10 ms·
The average store size in the US is the smallest it's been in at least 17 years
- Cyberthal 3y agoThis could simply mean that the largest chain stores have gotten much larger, driving the small boutique stores to shrink, while the mid-size stores vanish.
- j45 3y agoMail order catalogs are dead. Long live mail order catalogs. Physical locations have an opportunity to discover and create new meaning for customers in person
- nomel 3y agoI find it nearly impossible to buy non-food items online. I would much rather go in person to inspect the quality. If I can't, I usually end up sending things back. More likely, I end up being dissatisfied with the product, since I don't want to bother with repackaging and sending it back. Youtube reviews are shilled nonsense most of the time, where they just unbox the item and look at it without even using it.
- earthling8118 3y agoI find it nearly impossible to find quality items in person. I have to order online to have a wide enough selection for most things to not be cheap junk. In person stores stock a bunch of items that aren't up to my expectations with the hopes that they'll sell. They end up increasing costs and lowering quality.
- j45 3y agoThat's fine. Lots of folks buy the first one in store and the rest online.. Reviews can definitely vary - but your perspective is probably useful to other people seeking the kinds of reviews you do
- pbj1968 3y agoRepackaging it is a literal strip of tape and throwing it in a drop box that’s likely less than two miles from your house. The phenomenon that cracks me up, tho, is retail stores serving as points of return for Amazon! Kohls is so damn thirsty for foot traffic they’ll accept returns for a direct competitor! CVS and Autozone I kind of get it. If you need a prescription or hemorrhoid cream or a car battery you’re probably not waiting on Amazon… but when literally everything in your store is also available on Amazon? Tick tock, business model.
- jfim 3y ago> Tick tock, business model. With reputable retailers one doesn't have to worry about getting a fake item, unlike Amazon. And if one really wants a QOWXYZ brand product, it's half the price or less on AliExpress or Temu. Amazon seems to be in a place where they're getting harder to trust every day, but way more expensive than the dubious direct from China sellers.
- ryandrake 3y ago> QOWXYZ LOL I’d love to be a fly on the wall during those discussions at Amazon about why the hell they are allowing those “brands” in their marketplace. I mean, does anyone actually think they are legit? But then again people must buy them and they must make money for Amazon. What a circus!
- jen20 3y agoMy current rule is I won’t buy anything with a mains electrical plug, anything Hugh value, or anything that can be easily counterfeited from Amazon. I just don’t trust them in the slightest to do anything but run a datacenter.
- jfim 3y agoAnother thing to be careful of is anything that could have adverse health effects if counterfeited, like food, supplements, cosmetics, safety equipment, cooking utensils, and so on. Which I guess leaves books as something relatively innocuous, even though those have also been counterfeited before.
- plagiarist 3y agoI agree, but I don't know of any stores where I am able to really inspect a product. I end up wading through review after review and trying to see if people were troubleshooting the product for the use case I intended. I don't know if there's a solution. Nearly every place online is inundated by advertisers trying to game the system, and they ooze further into the corners with each passing month.
- dpkirchner 3y agoIt's rare that brick and mortar stores actually have what I'm looking for in stock (exceptions include home improvement stores). They always offer to order it for me, though, as if that's a magic power.
- l72 3y agoI really dislike large stores. They are so overwhelming. I find the average grocery store in the US to be way too big. As a highly specialized retailer looking for a very small space, it is incredibly difficult to find. Commercial property owners would rather keep their store fronts vacant than deal with 10 small shops instead of 1 big one. Something needs to change.
- ofo8 3y ago[flagged]
- WalterBright 3y agoI can't make heads or tales of what you wrote.
- ofo8 3y ago[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> never signed a contract Contracts are social constructs. Those are bad to base the fundamentals of a philosophy on.
