I read a story on WWL TVs website earlier regarding the challenges at Esplanade Mall in Kenner. Unfortunately, this national trend will continue. Malls are facing stiff competition from the PC mall and other digital venues which never previously existed. Retail shopping is growing at the home and work desktop not at the brick and mortar store front. We are all guilty of this. Unfortunately this growing trend has drastic impacts: 1) less demand for commercial real estate 2) less jobs to be filled 3) less tax revenue for important services such as police and fire protection 4) less work for companies that support mall operations At some point in the future the playing field for retailers is going to have to be made more competitive without giving the advantage to out of state companies operating via a website that do little to support our local economy. The overall impact of retail trends such as this have far reaching consequences. In my lifetime the Internet and digital expansion has put print media in jeopardy, left movie rental stores shuttered, more personal hand written letters replaced by emails and text, and hard copy encyclopedias ancient just to name a few. The shame of the entire situation is the US Postal Service which continues to bleed green at excessive rates really missed the boat with the parcel expansion created by the Internet retail craze. I get that email and online bill pay has reduced typical first class postage mail. However one parcel rate is enough to cover dozens of lost postage stamp sales.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 06:59:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015