I usually go to Cracked.com for the humor, but at times the articles presented give you something to think about (along with the humor!).  Here then is a list of 4 Ways the Suburban Dream is About to Die:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-ways-suburban-dream-about-to-die/

I think the very first thing mentioned, “Prime Businesses Going Away”, is the key here.  If you don’t have a viable local economy -a place to spend and make money- then people will drift away to places where they can make and spend their money.

Sounds stupidly simple and obvious, but there you have it.

I’ve mentioned before being intrigued with the way the economic landscape has changed due to the arrival of the internet.  If you’re as old as I am, you recall a time when Record/Music stores were practically on every corner.  They (gasp!) sold music at these now extinct places.  First vinyl records, then CDs, then videos/DVDs.  However, the day a song could be fashioned into an MP3 file and sold/pirated over the internet was the day the music store died.

After all, if you go onto Amazon.com or iTunes you can find just about every album available out there.  In the comfort of your own home you can buy said album and be listening to it within a matter of minutes.  Why would you get yourself ready, drive/walk to a Record/Music store, look through the inventory (and hope the album you’re looking for is there!) and pick up said product there when you can far easily/faster get it online?

Bookstores are facing the exact same thing.  Who would have thought that in my lifetime I, a complete maniac for the written word, would reach a point where he didn’t care to go to a bookstore?  I used to do that at least twice and three times a week.  Today, I can download and read books at Amazon.com.  Hell, my books are available there as well!

What about Movie stores?  Remember Blockbuster Video?  There was a time that store was literally everywhere.  People flocked to the place to pick up the latest movies.  Now?  You can order a film through Amazon and get it on the date it is officially released without having to (once again) get out of your house.  Or you can watch it on pay-per-view.  Or Netflix.  Or Amazon Prime.  Or iTunes.

What about video games?  While there still exist game stores, I suspect they’re dying out as well.  Today, if you play off your computer or any of the new generations of video game systems, you can simply download them.  If you want a physical copy of the same, you could order them through (yet again) Amazon or directly from the companies that produce them.  Again, you don’t need to get out of your comfortable chair and go to a store and hope they have the product.

Four once big industries, industries that not only provided commerce for an area but also employment for people, have been torpedoed thanks in large part to the arrival of the internet and the availability of these items online.

I suspect that in the near future the stores/businesses that will remain in existence will be ones that the internet cannot take over (at least not easily): Grocery stores (you want to see the product -especially perishables like meats, vegetables, and fruits- you’re buying), Restaurants (there are attempts at creating “to go” apps for all servers, but sometime you want to get out and eat), Hotels (when vacationing, you have to have a place to go, though the internet has figured out a way to make/pay your reservations in advance).

What other businesses are there out there?

Movie theaters?  I think things are rather grim for their future given the pay per view choices though they remain a good place to “get away”.  That might keep them going for a while.

Clothing stores?  I suspect there will come a time when companies create very good programs that offer truly lifelike scans/images of your body in real time and allow you to “try on” clothing online. If you like what you see, you’ll order it and it’ll arrive at your house, perhaps by the end of the day.  When that happens, the clothing store as we know it might also go away, though thrift/secondhand stores will likely go on.

The point is this: The Economy in the past decade has changed radically and we’re still in the process of changing.  Where will we end up in another decade’s time?

I don’t know, but one thing is for sure: You can’t go back now.