it ships so fast!" Cool. You know what ships faster? Getting in my car and going somewhere. "But, but, but, I don't have time to drive places!" That's because you're on the internet all day handing over your money to Jeff Bezos. As for food, I don't need some pimply faced teenager who just jerked off in the handicap stall on his lunch break rubbing his grubby hands all over my poorly-selected produce.

You're a ......sick fuck.

[Left Seater]

I certainly do agree with shopping local and most of this stuff is local.

The grocery delivery is from our local store which is a Texas chain. As for the pimply faced kid who beat off earlier, don’t worry he already touched your produce when he stocked it. Our shopper is a stay at home mom and we have instructed her not to purchase anything she wouldn’t for her family.

The Rx, gas and dry cleaner are also all local companies.

For Prime/Now we use that for things that are more one offs. For example our dogs were out of tennis balls that they love to chase in the backyard. We ordered some and two hours later they were at our front door. Sure I could or have driven to Dick’s but that would be an hour plus of a Saturday. No thanks.

[Derron]

My daughter does the food shopping thing on line because she is one of those super busy millennials with a career and 3 kids. Like the others on here, I will select my food. I buy meat at a quality butcher shop, salad greens every other day at the store. I do order some flours from Bobs Red Mill online.

There can be two schools of thought on the B & M stores. Ace Hardware will always be there and have the people coming in to buy shit. You can match the store clerk who does not know a fucking thing about anything with the clueless person who comes in looking for something he does not know exists. For that reason, B & M will always be there. Even though I live in close proximity to a large metro area, there really is a lot of shit I cannot get in a 20 mile radius. For that I buy online.

When I had my sports / golf construction business, ordering irrigation parts on line from a supplier in SoCal, having them delivered direct to the job site, saved me almost 20% on those supplies versus a local vendor. I would love to buy as local as I can, but in reality if given the choice between a 20 to 30 mile drive versus online buying, the keyboard wins.

[Innocent Bystander]

Food: Men Hunt the big shit, Women Gather greenery, berries, seaweed, wild eggs, and whatever wildlife stores away (though there's different philosophies about that. Everybody Fishes. The women cut and smoke the fish, help butcher the caribou/moose. Gender roles are still strict. The Fisheries, if you can get to one, give away overstock bulk items from $2 to free at the end of the season. It's worth $2.00 for an industrial restaurant size can of applesauce for a family of 10. The Department of Fish and Game give away fish on certain days every week during the season to whomever is willing to stand in line.

Everything else is Walmart, Fred Meyers, Amazon, a certain furrier, and the ATV/Boat parts merchant of your choice. For emergencies, there's the local store selling 30 bottles of water for $30-60, fresh oranges for $3.00 a piece (until they're old enough to sell for a quarter), a loaf of bread for $6.00, half gallon boxes of milk for $3-4, and for the kiddies $7-10 for a bag of Doritos. If you really need meat, some stores stock a lot of frozen goods like reindeer. Some stores don't. Sometimes can get 10 cups of yogurt for $10. Check the expiration date. Sales are important. Expiration dates not so much.

Fresh food is expensive, whether you catch it or buy it.

[Innocent Bystander]

Can I have some of your meds? I would use them solely for reasearch purposes. If I got completely incoherent and posted on this board, it would be an unintended coincidence.

Brick and mortar will never disappear, because there are places which still depend upon them.

Baby ran out of pampers and water is rationed for laundry usage. Walmart/Amazon hasn't arrived yet. Cloth diapers are either precious in that situation or you just don't use them. What do you do?

As Smackoholic also mentioned, stores employ locally. Why remove the one, two or three places people can be employed honestly which don't involved working in local government?

[Moving Sale]

heavily.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

The less I have to be around dumbasses, though, the better.

So what's your excuse for posting here?

[Dinsdale]

I live in a fairly fucking urban area. There ain't a whole lotta shit I can't get within 10 minutes of here. I prefer to not spend my precious time on the internet shopping, when I can better spend it questioning the intelligence, sexual orientation, and occasionally even stature of people I've never met.

[Derron]

I live in a fairly fucking urban area. There ain't a whole lotta shit I can't get within 10 minutes of here. I prefer to not spend my precious time on the internet shopping, when I can better spend it questioning the intelligence, sexual orientation, and occasionally even stature of people I've never met.

