4 ms·

Personally, the pandemic has taught me how little I really need physical stores. Only a few items, like bicycles, shoes, and backpacking backpacks, do I really

by lacker 5y ago

Personally, the pandemic has taught me how little I really need physical stores. Only a few items, like bicycles, shoes, and backpacking backpacks, do I really prefer buying them in a physical store. So for me at least, it would be okay if all these retail jobs went away, and all these retail stores just went out of business, and you just bought everything online. It seems like it could really be a disaster for people working in retail though. Hopefully those retail jobs would end up replaced by something better, like working in an Amazon warehouse....

disgruntledphd2 5y ago
How do you handle buying clothes?
- cratermoon 5y ago
  That's a tricky one, but it's solvable, if you're willing to give up the idea of having new and different styles regularly. Find a style & brand you like, figure out what size you wear and just buy that. You might have to send something back until you nail it. For people with odd size requirements like me (I'm short), shopping online usually means you can find a better fit, because stores tend not to carry much outsize the most common sizes. Shoes are a great example: A size 7.5 (US) is about the biggest I can wear, sometimes a size 8 if they run small. The "standard" mens size is 9, and you can find lots of styles in size 9 to 11, but rarely anything smaller than 8. Guess what? that shoe is made in 7, but stores don't carry it. Sometimes the maker will discontinue a line though, which means a switch. Shoemakers are notorious for this.
  - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
    So yeah, re-buying clothes/brands is fine. But I spent a bunch of money on clothes online and ended up with stuff that is nice, but which feels weird (and with some too-small pockets). I don't really know how one can solve for these kinds of issues online, even if we could CV together what clothes would look like on people (which is at least theoretically solvable with current technology). And fwiw, clothes are like one of the things that everyone needs to buy, so online only is almost certainly not going to happen in this space.
- lacker 5y ago
  I just buy them online like anything else, in the same size I always wear. I had already stopped buying clothes in-person before the pandemic. I guess I am normally-shaped enough that I don't run into problems with things fitting this way, but certainly this is more problematic for some people.
  - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
    Yeah, makes sense. My trouble is that I'm in between sizes, so I tend to either end up with too small pants, or many, many belts.
- chadcmulligan 5y ago
  My daughter buys clothes online all the time. They have free return now if they don't fit.
vishnugupta 5y ago
> like working in an Amazon warehouse.... They (humans in Amazon warehouse) too are being replaced by robots. Not sure how many people know that Amazon has a robotics division [1] Like any modern corporation, Amazon is continuously looking to reduce cost and warehouse automation is the next obvious place, by automating most of pick/pack work. Even in shop experience is getting massively disrupted. At the one end of the spectrum there are self checkout kiosks that are super convenient and popular in the Netherlands and at the other end Amazon Go and similar with zero or minimal personnel running a shop. These types of jobs are popular among middle to just below middle class youth (high school goers) in order to earn a few bucks and reduce financial burden on their parents. With these jobs getting automated, at least in the developed world, I wonder what’ll be those stepping stone type of jobs which are low on skill that need manual labor. [1] https://www.amazon.jobs/en/teams/amazon-robotics https://www.amazon.jobs/en/teams/amazon-robotics
metalforever 5y ago
I feel the opposite, that people try to rip me off online with nice-looking but ultimately non-durable or non-functional products.
- switch007 5y ago
  And I think this will get worse now thanks to the pandemic and price increases.

by lacker 5y ago

disgruntledphd2 5y ago

How do you handle buying clothes?

cratermoon 5y ago
That's a tricky one, but it's solvable, if you're willing to give up the idea of having new and different styles regularly. Find a style & brand you like, figure out what size you wear and just buy that. You might have to send something back until you nail it. For people with odd size requirements like me (I'm short), shopping online usually means you can find a better fit, because stores tend not to carry much outsize the most common sizes. Shoes are a great example: A size 7.5 (US) is about the biggest I can wear, sometimes a size 8 if they run small. The "standard" mens size is 9, and you can find lots of styles in size 9 to 11, but rarely anything smaller than 8. Guess what? that shoe is made in 7, but stores don't carry it. Sometimes the maker will discontinue a line though, which means a switch. Shoemakers are notorious for this.
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago
  So yeah, re-buying clothes/brands is fine. But I spent a bunch of money on clothes online and ended up with stuff that is nice, but which feels weird (and with some too-small pockets). I don't really know how one can solve for these kinds of issues online, even if we could CV together what clothes would look like on people (which is at least theoretically solvable with current technology). And fwiw, clothes are like one of the things that everyone needs to buy, so online only is almost certainly not going to happen in this space.
lacker 5y ago
I just buy them online like anything else, in the same size I always wear. I had already stopped buying clothes in-person before the pandemic. I guess I am normally-shaped enough that I don't run into problems with things fitting this way, but certainly this is more problematic for some people.
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago
  Yeah, makes sense. My trouble is that I'm in between sizes, so I tend to either end up with too small pants, or many, many belts.
chadcmulligan 5y ago
My daughter buys clothes online all the time. They have free return now if they don't fit.

vishnugupta 5y ago

> like working in an Amazon warehouse.... They (humans in Amazon warehouse) too are being replaced by robots. Not sure how many people know that Amazon has a robotics division [1] Like any modern corporation, Amazon is continuously looking to reduce cost and warehouse automation is the next obvious place, by automating most of pick/pack work. Even in shop experience is getting massively disrupted. At the one end of the spectrum there are self checkout kiosks that are super convenient and popular in the Netherlands and at the other end Amazon Go and similar with zero or minimal personnel running a shop. These types of jobs are popular among middle to just below middle class youth (high school goers) in order to earn a few bucks and reduce financial burden on their parents. With these jobs getting automated, at least in the developed world, I wonder what’ll be those stepping stone type of jobs which are low on skill that need manual labor. [1] https://www.amazon.jobs/en/teams/amazon-robotics https://www.amazon.jobs/en/teams/amazon-robotics

metalforever 5y ago

I feel the opposite, that people try to rip me off online with nice-looking but ultimately non-durable or non-functional products.

switch007 5y ago
And I think this will get worse now thanks to the pandemic and price increases.