Update - Charles Hill at Dustbury started a discussion from this too. He added that time is a component, especially in our busy lives. And one of his commenters pointed out that some stores (Circuit City and Best Buy among them) are encouraging people to purchase online and pick up in a nearby store, thereby saving delivery charges and getting people into the physical presence of presumably-irresistible items. Dynamic change is underway. It will be interesting to see how this all evolves.

What do you think? Should local brick and mortar stores charge a "browsing fee"? I have two reasons for even thinking such a thing. One is that although shopping is not consigned to the seventh circle of hell for me (see yesterday's post), some malls are so full of really awful stores that it's just not fun to shop there. For example, the best of our three local malls (I use the word "best" very advisedly) has eighteen sneaker stores, thirty-six visor-hat stores, twelve "rave" type of clothing stores, a Sears, a Target, bunches of Limiteds and Gaps, a Filenes, a Best Buy, and an Old Navy. I'm exaggerating the numbers but the proportions are right and the downscaleness is notable. K-Mart and Wal-Mart anchor the other two malls - get the picture? Since we're less than ninety minutes from New York City, you'd think more upscale stores would be eager for our filthy lucre and build here. With the exception of two small book stores, a couple of jewelry and 'objets' stores, and three yarn stores, anything other than mall stores are an hour or more away. Noted blogger, Andrea Harris, who despises crowds and has only sparingly good things to say about the mall near her, has a store called Teavana in her mall and I am exceedingly jealous. Which leads to the second reason why I'm thinking that local stores maybe should start charging a look-and-wander fee. The only way many of us can do fabulous shopping is to shop online. Which removes the immediacy, the touching and seeing, and the fun adrenaline rush of really good search-and-find shopping. And it's unfair to the local merchants who make huge efforts but can't lower their prices. Only a small proportion of our shopping dollars are spent locally any more. We check out things like books and digital cameras in local stores - feel them, see them, weigh them, etc. - then get wider choices and better prices plus get them delivered into our hands by buying online. It's logical and understandable but seems economically and ethically icky. So what's the answer?

Labels: blogs (others'), shopping