PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz
ETAIL/RETAIL
The world, she is a-changin’. Nothing is sure but death and taxes, and a photo with two adjacent signs which say ‘Pine’ ‘BOX’, make that evident. Did Amazon become successful because retail chains failed, or are retail chains failing because Amazon successfully serves the market?
Where does Amazon get all its boxes? Where stores were once required to compress and dispose of cardboard packaging, now my garage is full of little boxes. Amazon could come around and pick up a bunch of ‘em.
I bought a cross-cut shredder to protect from identity theft, but I won’t buy a damned compactor.
***
Go to Rochelle’s Addicted to Purple site and use her Wednesday photo as a prompt to write a complete 100 word story.
Archon's Den 
I liked the juxtaposition of pine and box
LikeLike
Life, like fame, is fleeting. 😳
LikeLike
It’s rather a chicken and egg question isn’t it?
I think Amazon flourishes because we’re inherently lazy. Why get dressed and drive to the store when you can shop in your bathrobe and have it delivered the next day?
And boxes. Lord don’t get me started on boxes….
LikeLike
I don’t own a bathrobe. The Purolator deliver guy/gal can just close their eyes when I answer the door. I don’t tell the OCD wife, but I’ve gone out to pick things up in track shorts and slippers.
Stag Shop, the local ‘adult’ store, advertises that you can “shop naked, online.” 🙄
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Archon,
I have a raft of cardboard boxes myself. 😉 You bring up some good points.
Shalom from an avid Amazon customer,
Rochelle
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanx, Rochelle. 😀
Another ‘non-fiction’ piece, which I feared was just a bit of fluff, seems to have touched another nerve.
I get rid of a few boxes to my daughter, who ships some hand-crafts, but she also loves Amazon, and receives almost as many as she sends.
LikeLike
Yes, even my wife tells me, “we need to save the…” never mind the trees or whales, “boxes.”
LikeLike
Re-using even a few boxes will save a tree – but they soon pile up. 😳
Whales are another problem. I make sure that (almost) all my plastic goes into a Blue Box, and is recycled. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Funny one. Lots to think about, too. I think we’ve all had Amazon boxes piled up at some point.
LikeLike
New technology almost always creates new, unanticipated problems.
I remember wax-coated paper straws. Plastic – especially straws – is poisoning our oceans. Stores are already selling re-usable stainless steel, and silicone, straws. A road-house I recently ate at, now has a new version of paper straws – rigid and heavy as the plastic ones, but biodegradable. 😀
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve read that plastic can be replaced by hemp products. It shouldn’t always come down to what’s cheapest. There needs to be another measure instituted. I’m willing to pay a few cents more for a sustainable, non-polluting product package. Build it and I will use it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
So true. They became the “go-to” because it is easier. We have become a lazy society who wants everything now with the least effort possible.
Don’t get me started on the boxes in my house!
LikeLike
People of 100, or 150 years ago – perhaps only the well-to-do – seemed to have so much available time. Where did it all go to?? 😕
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hear you!
LikeLike
This one touched me on a personal level. I’ve been trying to find some modicum of organization in the garage. A big part of that is getting rid of the plethora of boxes that reside there. The recycle bin only holds so many.
LikeLike
I’m trying to find my garage. 😯 There’s a walkway from the inner door to the roll-up. Boxes are the least of my mess. Recycling even one or two each week holds their numbers down. I have more than one blue box. I just emptied my shredder into a bag, but rules only allow me to put out one such bag, along with one of newspapers, each week. 😯
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are too many rules that make recycling more complicated than it should be.
LikeLike
LOL! I save a lot of Amazon boxes (flattened) for re-mailing so loved this!
https://dbmcnicol.com/friday-fictioneers-freshly-boxed/
LikeLike
I’m hearing that a lot of us are feeling boxed in. 😉
LikeLike
They’ll be blaming Amazon boxes for climate change next! A delightfully different take.
My tale – An audience with Rosey!
LikeLike
I blame the Universities, teaching people to come up with new ideas. Thinking outside that box and all that jazz.
The comments this story has generated is worthy of a box set.
LikeLike
Just in time. My son just received the Weird Al Yankovic boxed set. We’ll mix them in with that. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Clever, philosophical, and practical. A wonderful trifecta in 100 words or less.
LikeLike
Thanx. You have good taste. See you next week, if I can get it up – a FF 🙄
LikeLiked by 1 person
lol You are welcome, and good luck.
LikeLike
I think Amazon’s success has a lot to do with the emergence of Ebooks and the large selection. Where I live, books are expensive and since I like to read books in English, it’s even worse. And of course I’m lazy. May have to borrow your compactor.
LikeLike
I still like the tactile feel of a real book. And I object (strenuously) to eBooks that cost the same as print. There’s no paper, ink, labor, shipping, storage…. They should sell for half the price. 😯
LikeLiked by 1 person
They often do, but not always. I like real books, too, but I travel a lot, and I love to be able to have a huge library on a small device with me all the time.
LikeLike