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-spree 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

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