Polar vortex is here. I'm going to be outside at a customer site working on some equipment.
Need a hat. Something thick and furry.
We have an actual "indie millinery shop" in my city. Yay! Support your local merchant!
No winter hats. If I wanted a $399 Super Duper Hats Albino Fedora 100% rabbit fur felt fedora I could get it in an hour but no winter hats.
So then I went to Bass Pro, JCPenney, Sears, Nordstrom, Dick's, Macy's, Eddie Bauer, Burlington, Target, and finally REI.
Only a handful of them had any winter hats and none of them had any men's adult-sized hats in stock. Not even a beanie.
On Tuesday, January 29th at 6:57pm I left REI after having wasted over three hours going to 11 retailers and I got into my car. While in the REI parking lot I ordered a winter hat and gloves from Amazon for $45 with Prime next day delivery.
They were delivered at 3:03pm the next day. Before the sub-zero temperatures.
This keeps happening over and over again, I stopped being a "grazing" shopper over a decade ago and only buy specific items after research.
No retailers seem to be adapting, just racing to the bottom.
Burlington looked like a nightmarish blindingly brightly-lit hellscape with garbage that had already failed to sell at Target being strewn about as old ladies picked through it.
As far as I'm concerned, brick and mortar is dead.
edit: to be fair, if I wanted a SWAT-team/bank robber balaclava that covered my entire face, the sporting goods stores had me covered. I prefer that people I'm interacting with at work see my face.