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It’s no secret that shopping has been moving more and more online.
The ease and convenience of online shopping has seemed to consume today’s society, leading to many in-person shopping centers shutting down and slowly fading into oblivion.
Once popular shopping centers, the Towne Mall and the Cincinnati Mall have both completely shut down with other malls like the Northgate and Eastgate Mall headed to the same fate.
It’s not just the malls though; starting from Toys-R-Us back in 2018, many department stores have closed down or completely shut down after Christmas last year.
Some of the largest stores, like JCPenny and JoAnn’s, have filed for bankruptcy over the last couple years, while other stores, like Macy’s (closing 150 locations) and Walgreens (closing 1200 locations), have been forced to downsize.
A primary reason for these trends? Online shopping. Amazon in particular has been seeming to skyrocket more and more every year, while in-person stores see opposite trends.
In the span of 2020 to 2024, Amazon has more than doubled its profits, bringing in a massive $311.6 billion.
Because of this constant competition with online shopping companies, stores have less money to expand and experiment with, leading to stagnation.
A situation I experienced a few weeks ago is a direct result.
I was shopping for some new shoes online and found some Nikes I liked. I wanted to buy them in person, so I went to Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW), and then Shoe Carnival and then Foot Locker… and I couldn’t find them anywhere.
At DSW, they hardly had any mens shoes; at Shoe Carnival, all the shoes they had in Nikes were Court Vision lows, shoes I didn’t want; and at Foot Locker, they didn’t have the shoes either.
Eventually, I called it quits and decided I would just buy them online, which I don’t particularly enjoy. I don’t like waiting for the shipping, I don’t like that the shoes can look completely different in person and I don’t like how I can’t make sure they’re what I want.
And this is a problem many may run into. In-person stores have had to cut down on inventory due to the loss of customers to online shopping, and those who still shop in-person are left disappointed and frustrated, often unable to find what they need.
This conundrum scares me. I don’t want to be forced to shop online to find what I want, but if this trend continues and brick and mortar stores can’t keep up because they can’t meet people’s requirements, then we may be forced into a world of just online shopping.
The one other route I see into the future is that people wake-up, stop being lazy and shop in person. However, even though it’s frustrating when stores don’t have what you want, I think it would be even worse for a past-time like shopping to be forced into being fully digitized.
When I go places like Kenwood Mall, it makes me happy to see it so lively, filled with people walking around the mall with friends and family, having a good time.
Another potential opportunity has risen for the brick and mortar stores and malls due to the new tariffs. Before they were delayed, Amazon was projected to lose up to 10 billion dollars in profits since lots of their items are imports; a massive number even for a giant like Amazon.
These tariffs would provide a perfect chance for retailers to jump into action and regain a grip on their customer base.
Imports, especially from China, that make up a majority of what online shopping companies sell will grow more expensive, giving domestic suppliers a chance to be more competitive.
At the end of the day, everyone needs shoes and everyone needs clothes; it’s now a matter of which version of shopping will keep people coming, and whether people will get off their couches to shop in-person or stay captivated by the convenience of online shopping.