How will online retail change?

I've been thinking a lot lately.

With the major recession, people cutting back and making do with less - how will this change our retail landscape?

Certainly we've seen plenty of large brick-and-morter stores fold (Linen's N Things, Circuit City). The stores still standing are clearly retrenching - Macy's is aiming for a "Kohls with nicer stuff" level, Best Buy is scrambling to match Walmart's prices, etc. What we don't hear about are the smaller online businesses, many of which are struggling too I'm sure.

Which leads me to my major concern - can sites like Etsy survive? Will they have to change - adapt - to make it?

I love Etsy myself, both to sell my jewelry on, and to find neat and unique items. But I'll be honest, I've not purchased from anyone there in a while...and my sales have been few and far between lately.

When times were good, and money was flowing, the idea of buying a felted wool bowl, a plush monster robot, or some cute dangle earrings "just because" seemed fine. Neat and cool made for great gifts, until the recipients started to struggle to buy groceries or lost their jobs outright.

Will Etsy change? Will it move to more utilitarian items (DIY supplies, shirts, books) - and lose the whimsy? Will ACEOs and plush monsters disappear? Will the seller community shrink more and more as profit margins are eaten away by bargain hunters?

I hope not - we all need fun, whimsical stuff, especially at a time like this.

(Blueberry hat courtesy of WoolKnitsNBits, monkey pendant from PiecesOfMePendants, and Sparky the Chichilla plush from IckyDogCreations)

I'm Mad This Morning

It's Monday, and boy am I so not ready for it. I'll freely admit I was grumpy to start out with...but this really pisses me off.

Portland doesn't exactly have a wealth of decent radio stations - particularly if what you want on your morning commute is upbeat music. Blather, aka "Talk"...plenty of that. Awful "my wife left and took the dog" country...certainly.

So it ticks me off that this morning I had to reduce my "decent station" list from a paltry 3 down to a miserable 2.

Sometime in the last two years, station 107.5FM turned into "Movin 107.5" - a CBS radio production. It was pop, some older R&B, with a few nuggets of goodness surrounded by ok stuff. Not earth-shatteringly good, but fine for commuting and waking up. However, over the last week or so I noticed I was NOT enjoying the music offered on that station nearly as much...seemed like more hip-hop was playing than anything else.

This morning was the final straw for me. I turned on the radio, and found "Radio Playhouse" or some such nonsense instead of music. Brash, un-funny talk radio - moved up from a hip-hop station that I didn't like. Not ONCE in my 20 minute commute did they play music.

I'm done - I'll use my evening commute to find an alternative, and then 107.5 is off my saved channels for good. Unbelievably stupid business decision CBS!