[barnesto]

guess we're not going to talk about the effect of e-commerce? it's nothing but hot takes about property owners around here.

it costs less money to have an online store than a brick and mortar. the pandemic has brought about a permanent work from home mentality, leaving office space vacant. people make more from the gov't than working in retail or hospitality - businesses are going out of business at the highest rates we've ever seen as a country.

but it's the landlords.

[yeuxardents]

Its anecdotal of course, but many people in my age bracket 20-40 would much prefer to be able to say FU to amazon and walk to the local downtown and be able to peruse physical shops. They understand the socialization and 'home town support' that the loss of these shops and the rise of ecommerce begets.

eg. I know many people in this age bracket who would love to take a chance on one of these empty shops and create their own inspired shop of some kind, but the costs are absurdly prohibitive, namely rent and taxes, so instead, the downtown area of so many towns remain empty and desolate. startup capital costs even in semi middle of nowhere are too high to even create a 10 seat specialty cafe or anything like that