- ofo8 3y ago[flagged]
- tiffanyg 3y agoFunny - I was just thinking* about some of what you've described. In my book, a great deal of what a certain group of predators and naive individuals consider "capitalism" is hollowed of its core. Hollowed of aspects those who truly understand and have faith and respect for capitalism - well-founded faith and respect - generally consider essential. People like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are / were far closer to sound / faithful capitalists than most seem to be, lately: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/business/warren-buffett-capitalism.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/business/warren-buffett-c... But, one can go further, IMO: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04521-5 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04521-5 Those who stress the idea that "greed is good" set themselves (and, unfortunately, the rest of us, as well) up for misery and the kinds of instability / inequality / tightrope walk that may culminate in events like the Reign of Terror (one example that always comes to my mind, at least - a la Les Misérables, for example [but, so much more than 'just' that theatrical version of events]). * ~3 hours ago - and, not a common thought at all for me (though thinking about economics in general is common)
- FredPret 3y agoIronically the only store I go to is Costco, or the even huger Costco Business Center. EDIT: I'm not alone. Revenue is up more than 50%, and profit more than 60% in 5 years at $COST. [https://valustox.com/COST https://valustox.com/COST]
- Boogie_Man 3y agoCan you speak briefly on the economics of you purchasing at a bulk store?
- 4death4 3y agoI’m not even sure the economics make sense. Like if I buy toilet paper, I just want to buy as much as possible and not have to worry about it. Same with other staples. Costco delivers bulk goods with excellent quality at a good price. I’m not even sure I’m saving money honestly.
- talldatethrow 3y agoAs a Costco/Price Club member since 89.. it's never been the cheapest really. But it's always been the best value.
- pottertheotter 3y agoI still regularly call it Price Club.
- FredPret 3y agoTry and stop me. I LOVE Costco. Basically, when I buy something at a regular store, I'm shocked at the recent inflation. But at Costco, most things have barely budged at all in the past few years. And that's starting at a lower base as well - at the moment it's simply nuts how much cheaper things are there. In fact, if you look at their financial statements, their entire profit equals their membership fee income - this means you're buying things at cost price on average. And Costco is known to be brutal to their suppliers, using their market position to force lower prices and larger pack sizes onto the manufacturers. They don't sell everything though - there are some items you have to buy on Amazon or a regular grocery store. But almost (not entirely) every time that Costco sells something, it's the best deal you can get. Another downside is you have to buy a LOT of what you're buying. So it only makes sense if you're planning ahead somewhat, and if you have room in your fridge/freezer/garage. EDIT: actually the main drawback is the hugeness and remoteness of the store, and the immense number of other shoppers. But again, this plays into going every couple of weeks and buying ahead. These things are inherent in their model and I accept it. I actually spend less total time shopping now because I do all of it in 60-80 minutes every two weeks. Another edit: none of this means that the quality is any lower. Somehow, they're delivering excellent meat, produce, and more at a fraction of the cost. Maybe I should buy shares in this company. They barely have a profit margin though.
- smohnot 3y agohttps://archive.is/2023.12.12-110602/https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/the-american-store-is-shrinking-7603e979 https://archive.is/2023.12.12-110602/https://www.wsj.com/rea...
- iAMkenough 3y agoUntil there's a valid reason to subject myself to being in the same space as other shoppers, I'm okay sticking with the online alternative most shops provide these days. A few of the local businesses I regular closed up their physical storefront during the pandemic to focus their limited resources on online service and delivery. Rent ain't cheap.
- idatum 3y agoAgree. "The average store size in the U.S. is the smallest it’s been in at least 17 years, reflecting profound changes in the way Americans now shop." I'm also struggling to understand why this is "profound". Things change, business adapts. life goes on.
- drewcoo 3y agoI think anything without more data for context seems "profound." Compare with pre-Walmart US for a huge shift in size. There were some large stores before that, but they weren't as prolific as Walmart. Or as successful in closing smaller competition.
- stevenwoo 3y agoMost stores even warehouse stores if you go at opening (assuming you have the luxury of doing so) they are particularly uncrowded except on days prior to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I used to shop at 24 hour groceries after 10pm but the covid-19 pandemic stopped every grocery (plus consolidation under Safeway) in my area from doing that.
- romusha 3y agoAdapt or die
- CSMastermind 3y agoMy prediction is that we'll see a massive rise in manufacturers selling directly to consumers as e-commerce companies disintermediate traditional retailers. There's so much margin compression and headache to be captured if you can enable manufacturers to go around the big box stores of the world.
- nickff 3y agoThere has already been a dramatic increase in the number of manufacturers selling directly to consumers over the past few decades, both online and via manufacturer-controlled retail stores. Look at brands like Nike, Adidas, Microsoft, Apple, Le Creuset, etc.
- quickthrower2 3y agoTesla famously.
