Regarding online shopping, why are some brick and mortar stores thriving, and some dying?

Driving/walking distance might factor in. Costco in my city is out in the edge of town, and costs $25 or more for a taxi one way. I’m not spending $50 plus for a $5 cooked rotisserie chicken even if it is the best in the planet. Walmart doesn’t have the good cuts of beef that I love and isn’t worth the taxi fare, but I like the bulk XXL socks underwear and t-shirts for cheap.
I can order out from Amazon and “Skip the Dishes” for most of my discretional extra money that I have at the end of the month. I only go to grocery stores for good meat, toilet paper, and milk and not much else. If I can get the chicken delivered then I would order out , but that would mess up Costco’s bottom line with the $5 as a draw. Edited.
Chapters overwhelms me and I prefer to order on Amazon, also is expensive for the taxis from being so far at the edge of town. Edited again.

Meat and custom fitted clothing will still be needed in person to ensure quality, for now. Edited again.

Many brick-and-mortar retailers kill themselves through piss-poor management and failure to adapt to shifting trends. Look Sears, for example. Sears had already sat on its ass as Walmart overtook it as the largest retailer in the United States. However, they were in a prime position to latch on to and dominate online retailing, thanks to their catalog business (of which they’d been the big dog in the game for a century). Instead what do they do right as the internet is beginning to become a household thing? They kill their catalog division.

Being disabled, online is a huge benefit to me.
As a worldwide shopper, I would love a virtual shopping experience, to include an option to “visit” the store with an opening video of the store and virtual walk-through. It would be cool, with worldwide shopping to see who/where one is buying from.

I agree that failed businesses are often the fault of the business in question. Perhaps such personalization would help some of the remaining stragglers.

People have less time now. The average adult with kids is working and dealing with dropping their kids off at things, and understandably exhausted. I’ve said for years American couples need to get a maid to do some of the household chores so there is less strife in the house and less stress. It seems reducing the shopping time spent each week might be the thing that actually gave way rather than cleaning the bathroom.

I live in a retirement city, and the stores are still very busy here.

I also live just over an hour from Orlando, and the stores are very busy there too, because of people on vacation.

There are some items where a picture on a screen just doesn’t do the job.

For me, shoes is one of those things. I won’t buy shoes online because they’re all manufactured to differently and sizing is inconsistent. I’ll buy shirts online, but slacks have to be tried on. And so on.

The reason a lot of brick and mortar stores fail is because their overhead (rent, heat, water, employees, building maintenance) is so high. If cities (and malls) want to keep physical stores healthy, they would try to lower as much of the overhead costs as possible.

Thanks all

Is there a strore that’s panning to remove the _auto self checkout _ (or whatever you call them) machine?