[RickS]

This seems like a quick no - brick and mortar retail (what I take your title's "locations" to mean) exists only because sufficient information can't always be gathered online.

Many people go to retail locations only to confirm details for later online purchases. This is already happening and has a name - "showrooming".

VR will close this gap by bringing the retail location TO the home.

For example: I don't buy clothes online because it's important to see how they fit on me specifically before pulling the trigger. VR that could do this sufficiently well would totally end my shopping at physical retail locations.

Rephrased as "VR shopping will be a larger market than living room entertainment", it's a more plausible/even discussion and I don't have as strong an opinion.

[paulcole]

>For example: I don't buy clothes online because it's important to see how they fit on me specifically before pulling the trigger. VR that could do this sufficiently well would totally end my shopping at physical retail locations.

Hate to burst your bubble, but quality control from mass market clothing brands is going to keep this from becoming reality. Levi's, for example can vary several inches between garments of the same listed size.

[JimmyAustin]

I suspect it's cheaper to tighten the thresholds then to pay for multiple retail outlets.

[paulcole]

I'd wager that it probably isn't. Too much variation in fabric, manufacturing, etc. might just make it impossible for hugely mass-produced clothing to have really low variability.

Sure, opening more stores might be very expensive, but it's a known cost and a goal that's known to be achievable.