During the dot com boom twenty years ago nobody dreamt that 'brick and mortar' stores would be sideline to the extent they are today. Business plans to sell ePet food online were the butt of many jokes and bankruptcies, and shopping malls were the dominant thriving social centers. What a difference a few years makes - 'bricks and mortar' store Petsmart bought online pet food retailer Chewy for $3.35 billion in 2017 in a deal that was fundamentally structured to leverage Chewy's financial strength to help ailing Petsmart physical storefronts survive and regroup[1] to serve an ever more online customer base. Shopping malls are deserted and online networks have cannibalized social interactions.
Amazon prime[2] online shopping and delivery is crushing retail, because with very few exceptions it is cheaper in time and money to compare, select and buy online than to burn gasoline and time going to retail stores. The internet cannibalizes the depth of real world experiences such as shopping in stores, and we now also live in an era where 4k monitors and broadcast quality audio all too often make the remote experience of an event such as a concert or a race better than actually being there.
NASCAR stock car racing[3] is a case in point. The fabulously successful business model that propelled this sport to be the most popular auto racing series in America at the turn of the century was fueled back then by TV advertising eyeballs and 200 mph billboard race cars. Today it is no secret that sponsors are deserting the sport, and that track attendance figures and TV and internet streaming numbers are declining for some races, despite NASCAR's increasingly sophisticated audio visual presentation.