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Comment by fragsworth | Hacker News Reader

Brick-and-mortar stores are doomed. I can only see a few types of products remaining in brick-and-mortars: Clothes that you want to try for size, fruits and vegetables that you want to sample, and restaurants... any others?

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Wouldn't it make sense for a drone to bring you a size to try on? If it's right - you keep it ... if not, you send it back via the drone in exchange for a different size?

Or send multiple at once, keep the one that fits.

My parents still buy EVERYTHING in brick and mortars. I work in a retail store, selling computers and accessories. People tell me it's dead, I can guarantee you it's not. Maybe when our parents generations are gone, but not until then.

Capitalism fetishizes growth, not revenue. If the business isn't growing it will not attract investment dollars, and will quickly have a hard time staying competitive.

Brick and mortars ought to pivot into the showroom business, à la Sony or Apple stores. That is practically what many have become (cough Best buy cough); the least they can do is charge manufacturers/distributors for display space.

That implies that they can get the manufacturers to pay them. BTW, explicit manufacturer showcasing is pretty uncommon today. You have the manufacturers' stores (Apple, Microsoft) and you have some limited showcasing in large retailers like B&H for photo. But it's pretty uncommon.

Furniture is still a bit difficult to evaluate online, and quite complex to deliver.

If I could drone in some furniture and land it on my balcony it would open up a hell of a lot more options than having to get it up my microscopic 3 story staircase.

I think you'd need a helicopter for that - or wait for Amazon Blimp™ airship delivery.

A recent trip to the Westfield Mall showed that's just about happened already. Almost every store there was selling clothing or some other product people would want to try before they buy. I you have to wonder with online delivery becoming the norm if those kinds of retail shops will become more marketing showrooms than drivers of actual sales for brands.

Robotic sewing machines, 3D printers, downloadable textile construction packages, and motion sensors paired with modeling software to try on virtual clothes will someday end retail clothing as well.

The need to sample things by taste (or other senses) could also conceivably end in the near future through downloads of software packages consisting of instructions for chemical synthesis of tastes and appropriate output settings for the sensory simulation hardware. [1]

[1] http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029444.500-electrode...

Why try on clothes? http://www.jhilburn.com/

Why? Because that costs thousands of dollars more for a wardrobe than trying on off-the-rack clothes, and I'm certain it takes longer.

Um, $165 isn't bad for a cashmere sweater (though to be honest I don't know anything about the quality of the stuff on this site). I took note because I don't know of a custom shirt place in Boulder, and I miss the 3 or 4 that were near my place in Houston. I hear professional women really appreciate having nice custom shirts as well.

I'm just saying, if you look at off the rack dress shirts they'll be $30-$60, similarly with most of the other items. Sure, it might be better quality, and it'll certainly fit better, but I can't afford $1600 for ten shirts. $400 sounds a lot better, and I'm not jumping up to run and get that deal either.

That's fair I suppose. I won't argue in favor of spending more just for the privilege of doing so. But A quick look at Banana Republic puts the rack price in the $60 to $125 range, and I'd hope there is a noticeable quality difference between 'fancy gap' and tailored clothing.

The cashmere sweaters aren't custom though.

Correct, but hopefully they'd fit. I have a couple of yak wool sweaters from Khunu, and they run really small. Luckily my first one ended up fitting my girlfriend well enough for her to keep it. The replacement I got fits very well, and is generally amazing (as sweaters go). Now I office out of the same space as one of the co-founders too :)

Heavy items or things you need to buy in bulk - e.g. building and gardening supplies. Where the cost of delivery would be astronomical.

as long as there's free delivery/cheap delivery I would agree. However if the delivery charges are half the price of the item. No thanks, will go my ways finding the same deal in local dealers. Edit: I forgot about pickups, I guess that counts as online. Maybe true, then

bookstores, where one can browse more than the cover and a few pages

What prevents a company from offering a time-limited preview of an ebook?

There's still a fairly large difference between a time limited preview of an ebook and a time limited preview of a book.

What differences, would you say? Of course an ebook is a little less readable, but other than that, I can't think of any major differences.

Wouldn't this be covered by restaurants? Just places where people gather to relax, eat, drink, read, chat quietly.

Jewellery. Tiffany & Co isn't going anywhere.

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