the super-store vs the super-device

Is the electronic device becoming the super-store of media? In it's path taking down music stores, book stores, newspapers and concierges just to pin-prick the surface? I had to ask myself this question as I see not just small shops closing their doors but super-stores themselves closing up shop on magnificent miles to the north and south, east and west. It makes me wonder who will survive in this time of electronic media development and conquest?

In 1998 we watched as Kathleen Kelly in the movie You've Got Mail closed her doors to her "Shop Around the Corner" and ponder the thought: "People are always saying that change is a good thing. But all they're really saying is that something you didn't want to happen at all... has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store, did I ever tell you that? It's a lovely store, and in a week it'll be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap. Soon, it'll be just a memory. In fact, someone, some foolish person, will probably think it's a tribute to this city, the way it keeps changing on you, the way you can never count on it, or something..." In the movie, "Shop Around the Corner" was being taken over by the big, bad "FoxBooks" telling for the late nineties as big, bad super-stores everywhere were taking over the land. "Because we're going to sell them cheap books and legal addictive stimulants. In the meantime, we'll just put up a big sign: "Coming soon: a FoxBooks superstore and the end of civilization as you know it."

But business is not a superstar, it just plays one in the movies. And electronic devices are not big, bad superstores taking over the land, eating up natural resources and paving over landscapes. In fact, are they even putting anyone out of business? Or have we just under-sized ourselves with a compact way to shop? As sales heat up in the music, book and tourism world after a cold two years do we actually have these devices to thank? For giving us the shoe and jewelry of the month club right from our smart phone and shipped conveniently from a warehouse in a area that may have needed jobs -- for a flat fee? For allowing us to not just read a book on the subway but actually download it and read it on our hand-held devices?

And while it is sad to see stores close and jobs shift to other places in the cyclical way of the working society, don't shed a tear quite yet... there will be another one in it's place soon enough and until then... you always have the super-store conveniently located at your desk, in your bag or right in the palm of your hand still ready to take your money. And if you miss the cha-ching of their registers -- I think there may be an app for that.