We live in a time when we have everything, but we are trapped in a life of nothing

Referring to the century-old store and the disappearing physical retail industry, the former chairman of Bonton said: "The great thing about retail is face-to-face communication. Interactions with customers, face-to-face interactions with managers, face-to-face interactions with colleagues."

"Some people have been in our department stores for 50 years. Bunton is like a community."

This may be the "nearby disappearance" proposed by Professor Xiang Biao of Oxford University.

We no longer care about the life of the nearby 500 meters, but the desire for immediate gratification: updated hot spots, more direct feedback, faster delivery speed.

Amazon's "Fulfillment Centre" for warehousing and shipping is like a metaphor for our times: fulfillment means both "fulfillment" and "fulfillment."

Xiang Biao put forward: A trend in the development of modern society is to "eliminate the neighborhood."

Soon, fresh food platforms replaced wet markets, online shopping replaced shopping, and online chatting replaced meeting.

Thirteen Invitations: Sociologist Xiang Biao Talks about "Nearby"

McGillis also writes in his book:

Not many people are crying over the loss of parking lots and food courts. But it's not just malls and plazas that have disappeared

The fewer opportunities one has to buy goods face to face in one's own city, the fewer opportunities one has to meet one's needs in a physical space.

Online shopping has brought us countless products and the convenience of "one-click order", but it will also cause a series of chain reactions: the real economy continues to decline, and traditional communities have been devastated; Squeezed by monopolies, small and medium-sized retailers are struggling; Workers are trapped in a high-pressure efficiency system and lose their dignity as workers.

The deaths of workers, the cries of small businesses, the cries of protesters, the inquiries of the United States Congress, and the warning of the future are all encapsulated in Alec McGillis's "Keeping a Bill."