Oh, so you shop at New Seasons ??

[Dinsdale]

I think there's a New Seasons in Progress Ridge, if I head out your way. It's possible I might have been to a New Seasons... once (maybe). But I avoid the hippie/hipster stores like the plague. Up the road is Dartmouth St. -- which features the white-trash triumvirate of Winco, Costco, and Walmart (then throw a Petsmart and an Office Depot on top of that). I rarely even go down that street. If I need something and I'm headed that way, I generally opt for Walmart, since the crowd is less trashy. Costco is the worst, since it's utter white trash, yet they don't realize it, and think they're high society. If I need the grocery/department store, I usually split the difference and hit Freddie's. Although I probably make it into Fisherman's Marine more often than Freddie's.

[BSmack]

My music purchases are split about 50/50 between Amazon and a local Independent record store.

I buy some clothes online like jeans and t-shirts but any kind of dress clothing I prefer to buy locally.

I'm in Rochester so we just got a service through the local supermarket that allows you to shop from home. My wife actually enjoys shopping so that's not happening.

We do a lot of shopping on Amazon. In fact this thread reminded me that I needed to get a new furnace filter. It'll be here on Sunday.

[Dinsdale]

I'm in Rochester so we just got a service through the local supermarket that allows you to shop from home

Seriously? I think I've had that option for at least 15 years.

[Left Seater]

Don’t get the argument that shopping on the internet is time waisted. Especially given the all of us post here which is the ultimate time waster.

Dog food dropped shipped twice a month. Filers for the a/c once a month. If you aren’t doing things like this online and at a regular recurrence I will show you a waste of time.

[MsCJ]

Don’t get the argument that shopping on the internet is time waisted. Especially given the all of us post here which is the ultimate time waster.

Dog food dropped shipped twice a month. Filers for the a/c once a month. If you aren’t doing things like this online and at a regular recurrence I will show you a waste of time.

Like online shopping is making you fat?

[Left Seater]

Again, regular shipments at set intervals doesn’t require “shopping” or any computer time.

As for making me fat, that happened when I ran out of eligibility to play football. Going from 322 lbs as an offensive lineman to a full time pilot set that in motion. Sure I would like to drop a few more lbs from my 265 now but I still haven’t had anyone take me up on the Triathlon challenge I threw down two years ago.

[Bucmonkey]

I'm in Rochester so we just got a service through the local supermarket that allows you to shop from home

Seriously? I think I've had that option for at least 15 years.

Sad...unless that weather keeps you indoors and unable :wink:

[MsCJ]

I love it when someone answers spelling smack like it's a serious question.

[Dinsdale]

Sad...unless that weather keeps you indoors and unable

Huh? This, after I made multiple posts saying I don't shop online?

And I engage in outdoor activities year-round, thank you very much. Very light rain actually doesn't cause physical pain, believe it or not.

[Wolfman]

Life goes in cycles. At one time Sears was mainly catalog/mail sales. I read somewhere that Amazon is moving to having some "B & M" stores.

[smackaholic]

I could see Amazon buying Sears someday.

[Derron]

I could see Amazon buying Sears someday.

For what ?? Sears better distribution channels ?? For their closing more stores everyday ??

Sears was told years ago to close the stores and keep the catalog, so they did the exact opposite. I bought a collection of old Sears 1970's specialty catalogs at an estate sale for fifty cents each, got about 100 of them. I have sold about half of them on EBay for
$ 12.00 to $ 18.00 each so far.

Plus I have a bunch of Craftsman tools, mostly sockets that took a shit on me that I have no place to take them back too, unless I drive to the fucking mall 25 miles away. I have not been in a Sears store in 20 years, and have no plans to in the future. Surprised they are still in business at all.

[Dinsdale]

Sears also has Kenmore, we use those appliances in most of our rentals because they're sturdy and are well supported with warranties

Wait, there's someone out there that doesn't know that there's only 2 companies that make major home appliances (and Kenmore isn't one of them)?

[Moving Sale]

But he does know he hates blacks
And browns
And nocals
And women
And muslims
And libs
And ....