This is Progress?

[Gliderman8]

I've likely posted this before but...

My mother predicted back in the mid-sixties that humans would devolve into piles of protoplasm with one digit, to push the "feed me" button on a computer. :hororr:

Or do this

 

[NutmegCT]

A friend of mine started as a pilot with American back in 1956. Martin 404s, Convair Propliners, DC4 and 6 - all the way to 747 before retirement.

Told me: Eventually the airliner cockpit will only have a human and a monkey. Monkey is trained to keep the human from touching anything. Human is trained to feed the monkey.

TM

 

[NutmegCT]

Or do this

Elliot - that guy has definite administrative potential.

 

[waltesefalcon]

"Sorry, just seems from what I see with the younger generations the physical shopping and interaction experience isn't that important to many of them. My eldest niece and her boyfriend would rather text than turn their heads to talk directly to each other. Sedentary convenience and speed of shopping seem to be the important considerations."

I was just giving you a hard time Mike, I think most of us are in the same boat.

I admit that I am guilty of buying a lot of stuff off of Amazon but for the most part it is to avoid going to Wally World. I prefer a good local hardware store or parts store to ordering via the internet any day.

 

[Popeye]

Conversely, it may be the rise of internet business that brings people back to small towns in the coming years.

The Wallymart model, big box stores and shopping malls are just modern examples of what's been driving people to cities for thousands of years, improved access to jobs, goods and services. In some instances the bigger is better system works.

But we all know bigger doesn't intrinsically mean better. Cities get overcrowded, congestion overpowers the benefits of proximity. They'll never sell enough Airbus A380's to make back the money they spent building them because people don't want to have to travel through centralized hubs anymore. Shopping malls are turning into ghost towns.

People in cities have long complained of the lack of feeling of community, of place, of belonging, that small towns have naturally.

With internet business, you have access to most of the same same commodity goods as everybody in the city but you don't have to deal with the crowds. It may take an extra day or two for delivery, but that's a small price to pay for open space and belonging to a community. Since much of the stuff that used to motivate people to move closer to big retail spaces can be delivered, fewer people will feel the need to be in the city.

Local businesses can concentrate on what's best kept local, services, locally specific goods, perishables, products you need to see and sort though up close and personal.

People once flocked to the suburbs to escape the city life but keep the city jobs. Anyone working in an online profession can live anywhere they want.

Great point! Obviously history will tell, your point makes a lot of sense.

 

[mikephillips]

I was just giving you a hard time Mike, I think most of us are in the same boat.

I admit that I am guilty of buying a lot of stuff off of Amazon but for the most part it is to avoid going to Wally World. I prefer a good local hardware store or parts store to ordering via the internet any day.

Shopping will always happen one way or another. We may not recognize it in a generation. I'm more interested in the slow loss of physical social interaction among parts of the population. It's great we can correspond with like minded hobby or family or political or, who knows individuals all over the world each of us would otherwise never would have met, but for may the tradeoff seems to be knowing those around them. What does that say for the overall fulfillment of the soul?

 

[NutmegCT]

" ... but for many the trade off seems to be knowing those around them."

An earlier thread included the comment that we've got all sorts of high tech ways to communicate, but we've forgotten how. Instead, we trade 140 character texts, 24/7. Phrases tossed back and forth, instead of discussion.

On a slightly different tack, remember when the majority of folks in the USA bought things without actually seeing them first?

Hey - I still have a Wards catalog from 1948.

 

[AngliaGT]

I don't think that page is from the 1948 catalog -
wasn't the World in Black & White back then?

 

[JPSmit]

and weirdly the guy on the right seems to be advertizing clergy wear. Hmmmm

 

[DavidApp]

It must 1948. Look at the prices.

David

 

[Mickey Richaud]

and weirdly the guy on the right seems to be advertizing clergy wear. Hmmmm

I caught that as well...

Hey, I KNOW you're old enough to remember Nehru shirts! :wink:

 

[DrEntropy]

I caught that as well...

Hey, I KNOW you're old enough to remember Nehru shirts! :wink:

I went to my high school prom in a white Nehru jacket...

 

[Gliderman8]

and weirdly the guy on the right seems to be advertizing clergy wear. Hmmmm

Well he is a Man of the Cloth.

 

[JPSmit]

Well he is a Man of the Cloth.

 

[Basil]

Each format has its place. Small towns which can't support a big box store can work for mom-'n-pop and stores like Ace. Local Ace here in Townsend (pop. 450 or so) is doing well. So is the little old "general" store down the road. Lowe's and Home Depot are 25 minutes away, for the items these guys don't carry. My problem with Ace is their limited quantity of a particular item - maybe one or two in inventory at a time. Example: I needed some various sized clamps for the wiring on the Victor TF. Ace store had two packs of two in some of the sizes; problem was that I needed many more than that. So it was either wait for them to order more or drive to Maryville. Wanted to work on the project that day, so off to the big box.

When we first moved to our little town of Edgewood, it was a sleepy little one gas station town with a small mom and pop grocery store and a locally owned hardware and lumber store. Now, 20+ years later, the lumber store is still there but is now owned by a larger chain outfit, and we now have a Walmart (6 or 7th largest in the country), a Walgreens and a Smith's supermarket.

 

[AngliaGT]

I've been going to Kalispell,Montana since the early '70's.
It was a laid back,small city,that I really enjoyed visiting.
Went back a few years ago.All the main streets were widened,
& they had every chain resturaunt & big box store.
I love the area surrounding it,& the incredible scenery,but don't
care for the city itself.I tell people that there's TOO many Californians there.
People want to live in Mayberry,but want all the big city shopping & entertainment.
It doesn't work that way.
WHY do they want to turn it into the place that they wanted out of?

 

[NutmegCT]

Doug - you're describing "the way of the world".

People move to a better place. Then the businesses follow.

"They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot."

 

[PC]

Went to OSH yesterday, partly because I needed some irrigation control cable (they didn't have any) and partly to vulture. I will miss them.

We haven’t had any mom and pop hardware stores for years. But at least Ace and True Value locations are independent/locally owned. They seem to be doing OK around here.

I like going to our local Ace but they usually don’t have what I’m looking for. OSH seemed to hit the sweet spot of having good inventory without being like the big box guys.

One benefit I do get living in the big city is having access is to a good selection of commercial suppliers. I end up doing do a lot of projects without setting foot in a HomeDepLowes. We have a great “chain” (there’s three of them) of industrial hardware stores aimed at factory and facilities’ maintenance (not open evenings or Sundays, but oh well). We have paint stores, lumber yards, tile suppliers, irrigation suppliers, plumbing suppliers, stone yards, tool stores, etc. that cater primarily to professionals. A few, like most electrical suppliers, won’t sell to the public but most will.

 

[JPSmit]

Doug - you're describing "the way of the world".

People move to a better place. Then the businesses follow.

"They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot."

and speaking of not all progress being good progress. ahem.

 

[Basil]

Now that takes me back!