3 ms·

Lost to technology advancement? Last time I checked, there were shitloads of travel agencies, retail outlets for consumer electronics, and newstands all over th

Lost to technology advancement? Last time I checked, there were shitloads of travel agencies, retail outlets for consumer electronics, and newstands all over the city. Everybody does not shop on Amazon and use AirBnB.

ChuckMcM 15y ago
I realize that 'shitloads' is a imprecise measure but there are significantly fewer travel agencies today than there were 10 years ago (as an example). If you were to break it down into 'single propieter' / 'corporate agency' you would find that single proprietor agencies have been reduced dramatically. For me the argument is convincing when technology changes the growth rate of a particular industry (in terms of jobs provided) to be negative.
prostoalex 15y ago
Employment as a news stand operator != employment in newspaper industry. On retail - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_retailers_of_the_United_States#Electronics_stores http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_retailers_of_th... do you honestly see more people selling HDTVs and BluRay players today than in 2001?
hkmurakami 15y ago
If you recall, Circuit City vanished a few years ago after a several decades as a leading nationwide retailer. Part of this was surely caused by direct retail competition by Best Buy, Target, WalMart, but it would be reasonable to presume that at least a part of this was caused by technological advancement as well (it certainly couldn't have helped circuit city to have to compete with NewEgg and Amazon)
- SystemOut 15y ago
  DIVX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX) was another important catalyst that helped Circuit City to fail. If you're interested read the link but the short of it was that it cost Circuit City over $100 million not to mention that anyone that was into home theater basically refused to shop there after this fiasco.

ChuckMcM 15y ago

I realize that 'shitloads' is a imprecise measure but there are significantly fewer travel agencies today than there were 10 years ago (as an example). If you were to break it down into 'single propieter' / 'corporate agency' you would find that single proprietor agencies have been reduced dramatically. For me the argument is convincing when technology changes the growth rate of a particular industry (in terms of jobs provided) to be negative.

prostoalex 15y ago

Employment as a news stand operator != employment in newspaper industry. On retail - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_retailers_of_the_United_States#Electronics_stores http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_retailers_of_th... do you honestly see more people selling HDTVs and BluRay players today than in 2001?

hkmurakami 15y ago

If you recall, Circuit City vanished a few years ago after a several decades as a leading nationwide retailer. Part of this was surely caused by direct retail competition by Best Buy, Target, WalMart, but it would be reasonable to presume that at least a part of this was caused by technological advancement as well (it certainly couldn't have helped circuit city to have to compete with NewEgg and Amazon)

SystemOut 15y ago
DIVX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX) was another important catalyst that helped Circuit City to fail. If you're interested read the link but the short of it was that it cost Circuit City over $100 million not to mention that anyone that was into home theater basically refused to shop there after this fiasco.