online retail offers the convenience and economy - but some of the benefits of a busy shopping area

Now is the time of year when columnists are supposed to look into crystal balls. Not be able to find a device in your local Apple store, all this columnist can do is speculate on the consequences of certain facts which are very visible.

Online Shopping

, for example. At first glance, the main streets & Co confirms that Amazon is beginning to make inroads into the urban landscape. Operating costs of a store of brick and mortar - the rent, rates, inventory, theft and treatment - with very thin margins of most retailers (excluding Apple and other suppliers Luxury) meant that it was a knife company at best. But the combination of recession and increased competition online is proving to be too much for some retailers, while the main streets are beginning to look toothless.

And that raises some interesting questions. Venture into the city on Dec. 27 to meet someone for coffee, I was surprised to find the center of the crowded city. This led to the idea that, for many people, shopping is clearly a physically important social activity - what actors call "retail therapy". But if so, what if the purchase is increasingly moving online? The "social" in the commercial triumph of physical comfort and economy of the Internet? Or the economy of retail online counterpart relentless crush of Main Street

If anyone doubts the aggressiveness of Amazon & Co, then they did not pay attention. There was an outcry in the United States, for example, a smartphone application that allows visitors to the Amazon in physical stores to scan bar codes on merchandise to determine how much cheaper it can be purchased at the even online. In a special promotion before Christmas, Amazon has offered a credit of 5% on purchases resulting from the application (up to $ 5 per item and up to three items). "Everybody Amazon stores," said the cartoon was with Richard Russo

There are two ways to do so. The first is that competition is always good and more competition is better. Jessops If, for example, may not, for example, the Amazon price, the worse for Jessops and the best for us. The other view is that there is more to life - and society - that almost perfect competition without friction caused by the network: jobs for people in their own communities, for example, and urban vitality social skills that come from having stores close to lively cafes, restaurants, etc.

One of the strangest things about Amazon is that people still seem to have realized the magnitude of the ambition of its founder. When Jeff Bezos founded the company in 1995, initially focused on books, because - unlike, for example, clothing - the books were things people would buy without having to hold the goods. But his goal is not to large libraries of the time, such as Borders or Barnes & Noble. Bezos was thinking much bigger: Amazon.com, Wal-Mart has seen cyberspace - a store that sells everything and took care of its customers from cradle to grave. Statistics for this holiday season retail quickly confirm what is being done there.

In fact, there is no need to wait for the statistics. Round lead at the approach of Christmas, I was struck by the number of trucks that were still in the suburbs of routes: vehicles include Parcelforce, UPS, City Link and other big names in service delivery but also many white vans with harassment future drivers looking house numbers. What made you wonder about the environmental implications of the transition to online shopping. It's the carbon footprint of all servers in the clouds, warehouses and delivery trucks larger than the typical purchase? Or smaller? The answer is that no one knows - yet. But one day we will discover. Happy New Year!

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