Brick and Mortar

How the buying experience is better in person than via the internet or big box stores. 

I've bought my daughter, who's nine, a lot of shoes at big discount places: Target, Kohl's, Shoe Warehouse. When she was little, that was fine. Now that she's older, it's harder to find shoes that she likes, and that will fit, and hard to keep her size straight. So on Saturday I went to Coffin's Shoes, a venerable Knoxville outfit that's been selling shoes the old-fashioned way since the 1920s. A friendly salesman, who had obviously been doing his job for quite a while, measured her feet, listened to her talk about what she liked, had her try on a couple of shoes made on different-shaped "lasts" to get an idea of what she found comfortable, and then disappeared into the back, reemerging with a stack of shoes for her to try. 

After about half an hour of individual attention, we departed with two new pairs of shoes that she pronounced "the best shoes ever." And, she reported, they were comfortable.

I think about the video store.  I still go to the video store.  I love the video store.  But the video store is dying.  I don't often consult with the employees, usually I know what I want, but occasionally I will.  I'll ask them for recommendations or if a particular title is out, they will suggest, "oh, how about so-and-so."

I think people should still use the video store.  I hate this movement to all digital.  What a waste of time in the end.  Think of the joy you are brought by seeing a good movie vs a bad movie.  How is that capture in sales statistics?  How is it captured online?  And I'm not talking about yelp reviews or internet commentators or this aggregation bullshit.  I'm talking about just saying, dude, "I liked Charley Varrick, what else do you got?"  That's how you see movies -- that's how you find good movies.

People sometimes call me a luddite for taking such positions.  They like Netflix recommendations.  They are nerds.  And worse, they fetishize the promise of the internet versus what works in the real world.  Check out this month's Atlantic cover story about why the future of manufacturing is in America.  (print edition).  Some manufacturing is moving back to the states in some cases because they found it cheaper overall, even though the wages were higher.  Fuel costs, innovations, expertise, pairing engineers with builders all made the process better and more efficient, as opposed to chasing wage cuts by building things in China.

I'm not a luddite, I just don't believe in fixing things that aren't broken.  The video store works.  I wish people would see it.