>>My blinkered son, however, thinks there's either Amazon or having to physically go shopping
Amazon has done to online shopping what Tesco did for supermarkets - made them work a lot better.
There used to be supermarkets on high streets, as a school boy I worked in one and there was another on the same street.
Tesco put theirs at the edge of town and provided a large, flat, free car park. They cleaned up.
Amazon has made delivery fast, workable and largely predictable. I can get Amazon purchases delivered on a specific day, if necessary by changing my Amazon day and selecting that. Free delivery unlocks sales - Amazon brilliantly does "free" delivery but charges for it with an annual fee!
The result of course is also similar - they suck the trade away from other businesses and their scale and ability to compete for customers with offers (often supplier funded no doubt) means that they can raise margins while others slash theirs to survive.
To add insult to injury they then pay little tax here.
And yet I use them. I try to use other businesses where I can but that's not always easy especially if I want quick delivery which is very hard to provide economically without scale.
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