But what if the new item you were looking at was very fancy to your eye, but was made with a new material blend that just came out? Say a funky Poly/cotton/carbon fiber blend? Would you buy it outright and go through the trouble of having to return it if you didn't like it, or rather be able to try it out in a store before buying, and if you didn't like it, go over to the 100% cotton aisle since you are already there?
Well, if returns were made absurdly easy, such as being able to hand it back to the courier who delivered my next Amazon product... or to hand it back to the Amazon drone... heh. But, that's me. I do not think Amazon is underestimating the number of people who will tolerate slightly different products from what they were expecting. People are lazy! I do think, however, that their eyes are not on just being the first to ship things... They will offer custom tailoring eventually, in augmented reality. My speculation.
I will ask the drone instead of the zombie-eyed retail worker whether I should go with the blue or the yellow.
My wife just orders multiple sizes of something usually if she is unsure and then just returns the one that doesn't fit. Free shipping on returns usually so it's the best approach and quickest vs ordering, realizing it's the wrong size, returning and ordering again.
I buy a lot of books from Amazon. They are always cheaper than Barnes and Noble, often 30-40 percent less. And I plan on subscribing to the Amazon Prime to get free shipping. It's $99 a year but that would be $20 cheaper than Netflix and if the movies from Amazon look good, I'll cancel my Netflix. Free shipping plus cheaper movies..........win. http://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/best-amazon-prime-movies/
I order a fair amount of stuff online from retailers that have brick and mortar locations in my area. It's pretty easy to walk in and return something that way.
The population has been spending their savings to maintain their standard of living for many years. They have also started "sharing" resources. Retail is shutting down because no one has any money to spend and automation is putting them all out of jobs. The new middle class lives off the government while communing in "family compounds" (sharing resources).
With self-driving cars and centralization of wealth, the God/Slave class distinction is becoming blatant. The aristocratic/administrative class is facing automation as well. Once the "Gods" get their Mars escape bunker operational, it will be pure slavery (weaponized drones on auto-follow, remote-controlled robots keeping the population subdued, and automated deliveries to the Gods on Mars).