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Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

With the failure of many of the big retailers, have we hit a point where we will start seeing less retail?

We hit that point starting in about 2000, just after the internet started to gain a foothold in the retail market and just as the retail scene was peaking. The real question is, is this a permanent crash or a mere correction?

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Minimum wage will be $15/hr next year. That will deliver an even bigger blow.

Adjusted for inflation, $15 an hour is still less than Sears employees made in the 1980s. I have a friend who worked in the women's clothing department in Sears in the early 1990s and got paid just over $10 an hour (minimum wage at the time was about $5). Retail jobs used to be permanent jobs, now they're seen as throwaway jobs even thought they continue to be vital to society. (Imagine your day if every retail employee you interacted with ceased to exist—including the ones behind the scenes who stock shelves, ship goods and enter data. It's significant!)

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Seriously, how many different places do you need that sells the-same-thing?

It's not necessarily that they're selling the same thing, but that they've failed to differentiate themselves. They're not just selling the same thing (stores have for a long time), they're doing the same things to attract the same people.

The stores that close are typically closing because they simply haven't followed the trend closely enough and customers drifted away.

And while general retail is failing, it seems like the home renovation stores (Lowes, Home Depot, Home Hardware and Rona) are all doing quite well. Canadian Tire I have some concerns about considering actions they've taken at the corporate level but they're not doing badly.

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

We all want the cheapest. Are we also causing this mess too?

Yes. But still, you have to put most of the responsibility on companies that can choose between a product made by well-paid employees in a good work environment or one made by poorly-paid employees in a poor work environment and choose the latter. Most of us end up paying for those cheap purchases anyway; cheaper goods aren't made to last. Part of why Walmart has so many sales is because their products break and people go and buy a new one, often from the same store. There is almost a market incentive for businesses to sell shitty products instead of good ones because it guarantees they're sell the same product again sooner. A $500 fridge sale every 5 years from one customer makes a lot more money than a $1500 fridge sale once every 20 years. The local kijiji is filled with free leather couches because the plastic coating (!!) is peeling off of them after a year and they originally paid $1000 for the set (which is just how much a decent living room set cost in 1990). Cheap costs money and people don't realize it until it's too late.