The Future of Shopping Streets and Local Businesses– Elijah B.

That the phenomenal world is a constant state of becoming is prima facie– we may reasonably assume that shopping streets will in fact change. However, once we have accepted that shopping streets WILL change, it remains to argue how they will change. In the reading, a historical narrative is built in which local shopping streets have recently restructured due to forces of globalization and gentrification. Districts which were once bastions of ethnic homogeneity have become fragmented and diverse as new, more cosmopolitan immigrants of various backgrounds take up residence wherever it is convenient for them to do so– increasing sophistication in communication and transportation technologies has allowed these prospective residents to be freer in their choice of neighborhood and workplace, and contemporary neighborhood and business demographics reflect this shift. Due to these same technological factors, people have become less reliant on their local communities, further increasing the drive to locate based on pragmatism rather than the consideration of self-same sympathies. This population reshuffling directly affects the businesses in any given neighborhood as new interests develop and capture real estate and old, obsolete business is pushed out. Additionally, as new economic and cultural classes develop and expand, notably the Hipster class, neighborhoods must change to accommodate new ways of living and levels of wealth.

Globalization and Gentrification aside, the continual rise of the digital on-demand market and superstore developments put additional pressures on local businesses, as local services become less desirable in comparison to the former, and viewed as limited in comparison with the latter. Thus, unless local businesses can be savvy enough to appeal to an ever-shifting populace and provide unique services, most will drown and sink amidst a sea of alternative, flashier options.

Based upon current trends, the immediate future of the New York shopping district will entail the dismantlement of local stores in favor of economically and politically powerful superstores, and the dissolution of local service businesses in favor of specialized luxury service businesses and on-demand digital service businesses. In an increasingly connected world, people no longer crave direct community as strongly as they once did, and many (including myself) may indeed prefer impersonal yet reliable and efficient shopping experiences over more personal, unreliable, and ambiguous transactions. It may be tempting to decry this trend as a loss of humanity, yet one must consider the increase in time and cost efficiency, quality control, and innovation as counterpoints worthy of consideration. Additionally, though nostalgia and tradition have their appeal, it is simply the case that the modern human has different and less tribal needs than his predecessors, and thus to insist upon values inconsistent with the current zeitgeist is needlessly atavistic.