Brick and mortar infrastructure will make it progressively more difficult for companies to compete with Internet based rivals. These days the imminent casualties are pretty easy to spot, but in the future there will be many casualties which might seem surprising today. The most recent victim is Borders Group, which is the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain. According to Reuters, Borders filed for bankruptcy protection, after years of sharp sales declines that made it impossible to manage its crushing debt load, and it plans to close nearly one-third of its stores. Borders has not been able to capture market share in the online world, making it difficult to compete with Amazon and other rivals.
I’ve posted several blogs on this topic since March 2010:
- February 5th, 2011: http://startupselling.com/blogs/alanblume/office-buildings-are-obsolete-%E2%80%93-big-box-stores-too/
- June 13, 2010: http://startupselling.com/blogs/alanblume/office-buildings-are-obsolete-and-offshore-drilling-is-the-result/
- March 26, 2010: http://startupselling.com/blogs/alanblume/vacant-government-buildings-and-your-tax-dollars-feds-need-to-go-virtual/
Was this a moment of clairvoyance, should I quit the day job and become an Internet soothsayer? These predictions are pretty simple, just look for the cheaper and better distribution system and you’ll find the winner. Think of the Eerie canal compared to transit by horse and buggy. How about steam powered ships versus sail powered vessels? The telephone as opposed to snail mail, and email as opposed to fax. And today (and in the imminent future), Internet based or leveraged businesses will continue to win over brick and mortar businesses. Where are the next battles? Blockbuster versus Netflix, BestBuy versus Amazon and traditional publishers versus ePublshing are a few obvious matchups. Perhaps less obvious might be Walmart, shopping malls and libraries. These may seem an incongruous group, but they all face Internet based challenges, their existence predicated upon the ability to compete with cheaper, swifter and digital rivals.
Last week I purchased a new Dell XPS from Dell’s website. Upon receipt of this laptop (shipping was free), I noticed that it only had HDMI output (after all – VGA is getting old) and I needed a new nine foot HDMI to DVI cable to connect my external Samsung monitor. Online at Amazon and other e-tailers, prices ranged from $10 to $20 for many of them including shipping. Upon my arrival at BestBuy, my options were to buy a six foot cable for $40, or a longer HDMI cable with DVI converter for $90. The latter was the generic BestBuy brand, if I went with the name brand it would have been $130. This isn’t a matter of price gouging or unfair retailing by BestBuy, rather it’s a cost of doing business issue. Retail infrastructure is expensive, e-tail infrastructure is much, much cheaper. Time will tell who shall be the next brick and mortar victim, but I don’t think we’ll be waiting too long.











