SELINSGROVE – As more people turn to online shopping, it’s easy to question the future of retail in the United States…including impact in The Valley.
Dr. Matt Rousu, Interim Dean of Sigmund Weis School of Business and Professor of Economics at Susquehanna University says companies such as Amazon have doubled in size the last few years. While Dr. Rousu believes this trend will continue putting pressure on retailers, he says there are still some advantages for buyers to travel to stores.
“There are still some times where it’s much easier to get in the car and pick up something, but online shopping’s not going away. So this downward pressure should continue to happen until what economists would say is a new equilibrium, where’s there’s fewer stores than there would be in the absence of the ease of buying things online,” he said.
Even as online shopping continues expanding, professor Rousu still doesn’t foresee an immediate end of retail, “I think the idea of the end of retail’s overblown. It’s just there’s some that pressure where you locate matters and I don’t think there’s pressure on retail stores is going to go away anytime soon.” You can listen to the rest of Dr. Rousu’s WKOK Sunrise interview online at WKOK.com. (Matt Catrillo)
