Demise of Brick and Mortar Stores

Are Brick and Mortar (B&M) stores partly to blame for their loss of customers to Internet-based stores?  I think so.

While it’s true that B&Ms have higher costs due to maintaining a physical presence and inventory, they also have an advantage in that customers get instant access to purchases.  Also, in the case of one-of-kind product such as produce, buyers get to examine and inspect the merchandise before buying.

I shop both online and at B&Ms.  Here’s why I shop online:

1. It’s easier to find what I need. For example:
1. Unscented antiperspirant is nearly impossible to find at stores near me. B&Ms have replaced unscented product with things called “Phoenix,” “Apollo” and “Gold.” What the heck does Gold smell like and how would it keep me dry? Maybe it’s unscented, like real gold, but I doubt it. Sure I could open each one and smell it. But the number of choices is overwhelming, and I don’t have time for it anyway!
2. My shoe size is almost impossible to find, and I hate shopping for shoes. I’ve been reluctant to buy shoes online because I’ve always wanted to try shoes on before buying. But I bought my latest pair online, and it was so much easier. Plus, they were so marked down in price (probably because they were such an unpopular size) that I was ecstatic.
3. B&Ms waste a lot of shelf space on different brands and flavors of peanut butter. Nowadays you can buy peanut butter that's smooth, crunchy, mixed with jelly, mixed with honey. You have Skippy, Jiff, Teddy Bear, Smuckers and the store brand. Yet how many varieties are there of plain almond butter, not mixed with sugar or palm oil or whatever? Just one – and that was only after the store brought in a machine to make it in-house.
4. I love our local Barnes and Noble, but I buy more stuff at BN.com than in their local B&M. We buy our kitchen calendar from BN.com. It’s so special. It has a magnetic strip to hang on the refrigerator, and is 12” wide with large rectangles for the days of the month. Finding it in the B&M is hit or miss, so we avoid the frustration entirely and get it online.
2. Online items get dropped off in my driveway. I don't need to lift a product into a shopping cart, push it to a cashier, bring it out to the parking lot and then load it into the car. It should be noted that the B&Ms that I shop at have helpful people who will load stuff into customers' cars. Some even offer to do this even without being asked.
3. Repeat delivery and free delivery are so amazingly convenient that I rely on this for cat litter and pet food. These items also fall under item 2, as well.

B&Ms should excel at knowing the needs of the community.  Our local hardware store does this really well.  They know things like the right kind of paint for the climate we're in, the types of wood siding that was popular when the original homes were built, the parts needed to fix light fixtures and values.  I don't bother to look online for hardware-like items unless the guys tell me to.  B&Ms can learn a lot from the hardware store business model.

#NaBloPoMo2019