Amazon Is Crushing Main Street and Threatening the Vitality of Our Communities

[GreatGazoo]

16. cars killed the buggy business, the "dime" store killed the general store,

airlines destroyed the passenger railroad business (in the US), personal computers destroyed the typewriter industry.

Player pianos put a lot of musicians out of work before the 78 record made music even cheaper and easier, then cassettes killed reel-to-reel before themselves being killed off by recordable CDs and now MP3.

The internet has destroyed many other businesses. Newspapers are dying rapidly now. Cable TV is fighting internet delivery of video media. And the internet eats its own too -- Google killed Yahoo, FaceBook killed MySpace. TimeWarner nearly tanked altogether when it overpaid for AOL (because TW's grey suits didn't realize AOL was already dead). Amazon's days are numbered but these things never go backward, the genie never goes back into the bottle.

The article describes a world totally reliant on Christmas shopping -- it tells us that "hundreds of small Main Street shops" can't make it without the once a year pop of Black Friday (?) I live in a small town, a strange small town but 5,000 people and a vibrant Main street. The stores that do the best are in no danger from Amazon because they serve their customers year-round. Two coffee shops, two bakeries, the wine store, the combination bookstore/art supplies/brew pub with wifi, the drug store, the vegan pizza place, the wine bar, the independent movie theater, and the beloved thrift store are all safe this year from any door busting, debt escalating madness.