America’s Job Loss Crisis Has More To Do With Malls Than Coal Mines
President Trump loves nothing more than saying he is “saving America’s coal industry” despite the reality that it is more-or-less un-saveable. But there’s a larger group of workers who could use his help: people who work in stores. According to a new article in The New York Times, “More workers in general merchandise stores have been laid off since October, about 89,000 Americans…more than all of the people employed in the United States coal industry.” Like manufacturing and mining, the thing about retail workers is that they seem to be becoming increasingly obsolete as e-commerce explodes. Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce website, has seen its stock price rise astounding 43.7 percent over the last year. It also just unveiled a new plan to embrace artificial intelligence for manual labor. It’s no coincidence Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men on the planet. Meanwhile, according to the Times, over the past three years, e-commerce has grown at $40 billion annually. Malls have been hit hard, and former brick and mortar staples like Radioshack, JC Penny, and now Payless have become things of the past. Here in New York City, the retail crisis at least doesn’t look as apparent as it does elsewhere in America. Nike and Adidas both opened behemoth flagships in Manhattan in the past year, shops like Supreme have hours-long line-ups every single week, and Saks Fifth Avenue just opened a glitzy new store just across the street from GQHQ. The fact is shopping in stores isn’t dead—in fact, there are more cool stores around the world than ever—but the way people are doing it certainly is changing. Read more at GQ.
