The beginning of the end for Physical Retail

This isn't necessarily a bad thing but I do believe it's time to start identify the chess pieces that are being moved on the board

I put this under the Above Politics section as I believe that Politics have everything to do with this movement towards the end of physical Retail.

Where I grew up, it was a small country town and back over 25 years ago, the state funded school was being used to trial all new and contravercial programs for the rest of the state schools.

I'm talking about things like video's promoting homosexuality and safe sex practices to year 4 and 5 students etc..

Now if you look at Australia, it's typically being used as a testing grounds for a lot of tactics and policies and programs that are then setting the "new benchmark" for other countries.

I'm not talking about positive innovations but more the Democratic Dictatorship we are now living under etc..

The government have pushed the internet and started to promote it's use throughout the country it becomes clear that they are behind this shift away from people working physical jobs and are looking at people working virtual / digital jobs to be the way of the future for the retail sector initially.

Before you can officially milk a global economy, you must first legislate and govern it.. which is why we keep seing new pushes to lock down the public's usage of the internet and to enforce punishments for "cyber crime".

Out of the millions of people using Facebook, how many have suicided as a result of cyber bullying? maybe a handful..

My point is that whilst it's sad it happens, it's also sad when a todler gets hit by a car outside of the school grounds.. or any other random tragic event. and that there are far more seirous issues in the real world that should be demanding media attention but this kind of thing is being pushed in front of the general public quite frequently to groom our minds to perceive that more legislation should be introduced to define how the public use the internet.

So where am I going with all of this. Well, on another front, we see the chess pieces moving into place with the increases in wages and living costs in Australia courtesy of the Carbon Tax and the lack of import taxes on goods below the value of 1400 dollars (or there abouts) All of this is putting digital retail into the spotlight as the best way to obtain goods and crippling local retail.

When local retail falls down, people will be forced to look for work elsewhere and as more retail closes down.. their only options will be to look for work in the digital realm.

I will add more later on but would like to hear other peoples thoughts on all of this and if they see what I see or how they see it differently.

I too are here in Ausralia.I am seeing some serious shift's in retail and the internet.With the economy in shambles,people are searching and purchasing online to save.Cost savings are large as internet vendors have no physical rent and even limited staff if any in many cases (think of this as a lost leader sale for now).
There has been a staged kind of trend/evolution in this area.As you say a testing ground.Over the last few years some large direct to the public food wholesalers have appeared in the market place claiming to challange the Big Two Supermarket chains.Their locations are limited and not in the best demographics,so I find this questionable for a start. These heavy discounted goods are not alternitive brands.Simply close to expiry date items offered at a lower rate in bulk (I suspect these are not competing companies but clearance warehouses for the Big Two).Around two years ago they started offering online purchasing.Now the Big Two also offer this as well as The Big Two variety stores.KMart and Big W.

Around 5 years ago,all of these stores introduced automatic self check out's.I hated them then and I hate them now.When they first came in, I bypassed them(don't like technology) and went to a cashier.I was accosted by a shop assistant telling me, YES TELLING ME! Not asking,too go through the auto check out.She was so excited about the new gadget she was near worshipping it in her zeal.I stopped and looked at her and said YOU STUPID WOMAN! I'LL DEAL WITH A HUMAN BEING! YOU ARE A BLOODY IDIOT,THAT MACHINE IS YOUR REPLACEMENT! and she just looked at me ,well like an IDIOT.These stores once had thirty check out's.Now you are lucky to have 3 opperating.All those jobs gone.Anyway I digress.

Back on topic,yes I see we are being pushed/driven in the virtual direction.I suspect this is part of introducing a cashless,electronic currancy.One where they get their tax on every transaction.I suspect a one world carbon currency. Australian's need to research the carbon currancy experiment being trialed by force on Norfolk Island.

As for those losing their jobs.They won't be retrained or re-employed.They will just be used as cannon fodder for what's comming.

Thank you for your very detailed and interesting contribution to this topic. I'm pretty surprised in some aspects that this is not being jumped on over less tangible threats like aliens or comets that may possibly hit our planet.

If you look at the online gaming industry, I believe that this gives us a small window of view to the future of online work. Outside of the Adult Content Industry, gaming is the 2nd biggest (low overheads) source of e-commerce that I am aware of. if you look at how China has employed their workers to mine for minerals in virtual worlds as though they are battery hens etc..

I don't think that everyone will be forced to work in that kind of environment but the very concept of earning a living through a computer and as was pointed out by Zodiac.. the lead up to the one world currency.

People have been on the look out for a physical one world currency which they will clearly miss. Right now we are actually at war.. and it's not guns, it's not even the (what i think is total garbage) Anonymous scandal, it's our very rights to freedom.

Imagine it like this... the internet is another world, a realm of vast open space and land of opportunity, and this land of opportunity will soon be a prison cell for all human beings governed by a single entity.. the only positives to this are :

1 - Freedom to travel, as we will not have a physical workspace.. we can travel and work flexi-hours

2 - Service Businesses will still have physical jobs (if you offer a service, you can still keep a physical job **for now**

however even this is being challenged with the introduction of the 3d Printing technology.

We will soon see our food being printed out from starch based substances with injected nutrients and flavours... we will see cars being printed on demand.. closing down car repair shops and many other services...like this.

all of these things will be able to be done via the internet.

it's not just for websites and facebook.. social interraction is just the beginning.

Again, I look forward to further input from others and am interested to see if they feel this is really where the governments are pushing towards or if this is all just a small piece to an even bigger chess board that I've overlooked. (i'm sure it is but lets see what others have to add to this)

I can tell you one thing, dollar stores, clothing stores and any store that makes it really convenient to buy stuff frequently are here to stay. Stores like Best Buy, Frys, and Gamestop will all die out soon, maybe within 10-years and that's being generous. I do like buying things online but it'll be strange to tell our future generation that we used to walk a few miles to the store or drive across town just for this or that and not use the internet.

I'm prepared for the shift but as long as I get my holodeck to try things out