No

by Theresa O'Riordan

Created on: April 28, 2008

About ten years ago it was all the rage to remark: "Ten years from now no one will ever have to leave their house!" It was said that the internet was destroying community adhesiveness by providing people with yet another mindless distraction, and, worse, that it was giving people the chance to buy products from all over the world, rather than from their neighborhood stores.

We've already witnessed the effect that the big-box stores like Walmart have had on small town businesses. In some cases, shopping at a small store is more convenient than hiking through Walmart and waiting in a long line to buy things. But there are many benefits to shopping at Walmart as well; you can get a prescription refilled, buy a new outfit, a book and all your cleaning supplies all in one place. Can we then logically conclude from the rise of large superstores that the next logical step would be an economy run mostly on internet purchases, in which physically existing stores suffer? No.

Internet stores may provide an easy way for customers to shop for a specific item, but more often than not, the individual who has disposable income to burn goes directly to store, where they can buy the item of their choice and have it now. Ordering products online means waiting a few days or even a few weeks. This simply doesn't provide shoppers with the same thrill of going out and acquiring the desired item right away. This thrill associated with acquiring new things is the driving force behind shopping in the first place.

Sure, one can easily go on an online-shopping-spre e rather than an in-person spree: No need to park, walk around the mall, or search out several different items at several different stores and compare. But online shopping doesn't provide shopper with the chance to socialize and kill time. For many people, a trip to the department store or the mall is a social event which may or may not lead to a purchase. I don't understand this mentality personally, but the fact remains.

To really understand why stores are not in danger of closing because of the internet, it's helpful to think about Christmas shopping. "Black Friday", the day after Thanksgiving, is the official start of the Christmas shopping rush. Subsequently, it also holds the title most-dreaded-day-of- the-year for retail workers (other than Christmas Eve, perhaps). People arrive before dawn and camp out as if waiting for concert tickets. Often the mob rushes the opening doors so quickly, people are actually trampled and injured in the process. The justification for this yearly orgy is the sales. Still, I looked at sales on the internet last Black Friday, and found tons of them! Online stores are offering sales online which are comparable to in-store sales, and yet people are still risking their limbs and sanity to shop in person.

Another example involves banks. People have predicted that online banking and ATMs will make bank branch offices obsolete. Yet every time one goes to the bank, one usually waits in line or, at the very least, sees someone at the customer service desk getting help with an issue some other people might think would be easily solved without in-person help.

And here's an interesting point: chain stores which have items for sale online as well as in their stores can actually benefit from online purchases. If a large percentage of their customer base switches to making a large portion of their purchases online, stores will be less crowded, the store won't need as much space, and as a result, the store has less overhead. This can actually benefit everyone: If stores become smaller, we can combat urban sprawl and environmental degradation.

Even with products available online, people often want the in-person shopping experience. When they don't, they might go online. Judging from the two-hour waits in traffic to park outside the mall the week before Christmas testifies to the fact that stores in general are too overcrowded no matter how much merchandise is available online. And, when it comes to objects that are necessary in everyday life, or to satisfying the voracious need to accumulate new things on demand, buying online is not very practical.

Learn more about this author, Theresa O'Riordan.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.