Do You Remember When You Could Buy Things at Stores?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

I vividly recall when I was a kid, going to the Western Auto of all places in the neighboring town to look through their piles of model kits, many of them with the “Aurora” logo. Aurora was one of the first and became primary companies to start producing figure kits. They began a real craze when they released Universal’s Frankenstein monster model. Kids went crazy and this was based on the movie from 1931, directed by James Whale. In fact, Aurora had to have more molds made for Frankenstein and went into overtime trying to keep up with demand. Shortly thereafter, other monster models followed, like Dracula, Wolfman, Phantom of the Opera, and others.

Now of course when I go to a store that has any models at all, I see the same old car, truck, or military models, and precious few of those. They are becoming like dinosaurs as my generation of modelers is dying off and there are no new ones in today’s generation to replace them.

We see this happening not just with models, but with many things, including food. How many times have you gone to the store, found something you really like, buy it, then a few months later, you go back to buy it again and can’t find it? You search and search only to discover that it’s been discontinued or “no longer available.”

This seems to be occurring at an alarming rate in my view. It has forced me to look for things on the ‘Net and I never saw myself routinely shopping there for items that should be available in stores.

In 1998, Amazon began doing business. I recall asking myself, “Who would want to buy things from an online store?” Ridiculous, right? My generation needed to see things, handle them, and look at them from all sides. You couldn’t do this with any online presence. Even though the Internet went public (from being mainly a private military tool), in 1989, it was at least ten years before people got used to it and saw any real value in it. Up until then, it was just a quirky thing that people played with but didn’t take seriously.

I will never forget my first experience with the ‘Net. We had just purchased our first PC and I turned it on and got connected. Once I got on, I recall turning to my wife and asked, “Now what?” There was hardly anything to see. You couldn’t “go” anyplace. Of course, now there are so many things to see that vie for our time, the question is not “Now what?”, but more like “How do I get off this crazy thing?”

Yet, only a decade or so after Amazon began, I now find that I’m using it more and more; routinely in fact. Why is that? For two reasons mainly. First, it saves me the trouble of having to go out, fight traffic, and get to a store only to find that what I’m looking for may not be in stock. I’m hearing “if we had it, it would be on the shelf,” more than I care to hear. Stores seem to be carrying less stock these days. Second, I use it because it’s fast and reliable. I order something and two days later (normally), it’s on my doorstep. Returns are easy and usually paid for by Amazon. Shipping is normally free, or should I say “included” in my Prime subscription. What’s not to like?

Brick and mortar stores are having a hard time not only stocking items, but continuing to remain open. I’ve seen many, many hobby shops go out of business because they cannot compete with the low overheard costs of online stores like Amazon. In fact, a guy can open up his own model and toy shop on the ‘Net and just keep everything in his garage. If he has a great-looking, easy to use website, he’ll attract business. For brick and mortar stores, people normally have to go inside them. They look around and decide if and what they’ll buy. Having an online presence also cuts back on shoplifting as it’s extremely difficult to steal from an online store. People still try using stolen credit cards, but usually, their found out before the item(s) ship.

I had to resort to ordering a salad dressing mix from Amazon because I couldn’t find it in several stores, which seems ridiculous. It’s the kind that comes in packets and you have to make it yourself. It’s a favorite of mine and one that I can eat because it has so few ingredients in it. So rather than drive to other stores and waste gas, I bought a bunch on Amazon that’ll be here in two days. I had to do the same thing with certain pasta that we normally buy locally, but lately it’s been difficult to find.

But all of this makes me wonder. What if the globalists who control the oil, the money, and most everything else, actually want us to stay home and shop on the ‘Net? What if they are slowly removing our options? Let’s face it, more and more stores of all kinds are going out of business seemingly like never before and that includes restaurants and fast-food places. Even new stores that are opening have paltry stock in them. We noticed this was the case recently when we went to a new health food grocery store in the area. It was terrible. The variety of items was dismal. We bought meat thinking it would be great, but when we got home and cooked it up, there was something terribly wrong about it. It was annoying enough for me to call their consumer hotline and complain. To make matters worse, we’ve been to their store that’s about an hour from us before this new one opened and it’s like two different worlds! The one further away is better, larger, has more items in stock and a better variety. The meat was much better too. What’s the difference? This new store is smaller physically and cannot stock enough of a variety, unless they stock one or two items of each.

I wonder where all this is leading us to? What will we see in five or ten years from now? Will grocery stores open to the public still exist or will consumers be forced to punch in their order online and either pick it up or have it delivered? That’s actually what grocery stores were like decades ago when they first opened. Are we heading back to that? It almost seems so because of the way things have changed over the years.

If you’re not familiar with the phrase “Agenda 21,” my suggestion is that you become familiar with it, because it appears to be working in the background, quietly changing society while removing rights and making it difficult for the average person to function in what has always been a “free” society. The government seems intent on creating a stranglehold on America’s resources and it doesn’t matter the harm that those regulations may cause people. Here’s a good place to start learning about it: Agenda 21? What is Agenda 21? Start there, but don’t end there.

Does Agenda 21 have anything to do with the failure of so many businesses and the increasing presence of businesses like Amazon on the ‘Net? I don’t know, but I do believe it plays into the hands of the people guiding Agenda 21.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective