The convenience of Amazon is amazing, in part because American urban design and malls suck. In denser neighborhoods there is a certain charm to walking around

The convenience of Amazon is amazing, in part because American urban design and malls suck. In denser neighborhoods there is a certain charm to walking around dense streets, and sometimes randomly entering stores that catch your eye. Having malls be this dreary location that you must visit to get anything, makes amazon look so much more attractive. Similarly, small roadside stores in high foot traffic areas can end up being sustainable due to a high number of customers per second. On the other hand, malls are built to be large and inefficient in a manner that almost feels like it's by design. There are a huge number of products that benefit from use-before-you-buy. Brick & mortar is innately profitable in this scenario. Brick & mortar stores can also facilitate warranty more easily and will generally have fewer returns. Usually, they would have be able to stand against online shopping in those product categories. However, most US cities lack areas that would naturally see high foot-traffic. This makes it impossible to actually run a physical store. As for the other product categories, I am so glad online shopping became a thing.