It wasn’t that going to Blockbuster was an inconvenience. Those things were like modern day Starbucks where you don’t even bother to check a map. You just drive in one direction for three or four minutes and find at least two. Hell, the one we went to was across the parking lot from the Pathmark and it was pretty common for mom to send me and my sister to go pick out a movie or a game while she went through the checkout line.
The reality is that there just wasn’t a good alternative. Some people would use mail order catalogs but those came out with enough of a delay that it was never worth it. This month (or quarter’s) magazine arrives three weeks after Mission Impossible has hit VHS. And by the time the order is sent and arrives, it has been another two weeks. And then you either have a video for a week longer than you need or you need to remember to go to the post office on Monday.
It was The Internet that made this viable because you could see what was available the moment it was available. And your order was instant so you only had the shipping time to worry about.
But also? Once The Internet became available, there was almost no need to stare at shelves to figure out what movie you wanted to watch (I hear Harvey Keitel hangs dong in that one) because you could do exactly that from the comfort of your own home… so long as you weren’t expecting a phone call.
And it is not like people ever truly hated the idea of physical stores. Clothes shopping online is still a mess and that is why Amazon specifically have easily reasealable bags so you just buy three sizes of pants and return the two that don’t fit.
But also? Once you know the sizing for a given brand/range of clothes, you don’t need to do that anymore. You know what to order in what size and it will fit. Maybe you have to try stuff on if you try a new brand/store but…
Which becomes a problem because all those brick and mortar stores are now getting a few sales a month, rather than a couple dozen per day.
Which is also one of the things that make me (mostly) proud to be a climber. Obnoxious trust fund dirtbags aside, the vast majority of us will try to buy at least some of our hardware and gear at an REI or (better yet) an actual local store. Because yes, we are getting gouged a bit. But it means that the store will be there when we need to decide between four or five options or get fitted for snow shoes or whatever.