I was watching a different online streaming channel today and they advertised Carvana, so you can order your cars online and have them delivered to your door with 7 day money back guarantee and Rock Auto Parts with parts to anything delivered to your door. Both skip middle men and save on the overall purchase price. My thoughts were this though, if the trend of online shopping continues, and I think it will, look at all the jobs that will be lost. It's not only the actual employees at retail / grocery stores, but there are lawn companies, janitorial services, services to upkeep the brick and mortar building........what is going to happen to all those business' and their employees as well? Where will this leave our society regarding available jobs in 5 - 10 years?
I wonder about that, too. Recently I watched a documentary on Netflix called "American Factory," about the Chinese Fuyao Glass Company moving into the old GM facility at Dayton Ohio. Very depressing, IMO. The contrast between American workers and their Chinese counterparts is stunning, and not in a good way.
@Beth Gallagher "The contrast between American workers and their Chinese counterparts is stunning, and not in a good way." Reflecting upon American workers' habits vs. Chinese? Frank
Work ethic, mainly. (But lots of other factors; work safety, unions, etc.) If you have Netflix, check it out. (I don't want to drag Bess's thread off topic.)
I know all forums have the 'stay on topic' rule. It never makes sense to me, because as I said previously, real conversations don't work like that. So...................drag it wherever you want!
I hope this continues with the ops thought about job loss due to online shopping. I think it's safe to say automation is the main driver of online shopping being successful. The op pointed out many service jobs are being eliminated due to the ability to look online for a need or want, choose it, then have it delivered. That Amazon modern adaptation of Henry Ford automating is real & service job loss is real. I don't want this to become political but when I looked up jobs under Trump & found this I think it's relevant to job loss. https://qz.com/1347200/the-jobs-created-under-trump-are-different-than-under-obama/ The text didn't impress me but the charts did. Service jobs under Obama increased Service jobs under Trump are decreasing while manufacturing jobs under Trump increased. No doubt service jobs are needed but job loss in service jobs IMO was & is a no brainer. Trump can't stop companies from innovating to reduce cost. Obama promoting service jobs as the future of America didn't seem the way to go for me. What the future holds depends on far more factors than I have the ability to imagine.
I had no idea Carvana had been around and people actually bought cars they hadn't driven. I sure wouldn't.
No kidding. There are also online websites for selling used motorhomes and RVs. I can't imagine buying something that expensive without ever seeing it, and sometimes having to travel hundreds of miles to pick it up. Speaking of Carvana, this was one of my favorite commercials; it gave me an ear-worm for days.