Having everything flow into a Amazon Monopoly of retail isn't great. Even just going in the stores to talk and get a literal feel for instruments is great.
The biggest issue with online retail is it erodes one of the last community functions. Particularly for older Americans retail shopping might be their only social interaction all day.
If 2050 is this dystopia where everything is ordered online, all food is dropped off by drones, it's going to be very bleak.
That said retail, particularly non essential retail ( my various instruments are all effectively toys, I'd guess the working musician to hobbyist ratio to easily be 1:100) is getting hit hard. No one NEEDS a news 1500$ Gibson.
Edit : Worth while to add a with concerts being shut down the professional market is effectively dead as well. I wouldn't count on this returning until late 2021 at best
Having everything flow into a Amazon Monopoly of retail isn't great. Even just going in the stores to talk and get a literal feel for instruments is great.
The biggest issue with online retail is it erodes one of the last community functions. Particularly for older Americans retail shopping might be their only social interaction all day.
If 2050 is this dystopia where everything is ordered online, all food is dropped off by drones, it's going to be very bleak.
That said retail, particularly non essential retail ( my various instruments are all effectively toys, I'd guess the working musician to hobbyist ratio to easily be 1:100) is getting hit hard. No one NEEDS a news 1500$ Gibson.
Edit : Worth while to add a with concerts being shut down the professional market is effectively dead as well. I wouldn't count on this returning until late 2021 at best