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The state of the economy at the street level

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I've only noticed it in the last 12-18 months, while travelling here and O/S with the wife, there just doesn't seem to be that trendy dress thing happening.
The Nike's, Converse, Adidas, Billabong, Quicksilver, Rusty, Mambo thing isn't happening, all the young just seem to be looking at phones, not at each other.
So I guess the dress to impress thing has lost its wow factor, now they hardly talk let alone look at each other, how many megapixels your phone camera has and what operating system it is running seems to be the in thing today.
 
Just for a laugh: all the young guys round here are getting mullet haircuts. The worse the better it seems. Must be some kind of joke/trend.
 
Saw a friend just as he was literally closing his bookstore down. Retail is already hard, but books are well and truly on the way out. Finally couldn't take it anymore and had to get out. Only select retail stores are doing any good at the moment. Still getting mixed messages. It's either really up in trade, or a ghost town.
 
PZ99 said:
To survive in retail now you need to own the building you're operating in - no renting,
You need to earn money online (trading etc), and you need a 3-D printer
Click to expand...
So true PZ99, I was reading somewhere online sales in the U.S went up over 10% last year and as the logistics for delivery improves, I can see that life isn't going to get easier for bricks and mortar retailers.
 
My daughter has worked in a library for the past 18years, last year they gutted it and now the books only make a small portion of the building, now it is a 'community information hub'.
Well not only did it gut the books, the older women working there left in droves.
I think your friend did the right thing, before he lost his shirt.
 
sptrawler said:
My daughter has worked in a library for the past 18years, last year they gutted it and now the books only make a small portion of the building, now it is a 'community information hub'
Click to expand...

An interesting point is that say "library" and people think immediately of books but other things like video rental stores were libraries of a sort too. Also all the radio stations used to have what they called a "sound library" - a room full of records, all cataloged and which looked much like a book library. Corporate and government record keeping could also be considered much the same - a room full of files and people managing it.

The actual book libraries have lasted longer but the rest are gone pretty much completely. Music's all on computer, radio stations simply don't have physical sound libraries anymore or at least the ones I've seen don't, and there's very few DVD rental shops left in business. Likewise corporate stuff it's either gone now, often digitised at the time of a physical office move, or it's only being retained as an historical thing with nothing added to it and is closed so far as current business is concerned.

The replacement of all that stuff by computers isn't quite complete but it's close enough to consider physical media of any sort as a niche thing these days.
 
Smurf1976 said:
The replacement of all that stuff by computers isn't quite complete but it's close enough to consider physical media of any sort as a niche thing these days.
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After reading this statement it made me think me of @SirRumpole 's thread on alternative assets/memorabilia. Certain books may be a very good investment over the long run especially if you will hand them down to the next generation.
 
I was surprised a few years ago when vinyl records experienced somewhat of a Renaissance, maybe the same thing can happen to printed books, well at least fiction and childrens books, but I think printed technical and other non fiction books are just about dead.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of first editions for books but Yes @Johny5 you are right any sort of technical books are a thing of the past as it is now all online. Funny you should mention vinyl records making a come back. I have even noticed some collectibility in CDs now, if you know where to buy and sell them for the right prices
 
Along the same lines, I was reading that it would be a good idea to start and pick up DVD's that you think your kids might enjoy at a later date, as with streaming a lot of movies wont be available and eventually will be lost.
 
Johny5 said:
I think printed technical and other non fiction books are just about dead.
Click to expand...

Can't even give them away and I mean that literally.

If you clear out someone's house, eg elderly person who's passed away or gone into aged care, or even simply want to get rid of your own stuff then you'll quickly find that they have zero value. Can't sell them, nobody turns up even if they're literally give away and charities won't take them either.

Fiction books still have some value though if they're recent or older ones if the author or the book itself is/was famous.

Only technical ones of value are niche interest things of an historical nature. The odd such thing has a significant value but only if you can find the right buyer which is usually someone who's great grandfather worked on the thing that's the subject of the book etc.
 
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