Amazon created a concrete shortage

[riptides]

....

One day we'll be able to use these commercial "developments" for housing, so I guess it all comes around!

Cities are already looking at that to fill the gap from vacant office and retail space.

 

[Oaktree]

Closing WMs:

Wal-Mart Makes Rare Retreat on Home Turf

That was during a previous political climate as the article is dated Jan. 2016.

I didn't see any mention of it in the article, but as I recall these stores WM were closing back then were a small-format store, not the box stores/supercenters.

How many vacant factories, steel mills, chemical plants, hospitals, schools, shopping malls, office centers, skyscrapers and other places are empty rotting hulks now that were once booming and growing at rapid rates? Yes, these hubs will follow in becoming vacant rotting hulks.

(some snippage)

Vacant Wally Worlds? Check any number of small towns around the country and you'll find at least one. They came in, built a big store, undercut prices of local retailers that eventually caused them to close. Then built new, bigger stores outside of town to get away from the tax regulations and closed the first store, leaving it and the town center to rot, earning them the well deserved moniker of 'town killer'. I refuse to shop there.

No one's forcing you to. Glad you have a lot of other choices of where to shop where you live, not everyone does. As far as in/out of town, don't think I've ever seen a WM that wasn't well outside of downtown. As jyoutz noted, a lot of those businesses that Walmart "killed" were operating like it was still 1970, that's not gonna cut it today.

As far as all the vacant mills, etc. you referenced, yeah times change, businesses fail. Maybe Amazon will eventually meet the same fate as Sears, JC Penney, etc., maybe not. Depends on how well they adapt to changing times. Sears was the Amazon of the 20th century, but they took their eye off the ball.
I use Amazon. They're a lifesaver for those of us who live in rural America. Huge selection of 'most anything you could ever need/want, delivered within a week or so. Stuff that would take forever to find in a brick & mortar store. I don't think they're going anywhere in my lifetime.

 

[TheMan419]

A nearby fulfillment center won't change the fact that Amazon intentionally waits 3 to 4 days to ship anything now. They baited everyone with two day shipping then changed the terms to two days AFTER they process your order. Everything is a week or more out now.

I get virtually everything I order from Amazon the next business day if not the next day including Saturday and Sunday. They tell you right in the check out when your expected delivery is. They try to push you into taking a later delivery but you can click on the little radio button to change that.

 

[PuffyC]

Most local retailers demise is of their own fault. Small businesses still operate as if it’s 1970. They are closed when I drive to work in the morning, and closed when I drive home in late afternoon. So I shop at Wally World and other big boxes because they are actually open in the evenings when I have time to shop. I hear the same story from many other folks. Busy people often don’t have time to shop during the hours of 8-5. We can’t buy anything from a business that is closed.

This so much. I’ve yet to see a Main St business go under that wasn’t begging to do so. They want to do things the way they want to do things and customers be damned, but that only works if there’s no competition. You ignore customers long enough and eventually someone else is going to come take them from you.

Our nearest town has a mom and pop lumber yard/hardware store that’s actually pretty decent. The problem is they close at 5:00 on weekdays, noon on Saturday and aren’t open at all on Sundays. It’s like they don’t want people shopping there. And when Home Depot comes and puts them out of business they will squeal like pigs about the evil mega corps killing small town life.

 

[Dftodd]

Mills are only designed for a life span of about 50 to 70 years.

Especially paper mills. Then they really become a hazard for the employees and environment.

Tanks and infrastructure break down. As well as contaiments and water clarification issues.

They start requiring serious amounts of money to keep them a float. At a certain point there isn't a choice but to shut down the facility, clean up the property, and walk away from it.

 

[Jchonline]

Where are there empty Walmart stores? I have yet to see one that doesn’t have a parking lot full of customers.

We had one close in a city on the Front Range a few years ago (Boulder). Not a full size one, but they closed it down. Great location...still vacant. Probably because everyone there is well off enough to shop at Whole Foods all the time.

 

[ruffdog]

Here is the list of Walmarts that closed.....10 were supercenters.

Is Your Wal-Mart Closing?

 

[Jchonline]

That is what will happen here. Plus the influx of new people.

We had a well balanced community with plenty of jobs and not too much congestion. My only saving grace is I am retired and I can just go the opposite way to Georgia for my shopping. The younger working class will get stuck in the traffic jams and be stressed out when they get to work.

I just hate seeing a well balanced community destroyed by greed and bad decisions by a few. I could give a damn if packages arrive earlier if the cost is heavy traffic and foolish drivers.

I agree I like the big warehouses to be smack in the middle of the big cities. Not in suburbs or outlying communities.

 

[newbury]

Closing WMs:

Wal-Mart Makes Rare Retreat on Home Turf

Updated Jan. 15, 2016 7:22 pm ET

Can you at least find a source from this decade?

 

[ap0915]

Most local retailers demise is of their own fault. Small businesses still operate as if it’s 1970. They are closed when I drive to work in the morning, and closed when I drive home in late afternoon. So I shop at Wally World and other big boxes because they are actually open in the evenings when I have time to shop. I hear the same story from many other folks. Busy people often don’t have time to shop during the hours of 8-5. We can’t buy anything from a business that is closed.

That and they still keep such a small inventory on hand, so half the time I need something they say “we can order it for you.” That worked in the 90s and early 2000s before e-commerce took off, but nowadays there’s no point in going to their store if I know I’ll probably have to special order something- I’ll save myself the trip the order it myself on the internet.