![]() ![]() “What Main Street looks like and how it’s occupied, will be altered, and most likely altered forever,” he said. But O’Neil is among those interviewed who expresses concern about the future of what Main Street could be like if the trend toward more online shopping doesn’t slow. Wilson’s, the 135-year-old retailer that is one of only a few remaining independently owned department stores in the country, still gets “several calls a week” for Betty Brewster, its personal shopper, to help customers, and it has an online presence. It’s very challenging for small retailers and large retailers,” O’Neil said. ![]() Wilson’s President Kevin O’Neil said he was “very disappointed” in the article, and that the author left only one phone message requesting an interview. Jenczyk uses her Amazon Prime account for “just about everything” because it provides convenient comparison shopping and free shipping, she said. And since the only big stores are a 30-minute drive away, many in Greenfield have started buying off Amazon instead,” resident Danielle Jenczyk is quoted as saying. “While there are shops downtown, those don’t offer the selection of a Walmart or Target. If the article points to a growing threat to retailers that’s universal, it speculates that Greenfield’s relative absence of big-box stores (it neglects the presence of Home Depot or BJ’s Wholesale) as maybe contributing to the transition to e-commerce by shoppers here. The article, which describes a visit by reporter Alana Semuels to Wilson’s - where she found “no shoppers inside the store the entire time I was there” includes conversations with World Eye owner Jessica Mullins, Opus owner Lisa Cocco and a couple of Greenfield residents, including Norman, who even today is spearheading legal appeal of a permit for a 135,000-square-foot big box on French King Highway. Facing competition from a company as enormous as Amazon, some local stores are having trouble staying open.” Many customers who kept shopping in Greenfield’s downtown because Walmart was too far away are now turning to Amazon and other websites that offer free and fast shipping for basic needs, sapping business away from local stores that had survived for so long. When the 160-year-old magazine, The Atlantic, went shopping for a place to do a story on the threat to retailers from Amazon and other online sites, it chose Greenfield, the town that just said “no” to Walmart in 1993 and is the home of self-described “sprawl-buster” and big box nemesis, Al Norman.Īlthough Greenfield managed to keep Walmart out - in part over fear of its potential harm to Main Street - The Atlantic notes, “Main Street stores are now struggling in the face of … e-commerce. ![]()
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