The thing I miss most is book shopping. Particularly for technical books. You can't buy them on any basis but recommendation now because it's not worth it for any book store to carry them.
I am hardly ever surprised by what I order online - on the contrary, I know they have it, and I am almost always guaranteed to have good quality. How many brick and mortars have even an agregrate rating of their products listed right next to them? And no brick and mortar can compare with the selection you get online.
The tactile and "sense of place" seem very subjective, especially when you consider that 95% of your time with a product will be spent with it away from where you purchased it.
I'm all for buying locally to keep taxes going to local funding and employing people in my community, but if I go to a brick and mortar and can't find something once, in 5 minutes, I'll never buy it in a brick and mortar again.
> How many brick and mortars have even an agregrate rating of their products listed right next to them?
On this specific point, I have a phone. I don't need (or really want) the store to have this, I can have it any time I want to. When I'm surprised by something in a store, unless it's immediately obvious that it's something that I want and it doesn't suck, there's my phone to tell me if it's a sham.
That said, I went out of my way to point out that I don't think it's better, just different. So yes, it is subjective.
"Honey, what do you want to watch?"
Before Netflix: "let's go to the store, see what we could find. Let's stop on the way, get some ice cream." Invariably you also run into someone you know on the way.
After Netflix: "I dunno, just pick something."
I'm not saying I miss Blockbuster or I under-appreciate the convenience of Netflix. I just miss that tiny sense of adventure.
GP comment does resonate with me though; it's kind of sad that we've lost that. It's likely caused by having a single browsing device/screen.
Hey did you plan on watching Galactica? Sike!