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Lines, Lines, Everywhere a Line

This is the line outside a Gucci store at a Chicago mall. A similar line was standing outside the Nike store. Marie was told the wait was 45 minutes.

To get inside a store.

The mind boggles. This, no doubt, could serve as Exhibit A to one thing John Paul II and Francis have in common: a condemnation of consumerism. What kind of shallow lives would sacrifice 45 minutes, not to mention the drive time over there and the opportunity cost of the money spent in the store, to buy a non-necessity? As far as systems go, the one that produces 45-minute wait lines for Nike is far better than socialism, which requires people to stand in line just to buy a loaf of bread because the knowledge-resource distribution is so whacked out, but man. For the individual who succumbs to such debased servitude ("You stand in line to spend too much money on our stuff")? I'm afraid I feel disgust.

There's some pity in there, too, but mostly disgust.

But it gives me hope that brick-and-mortar stores aren't dead. I mean, if Nike and Gucci can get people to stand in line for 45 minutes, surely other stores can get people to come into their stores, thereby thwarting the Amazon machine at least a little. I really like Amazon, and I have a ton of respect for what it has done, and I appreciate the reality and goodness of creative destruction, but the juggernaut that is Amazon concerns me a little bit.

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