Richie Alan Naggar most of my friends in the flesh & blood world are much younger than me and they already do most of their shopping on line.

We still need human interaction. I do not think online will replace all real estate.

The major mall in our city is now targeted for redevelopment and many office parks in the region have major vacancy issues. Consumer and worker preferences have changed.

Richie,

When we in commercial real estate, we were already warning that there were too many stores.  We are still going to need some brick and mortar, but not as many of the same thing.  A

Personally, I prefer to shop local IF I can get what I need and want. Most stores are cutting inventory so options are limited and even they suggest we go to their online store for more selection.  There are certain things I'd prefer NEVER to buy online, like clothes and shoes, and home furnishings. 

Beyond that, I hope we never get to the point where we have to forever limit our social interaction. 

There's a reason why we no longer travel by stagecoach. 

Nope, you'll NEVER replace the need or benefit of a group learning, live music, going to the movies, networking,church, etc. in my mind.

It's in our DNA to be tribal, isolation causes stress and depression among other things. Yes, I did commit to never.

I'm all for it for court, jury duty, DMV, etc. I still like shopping live as a choice not a necessity, although I do use Amazon Prime and Office Depot delivery.

You know I have recently thought about this as another giant furniture chain has declared BK. I am not the person that wants to shop for furniture online so what's going to happen? There are only a few places to shop now.

Same with house goods, textiles, toys. Some times it's just good to get your hands on the product & decide if it's right or not. I'm not sure the internet can provide that.

It's a shame that malls can't make it but I think that it's just because the rent is so out of sight. Would it be better to possibly cut rents & keep customers rather than have a marble ghost town?

It takes a really long fork to get that rib-eye from Burns Steakhouse to my lips. Some things, like a hair cut, inking and ear piercing works better in person.

What will happen is FRESH MINDS will be looking at this from the consumer perspective instead of the miserly viewpoint of business owners (how can I save money) who are choking the life out of a nickle.

I trust new minds are looking at real estate and zeroing in on the low hanging fruit.  We let them take our voice away, now all we will be able to do is cry into the darkness.

Those who fought to protect their voice may survive.

So, when the consumer needs to purchase at $4,300 Whirlpool, they may have only videos and reviews written by those who know nothing about reviewing a product to rely upon.

Does anyone SEE this new business opportunity?

Suspect the longer the co19 threat exists.. the more the needle will move towards online as business and consumers adapt and change habits, etc..  .

At this point, it seems we may be looking at many months or even into 2021 until  c19 threat is largely eliminated (assuming we have treatment and/or vaccine available for widespread use by then).  Meanwhile, would expect much caution & change to be in the air.

As it was with 911.. thinking that again, this is a major disrupter that is impacting the entire world... work, shopping, travel, commerce, trade, etc.. likely will change to some degree. 

Nice to see politicians laying down their battle axe's and working together.. hopefully, at the end of the day,  we will see some good outcomes.

It will certinly keep trending that way. Some businesses you need a brick and mortar place, others you can do both and some just online. The one thing is that business seem to need smaller spaces not larger

You probably are on the right track, employers and employees will figure out how to work remotely.  We have been shopping on-line now for years, but probably will surge also.

For those that are too financially leveraged; or too highly taxed, this shock to the financial system will be very tough to endure. Hard for me to not think there will be shrinkage to brick and mortar businesses.

The cost of a cyber store with greater inventory, shopping done in the privacy of your home or on the run and gun works better. It is more convenient, no coat to put on or parking spot to shark for and it's time saving. Your customer knows instantly with alerts about "attention shoppers, blue light special in cyber aisle end cap 7" for just what you were looking for last hour, last week, three years ago too.

You get the price reduction  for it just got cheaper if you are still in the mood to buy this item notices real time. Plus here are three more items folks like yourself are eyeballing and putting in their cyber wire cart with the squeaky wheel to tool on down to the cyber check out. In and out done. The flyer in your email and the ding ding alert sound on your phone is automated but effective follow up the store clerk was not doing.

Like dinosaur real estate brokers and agents who only take a buyer or seller serious when they come into the office lobby or they call, they email ... the we are open for business cyber anything does it the other way around... and not 9-5 M-F limited service either.

No waiting, fooling around. In small rural areas where there is not the big box or a local provider of a goods or service, it is a heaven. If something is not offered locally I whip over to Canada where the loonie is 25% less than our American dollar too as a border town. You do what you need to do to be frugal, to survive for the long haul.

The dismantling of big box physical stores at fixed location addresses was  happening before the virus and not because of the germ that is changing everyone's lives in belt tightening and soul searching Richie Alan Naggar .

I've seen more of a resurgence of in-person shopping, especially with the younger generations.

They are currently building more brick and mortar stores in this area. There are numerous restaurants, new hotels and motels, ner shopping malls, movie theaters, flooring stores, etc. so it looks like people driving to brick and mortar locations will continue. I think it depends on the type of business. Wolfe Furniture just announced that they are closing many of their brick and mortar stores.

We are due for a few surprises in the next few months, years.