Why shopping in-person matters
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
During the upcoming festive season, people engage in shopping to a way higher degree than most will at any other point of the year. It is no surprise to any of us in the modern age that there has been a large movement away from traditional retail stores to check boxes off of birthday and holiday lists, and turning to finding and buying these goods online. E-commerce is a foundational pillar of the Internet age, with many of the biggest online companies in the world, such as Amazon, being companies based on acquiring, purchasing, and shipping various products. While more convenient for many people, is it better that society has moved to this more streamlined version of shopping? Or will this reliance lead to a dissolvement of one of America’s largest industries?
Retail is one of the world’s most fundamental industries, employing multi-millions of people nationwide. How, then, does this online competition negatively impact this field? Well, the most notable hit is that of the job market. Many of these in-person retail companies have been forced to drastically downsize, with many of them being confronted with closing some of their locations. This reduction in the number of retail stores and the semi-regular closing down of these stores is seriously reducing the number of entry-level jobs available nationwide. It is thought that around 1,000 jobs are lost every quarter, and this ends up impacting communities that are already in financial need the most: College students, the elderly, former felons, or those who have low levels of completed education because many of these jobs only require you to have a high school degree—if even that.
Shopping malls and retail stores are rapidly declining, while department stores like Walmart and Target have stolen customers’ hearts over the years. Online shopping has become a popular source of purchasing clothing, shoes, accessories, and other products. A wider range of products is available online, making it more convenient to shop at home than to make a trip to the nearest outlet mall. The amount of products includes a wide range that differs from shuffling through a small selection of clothing at in-person stores.
Malls have also struggled to keep up with the change in fashion trends, leaving fast fashion the most convenient route for many customers. Fast fashion brands like Shein, Temu, ASOS, H&M, and dozens of other brands release new clothing collections about every other week.
The over-consumption of fast fashion is causing a rise in textile waste and pollution. Fast fashion brands use cheap, low-quality materials like polyester, nylon, spandex, and other synthetic fibers. Materials like polyester, one of the most commonly used low-quality materials, allow brands to keep their prices low and distribution of labor even lower. Unsurprisingly, these cheaply made products come at the cost of cheap labor in developing countries. These companies disregard the fact that these garment workers are not being paid a livable wage.
This does not go for all malls. There are some malls that are still flourishing as they are convenient for customers who want to shop at multiple stores in one location. But it is undeniable that online shopping has taken a toll on the amount of jobs being lost, businesses being shut down, and how much textile waste we are creating. There are more sustainable ways to shop for clothing, in-person and online.