THE REAL WORLD EFFECTS OF ONLINE SHOPPING
THE REAL WORLD EFFECTS OF ONLINE SHOPPING
Main Street in crisis
How we shop has changed dramatically over the last few years and while in many ways this can be viewed as progress, I think consumers largely ignore the side effects of e-commerce. There are societal costs to saving a few dollars buying online what you used to buy in your neighborhood. For those working in retail there are lost jobs without replacement in other industries. For shop owners there’s more work with less profit, and in many cases such as my own, eventual bankruptcy.
While the average consumer will think, “This doesn’t affect me”, a drive down Main Street will show how it does. The character of many a small town, neighborhood, or even popular street, is often defined by the unique ‘Mom & Pop’ businesses that set up shop there. No one moves to a neighborhood because of the Panera Bread, Starbucks, or Bank of America, they choose a neighborhood because of local restaurants and stores that give the area a unique identity and make it feel like home.
With local stores falling victim to far away warehouse-based websites, and local restaurants being preyed upon by delivery services that take up to a third of the price of a meal while waiting thirty days to pay, Main Street as we know it is in trouble and in danger of becoming extinct.
I ask you to remember that time a local shop employee went the extra mile for you, or that little league team you played on that was sponsored by a Mom & Pop shop. Remember that special occasion you celebrated at your favorite local restaurant where the owners made sure everything was just to your liking.
I closed the doors of my shop in 2017 due to sales lost to online shopping. Customers who made major purchases online and only came in for last minute items were shocked to learn that we were closing, unaware of added cost of their online discount. When I made the news public I posted the following note in our window.
“By now you’ve read way too many of these letters and sadly it looks like there are more coming soon. I hope you will look at our shop closing as the proverbial “canary in the coalmine” and shift your shopping habits back to shopping in your own neighborhood. I’ve heard way too many people talk about how much they love the ‘Mom & Pop’ shops of Park Slope only to talk about the great deal they got online in the very next sentence. Put down your phone and shop at the great local businesses that are available to you now but are struggling. If your life becomes all about your phone, so will your neighborhood and all that will be left will be real estate offices, nail salons, and banks.”
If you value your hometown I urge you to SHOP LOCAL! The losses to your neighborhood are just too large to justify saving a few pennies. Losses that include lost jobs that are not replaced, increased unemployment, bankruptcies that also result in unpaid debts, loss of convenience when you need something right now, and quite simply the loss of your neighborhood or at least the loss of why you moved there, or why you stayed.