It will come back. People are social creatures and they crave interaction. They crave being made to feel important, appreciated and catered for.
Online sales cannot and will never achieve the personal interaction that people want, particularly when spending a lot of money or purchasing true consumer durables.
I mean, I understand we're social creatures, and this sort of isolation that tech and cities have brought suck the higher up your apartment number is in a building. Here in NYC, you see people spend their whole week working, and then going home working, and then to sleep. But come the weekend, if work doesn't intrude there as well - they go out and get smashed & hammered like it's their last week on Earth. Trying to make up for what is evidently lots of social neglect throughout the week. Some get it in that weekend, some don't and is why they overdrink from what I've seen.
I was at my father's (he's 87) place today and we discussed this. He recalls the grocer bringing a sample box to his mother's back door. His mother would order what she wanted and it'd be delivered that afternoon straight to her kitchen door by a delivery man. He also recalled his mother walking through Myer (a department store) and asking for a kids' bucket and spade/shovel to be delivered. My father remembers the Myer delivery van pulling up alongside him out on the street that afternoon, and the delivery driver, asking his name and then handing him the bucket and spade. He thinks he was about 3-4 years old and that was the 1930s. He has never forgotten that.
I mean, I've had that at my gransparents house when I used to vaccation there as a kid. It was even better than what you describe because the food was from an even better source (not the grocer, but the farmer's son & daughter would ride down from somewhere, bringing fresh layed eggs, and milk and veggies for the season). That was great stuff, and likewise similar shopping experience to your fathers' where if something was nice at the store, but too big to carry in a bag, it would get delivered after trying it out there.
The initial sales process and close, whether subsequently fulfilled by a second or third party is where online fails dismally. There is absolutely nothing enjoyable about pressing a 'buy it now' button. The only joy comes from knowing it is actually on the way to you. Nobody puts it in the car, smiles genuinely, shakes your hand, and thanks you for your business. Nobody picks up the phone or schedules a follow up visit to see how it has all worked out. At most, they will send you a link to a survey, or request you rate their service (it will only take 5 minutes or less to complete this action and this procedure is fully automated)...
Oh for this, I have an actual account. So, my generation (late 20's at least here where I live in the city) actually don't want to interact with people for any sort of business transaction at all if they can avoid it. In the same way people don't enjoy being called anymore before you text them. So that joy is completely undesired in the first place. The only time they want to interact with people is when they must or when those other people are enjoying the same things they are (like leisure or partying). This is one of the shifts in value preferences I think accounts heavily for why online purchases occur. You see the same thing in upscale buildings where if food was ordered, they don't want the delivery guy coming up to their door, and would rather the concierge bring it up and such.
But again, this all occurred due to business efficiency for the masses. And it proved to be something the common people would bare or not mind.
I can bet you the Keiths (Purite) and Dukes don't do business that way. And I certainly hope they will not only survive, but prosper because audio needs people prepared to stake their own money, put their balls on the line, rent a tenancy, pay some staff, showcase some great gear, and do what they believe in.
Make Audio Great Again! I think that acronym may have been used already...
Well sure, we're of like mind in this regard, this sort of world currently is pretty bleak in more ways than just audio retail, but the reverberations can be felt everywhere, it just so happens audio retail was the first to go it seems.
I see it in the isolation from the Covid19 virus. We are all wearing masks and distanced 2m, or 6 feet. It's annoying and I want to be normal again. People are indeed social creatures and we crave intimacy/trust. I think a retailer that has the "balls" and the resources to show the relevant public that they are there to provide will succeed. Online sales is very strong with some but the ease of the purchase will die out and peeps will tire of the return process and the research req'd to make a decent purchase.
I actually think people are already sort of tired of seeing so much local flavor removed in the hyper concentrated power of a few corporations that set the playing field that we see these days. One thing I disagree heavily though, is the last sentence's conclusion, that people will go back to researching to make decent purchases. I doubt this very very much in nearly any scenario I can imagine.