- ethbr1 3y agoAll of these are established brand names though. On the one hand, going over the top of big box allows you to establish a direct customer relationship and keep profits. On the other hand, it removes the quality imprimatur that being stocked in a big box confers. Ceteris paribus, why take a risk on one of 1,000 new internet brands, when you know better what you're getting with a megabrand? Which is probably why you see internet brands succeed best in the disposable space (e.g. fast fashion), where quality is not a differentiator.
- quickthrower2 3y agoThere are exceptions. The Niche Zero coffee grinder is direct from manufacturer but is high quality. In addition a lot of what they sell in stores is crap. To the point I would go online to find the same thing to get better quality. The caveat being caveat emptor: DYOR.
- gumby 3y ago
- armchairhacker 3y agoI’ve been to countries in Europe and in my experience the shops are much smaller than those in the US. “Supermarkets” are only slightly larger than your average mom-and-pop store in the US, and they have “hypermarkets” which are only slightly larger than your average US supermarket.
- dgellow 3y agoIt really varies by country and if you are in a city or not. There isn’t a European model, you will see lot of variance between Portugal, Germany, Greece, etc.
- armchairhacker 3y agoMy point of reference is Prague: small stores, but a lot more numerous than most US cities.
- crazygringo 3y agoMakes sense. More and more clothing brands, for instance, have a growing number of "online only" items. And stores that used to have an entire wall piled high with many hundreds of pairs of jeans, now carry maybe 50 pairs -- enough combinations to see what each style is and figure out your size, but for your exact style and size combination, you'll probably need to order online. 15 years ago I'd be annoyed when a store was out of my size. Now I literally don't even care -- I'll grab it online and that's one less bag to have to carry home.
- h0l0cube 3y agoThere still isn’t a satisfactory answer to what will happen to all this vacant commercial real estate. The situation isn’t going to improve in the long term, so it makes no sense for investors to hodl all this vacant land and make no use of it
- imnotreallynew 3y agoI’ve read opinions, perhaps presented as facts, that transforming commercial buildings into residential units was often more expensive than tearing down the whole building and starting from scratch. If that’s true, there seems to be a large opportunity available to those who can figure out how to transform those buildings in a way cheaper than what’s currently possible.
- h0l0cube 3y agoOr just tear them down and build something new. Main issue with office space to apartment conversions is the deep floor plan that makes access to sunlight difficult. Retofitting plumbing and isolated fireproofing probably adds more complexity. In terms of malls though, it's perhaps less of a problem to turn these into low-rise residential. But at the end of the day, it's just land waiting for re-use. I'd be happy for these spaces to become parkland and forest. Or maybe there will be something in the future that needs a lot of land but benefits being located somewhat closer to populations?
- shiroiuma 3y agoI seriously doubt that it's possible, unless you can get the city/state to change the building codes dramatically for the worse. Residential units need various things that commercial buildings don't, like windows (for each unit, not just at the periphery of the huge building), lots of plumbing so everyone can have a kitchen and bathroom, etc. Retrofitting buildings (to be very different than before, not just changing some fixtures and keeping the overall design intact) is generally more expensive than just demolishing and building new ones that are properly designed for that purpose. Just look at cars: even restoring an old car costs a fortune in labor costs, because it's far less efficient than building a new one on an assembly line, and that isn't changing the car design substantially. Imagine what it would cost to transform a 1950s car into one that meets all 2023 safety and emissions standards; even if you can reuse an existing engine/transmission, there's a ton of custom work needed, both mechanical and electrical.
- jauntywundrkind 3y agoThe experience of having such a low-dimensional search is terrible. I feel like such an uninformed consumer stepping into stores, at the mercy of whatever happens to be on the shelf at whatever price happens to be on the items that day. In many ways its harder to assess online, but the range of goods I can look through is huge. And its easier to read reviews and what not. I personally have changed a lot in 20-30 years. Growing up, it was extreme culture shock moving not really that far in America, from no-place in particular to a suburb of a decent sized city. I have struggled to comprehend how indoor shopping malls, filled with so many goods and so much staff, make a profit. Trying to guess at how much had to be bought & consumed to keep such an inefficient system going scared me. The mall still boggles my mind, and I'm still mildly afraid of it, but these days I also kind of fear for what happens next if we do lose in-person consumerdom. It would be shocking to me to see this institution fade, for the in-person shopping experience to thin out.
- snakeyjake 3y agoI go to stores so seldomly that it is jarring when I'm in one. I do not think I am unique in that regard-- even my 70-year-old parents have wholeheartedly embraced online shopping.