Is Online Shopping Hurting Our Economy?

These days, you can practically buy anything online. You can buy the simple stuff, like groceries or books to the expensive things like cars, planes and boats. About a decade ago, online retail was still a novel concept with not too many looking to get aboard the bandwagon but in the years since you can see that the retail market has been feeling the effects given that many more people are buying online as opposed to typical brick-and-mortar stores. Evidence of this is the fact that Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest bookseller, announced a drop in profit in the 2nd quarter of the year. Projections were still higher than what they actually experienced in terms of profit loss but it was still a loss nonetheless.

Part of the reason as explained by the company has been that increasing numbers of people are turning to online retailers (Amazon comes to mind) to purchase their books. And as a frequent reader, I can understand why. I mean within days of the latest book coming out, you can practically find it for about half price at any one of a dozen online retailers. And so what if you have to pay shipping charges, even that option is quickly disappearing as more and more companies begin to eliminate these charges in some cases, so that they can entice additional customers. And it does work. I bought some books online a few weeks ago and got them within days without having to pay for shipping and handling. I paid the price of one new book yet got three near perfect copies of recent titles. Perhaps they won't grace my bookshelves for years but it was a way to get a copy of the book for less.

But why else are traditional retailers not doing so well? I mean record stores (an anachronistic term but still one that is in popular parlance) are also experiencing losses thanks in large part to companies like iTunes. Think back a few years ago and think of how often you saw people with their ears stuffed with headphones. Not too many right? Nowadays you can't take three steps without seeing a dozen people with their headphones on and their music playing away. These days, why fill your home with CD cases when you can simply download and listen to your heart's content? I myself have fully embraced this concept now. Oh sure I still get CDs at the store (or online) these days but it's so much more convenient to get them online and keep them digitally. But still, why aren't companies doing that well anymore?

I know that with people worrying about losing their jobs or not having enough money for luxuries, they are starting to turn from buying items like books or movies and turning to the library. In recent months, the libraries around the country have started experiencing a boom in patronage. I can understand that as well. I love to read but I also know that I can't spend endlessly to get all the books I would want. The library offers up a cheap alternative to buying books. If I end up really liking what I'm reading then I can always get it but I don't have to spend money if all I want to do is read and enjoy a book. That being said then it starts to become clear why traditional retailers aren't seeing the profits they once did.

I don't think online retailers will go away anytime in the near future (if ever) but I do think that we will slowly see the decline of more of the mom-and-pop stores that have managed to survive the advent of the so-called big-box stores. It's possible that if most of the major online retailers manage to cause the decline of larger traditional stores as well that they may step in to fill the void but one thing's for sure, the economy is in some way being affected (for good or for bad) by the changes in the way we shop.