Final Blog Post

Online shopping vs. Local Store Shopping

This research paper will be based on online shopping. Trendy right it’s what most people do nowadays to buy their clothes and even get their groceries any type of goods that you can think of can be found online but it has become an issue to local independent stores. Who cares? right if you put thought into it there are many citizens who no longer have the ability to online shop either it’s because they don’t have a debit or credit card or because they no longer have the knowledge to online shop so they depend on local stores around them which is why it is important to do face to face shopping in local interdependent stores so they don’t run out of business. Although online shopping is a threat to local independent stores, access to services like delivery for those who don’t have easy access to local store is provided which indicates that more local stores should invest on an entry to online services.

Online shopping can be a threat in many ways but most importantly it is a threat on local stores. After reading and article title “How Is Online Shopping Affecting Retail Employment?” by Jason Bram and Nicole Gorton it argues“ It’s been said that if you want to know how the economy is doing, look at how many people are carrying shopping bags. That adage may not hold so well today. The rise of the internet and e-commerce over the past two decades has chipped away at the market share of “brick and mortar” retailers. But it’s only been in the past few years that this shift in market share has had a noteworthy effect on retail employment(Bram, Gorton)”and reasons to stores are running out of business because people are actively shopping online for sales and better prices which local stores are not offering . Another reason why local stores are losing business is because as the text argues You can search for the desired item in seconds and once it’s been located, it’s a simple matter to see whether it’s in stock and what the delivery time is going to be this is proving that whenever someone is looking for items they can search for it and find what store is in stock and fits to a delivery date that satisfies them because you can’t trust that a local store has it because it might say they do on the website but once you get their they will tell you that their out of stock which is what triggers people into ordering their things online because it is more convenient and prevents them from going out for no reason because they are being guaranteed that it is there and they are also receiving a delivery date without having to go through many stores hoping to find what you are looking for. Liberty Street Economics

 

Online shopping:

 

In this image we see an elder shopping online looking at several items which is why some stores have gone out of business because some people tend to find better prices online and they are able to compare them to prices from different websites which is hard to do when your already purchasing an item face to face and you really don’t have much options.

Access to services like online shopping for those who don’t have easy access to local stores are very beneficial. Delivery is very convenient for customers because it makes it easier for you for the following reasons it is delivered to your foot step, no crowd, no sales pressure and it gives you the chance to order thing you might not be willing to buy in a local store because it might be private it is always easier to compare prices too. After reading this small article about the pros of online shopping titled “The pros and cons of online shopping” by Donna L. Montaldo where she expresses “Point-of-sale advantages include stores offering no shipping charges and free ship-to-store options. A lot of online stores do not pass on sales tax (unless required by the state) to customers, which can add up to substantial savings for those shoppers who buy primarily online. (Montaldo)” this part of the article interest me because I didn’t even realize that we do really save money when we online shop because in every store tax is charged sometimes even with items that are food which makes no sense. Another reason to why people find online shopping an advantage is because as the article says “The stores are almost never closed (Montaldo)” which is a reasonable reason to why more people would order online if they need something and the local store is closed we have sources like Amazon that allow us to have amazon prime that delivers to us within one or two days for sure and anything you are looking for you can find it there.

Delivery to your doorstep:

This is an image of someone signing for their delivery items at their door steps. This method satisfies so many customers because of the fact that they don’t have to come out of their house and they can prevent so much chaos.

Local stores should provide online access to their stores. Don’t you wonder why most local stores don’t well it might be more work for them and they will need a person to receive the deliveries by phone and by another person that gathers the items and deliver it. In this article “9 Groceries that will deliver to your doorstep” by Natalie Schulte I discovered that there are some local stores that deliver to you Rome the same day they are most food companies but it does save you a trip. “Costco is now providing delivery on-demand through Instacart, and the best part is, you don’t even have to have a Costco membership to use this service. Get all the bulk food you want with this new feature. Did I mention that your food will arrive within an hour? Yeah (Schulte)” this is a very common store that many families go to and they food shop for big quantity of thing and it is a good privilege that they are providing this opportunity because there are many people that might not be able to get their because they don’t have a source of transportation and it does also help you save time or gives you time to deal with any other errand to you have to run while your food is being gathered and delivered.

In conclusion online shopping isn’t that great for the most part a lot of things can go wrong and sometimes there are cases in which you can’t do anything about them. For instance what if the website you are shopping from is fraud for people to steal your card information and if they go through with methods like this you can lose a lot of money which is why you always have to be alert if you are shopping online making sure if the websites are official. In this article “The pros and cons of online shopping” by Donna L. Montaldo is shows us how online shopping is a disadvantage by saying “Sometimes a deal that looks great falls short of what has been advertised. Communicating dissatisfaction can be difficult online and often takes enormous patience and tenacity to achieve satisfaction. Problem-solving face-to-face with local store employees is often faster and more satisfying. Contacting the next level of management is much easier at local stores than online.(Montaldo)” meaning that sometimes online website do fake advertisement to make the product look better than it might be to trick you into buying it and that if there’s any type of issue that you need assistance with you’ll be attended better at the store because you can ask to speak to a manager face to face and most likely your issue will be solved unlike online customer service that sometimes websites don’t even have phone numbers to call and you have to email then the issue and just wing till is it revised and they reply back with further steps on what to do with your situation which is just way more work that talking to a supervisor face to face. To further explain how I will be making my map for this research paper I will be plotting strips of local stores in Washington heights and I will also be plotting area in which don’t have local stores. After writing this research paper I have realized how my own life experiences will change further on I am use to online shopping for clothes and face to face shopping for food but there has been a couple of bad experiences that I Have been threw with online shopping one was not getting my birthday dress on time and another was never receiving a bathing suit I ordered over the summer and the website had no customer service number and they never answered my emails so with that being said I have learned my lesson that it is not always safe to do online shopping for thing I can go to the store and get to come to a conclusion beware on what websites you shop from and it it’s possible to get it at a local store do so.