Traditional bricks-and-mortar establishments are slowly dying, replaced with larger-than-imaginable online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.Com.  These sites are so popular, they are household names throughout North America and well beyond.  And there’s a good reason that this is the case: Customers need not even leave their homes – or change out of their pj’s-  in order to make a purchase.  And customers worldwide seem to like that.

And, items arrive quickly.  Warehouses throughout North America and beyond stock standard items, so that shipping is done from a site closer to home.  While large companies such as Amazon must maintain large warehouses, so must the bricks-and-mortar stores, such as JC Penney, Kohl’s, and other well-known stores.  Amazon,, and other, have the distinct advantage of penetration into nearly all markets, all zip codes, without the high costs associated with maintaining a physical location.

So, e-businesses have a distinct advantage over traditional stores and Malls.  Does that mean we have seen the end of the shopping mall?  Probably not, as stores shift gears and retailers begin selling services, as well as focusing more on portable electronics, like cell phones and tablets.  But over time, even these stores may thin out.  The higher costs associated with having a storefront in local mall may eventually cause a mass migration to web-only, causing mall store rents to drop precipitously, checking such a migration mid-flight.

Sustainable Development may happen spontaneously, as efficiency in markets causes every level, from manufacturer, shipper, retail outlet, and mall owner to change their business practices.  Malls will be equipped with solar panels on their sprawling flat roofs.  Parking spaces may be shaded (to the advantage of the shopper!) by more solar panels.  Sustainability will establish itself in the marketplace, in most instances.

Mobile Massage and Mobile Chiropractic Care are also contemporary phenomena.  While physicians of the past routinely visited patients at home, that trend ceases long ago.  Massage therapists choosing to work for mobile companies that do not have a physical spa, help to deliver their services to clients with less cost.  Sure; the therapist must drive to the client, but the therapist would have had to drive to the spa, and the spa would have had to have heat, electricity, and less obvious costs such as cleaning products, which may have a huge, yet hidden, environmental impact.

Of course, there may be times that one would prefer to leave home and visit with the chiropractor at his location.  But at least in today’s world, there is often a choice for consumers.  And, consumers need not be motivated by ideas of Sustainable Development; as long as the outcome encourages increased sustainability, it doesn’t matter what motivates the change.  Increased profits for all will soon be THE driving force.

(C) Copyright 2013 Business Center For Sustainable Development