Where will we buy stuff in the future?

[pinkytoe]

I have been looking for a set of percale sheets for a while now and for my price point (budget!!) just about every place says out of stock. Are we all buying sheets or is this a supply issue?

[ApatheticNoMore]

Haha, everyone buying "security blankets".

If so I could relate to it, there was that year where I was having a hard time (just hard time at work, not the current crazy) and I acquired a great deal of "security" blankets and sheets and "security" towels. Bad things happen out there in the world, but the bathtub and the bed are all good ..

[Teacher Terry]

Tradd, that’s not the case for me. I bought traveltine shoes from easy spirit and if I buy the exact shoe I am fine. I accidentally bought a traveltine clog that looked just like the others and it was too big.

[Rogar]

I think the trend will weigh heavily toward on line shopping. I can imagine shopping malls could become obsolete. Otherwise, it would seem like anyone who would shop in a big box store like Walmart or Home Depot would also shop at most other brick and mortar stores.

[jp1]

Depending on how long covid lasts I suspect that the current crop of "small retail" and "small restaurant/bar" etc may go out of business but others will step up to try their hand. Hope always springs eternal. On the other hand, I was reading an article a few months ago about the destruction of small brewers during prohibition. They just couldn't hang on long enough and no one stepped up to replace them after prohibition so literally decades happened where the only beer available in the US was from the big boys like Annheuser Busch. Hopefully covid won't last as long as prohibition because it will be really depressing if all the small businesses are just gone due to this.

[JaneV2.0]

If small businesses are savvy about online marketing and/or have a niche market, they may do OK.

[Gardnr]

Once you know your size, you're good to go. My clothes come from Talbots or REI. Shoes are REI or Zappos. Bare Necessities for undies (I have a bra size not easily found locally). I buy all this stuff online.

That has not been my experience at all.

[Tammy]

Agreed. There’s no predicting which size will fit me. It’s a 3-4 size range depending on brand.

[iris lilies]

Agreed. There’s no predicting which size will fit me. It’s a 3-4 size range depending on brand.

The size problem is why I hate online shopping.

But several years ago we stopped into a JCPenney store, remember those? Back when there were JCPenney stores that you could actually walk into. Anyway, DH needed pants. There, a sales clerk said seriously “hey you should try these on because just because a waist is marked 34 inches doesn’t mean that it’s really 34 inches.“


Hold the phone Loretta, say what!!???

If men’s sizes can’t be counted on to be what they say they are then all hope is lost.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Covid does really make clear how inefficient for the consumer brick and mortar retail shopping is. Retail shopping is often wandering the isles vainly looking for something, trying to figure out where it might be, and then finding they don't have it anyway (the grocery store will usually have lettuce or whatever, but I don't mean food shopping). And then hitting another shop and doing the same. Yea one thought nothing of it when there wasn't a pandemic going on I guess. But who wants to do that in an era of covid?!

Now I have looked online first before doing so, I'm looking for hand weights, I can't find them to save my life, real shortage (hey all the gyms are closed, not that they are safe to open anyway). So oh well. As always I need little, but hand weights would be nice if any store had them. I'll make do with the few I have. To think I gave them away in fits of decluttering in the past because "i have a gym membership". Decluttering= life of regrets.