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In California’s Inland Empire, dozens of mega-warehouses for Amazon, UPS and other companies are choking the cities with traffic and air pollution. Some argue that the jobs warehouses provide aren’t worth the cost, while others say it’s online shopping that’s the real problem. — Los Angeles Times
Despite the boiler-plate promise of adding jobs to the community, warehouse-laden tracts have been dumping an increasing amount of pollutants into the atmosphere in the form of increased truck and air cargo traffic and propelled in part by a sharp rise in online shopping. Amazon opened its... View full entry
The slow and steady death of the shopping mall has been sped up since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now several months into the public health and economic crisis the pandemic has set off, mall owners and operators are developing specific visions for the post-mall future of American... View full entry
During the 1970s and ’80s, the sophisticated shopping experience was not branded in efficiency or self-denial or schemes devised in investment banks. Dean & DeLuca was itself a work of art. This was also true of Barneys, another institution born of the ethos that shopping was an act of self-actualization. Now both institutions find themselves in financial free-fall. — The New York Times
Ginia Bellafante of The New York Times pens a sombre remembrance for the gold old days of shopping, when "demand was not so obviously engineered," and purchasing life's necessities constituted a social act. The missive is inspired by the recent financial collapse of high-end grocer... View full entry
Amazon, the giant online retailer, is closing all 87 of its U.S. pop-up kiosks, which let customers try and buy gadgets such as smart speakers and tablets in malls, Kohl's department stores, and Whole Foods groceries. It's the latest change in Amazon's bricks-and-mortar retail strategy, which includes bookstores, grocery stores, and cashier-less stores. — NPR
Amazon has been a frequent headliner in the news as they prepare for headquarter expansions and retail store changes. However, despite its popularity and rapid consumer fulfillment process, Amazon has decided to discontinue its pop-up kiosk program. A spokesperson from Amazon shared that the... View full entry
With the rise of e-commerce titans and online shopping services like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay brands have entered a precarious position in terms of satisfying consumer demand while maintaining interest within retail stores. With the rise of online availability, the need for items can be... View full entry
Called Amazon Books, the store will be located at Westfield UTC mall near UC San Diego...The store will presumably resemble the Seattle location, which sells a limited selection of Amazon's best-reviewed books. That venue also doubles as a showroom for the e-commerce brand's expanding hardware lineup, which includes its Kindle, Fire TV, Fire tablets and Echo. The Echo, the company's latest gadget, is an in-home personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence. — The Los Angeles Times
Although small, independently-owned bookstores have been thriving lately, national chains—such as Borders Books, which shuttered its doors in 2011—have not adapted as well to Amazon's disruptive online model of cheap, on-demand books. Now the online retailer is reversing its... View full entry
As incorrigible collectors we are all too aware of the gap between the desirability and availability of Dieter Rams' work. das programm was conceived to correct this. We only sell Dieter Rams designs for Braun and Vitsœ, and Braun products issued between 1955 and 1995, the period of Rams’ office at Braun, for the greater part as Director of the Design Department. — dasprogramm.org
