Education & Work What industries have gone extinct dramatically downsized?

Why didn't you send for an uber rather than walking?

 

A what? It was 1985.

 

Macca's have free wi-fi, so no idea why you'd go to a specific internet cafe.

A friend opened a music store mere 12 months before online music took off and they lost a bundle - local video ezy (country town) finally closed 6 months ago

 

In my view improvements in technology will have a much larger impact over the next 20-30 years.

See this article for some inspiration on the change AEV's will bring: 73 Mind-Blowing Implications of a Driverless Future

Many low skilled or graduate jobs will be replaced by automation, robots or some form of tech. For example:

• Self-checkout across the board, simply by taking things off the shelf (Inside Amazon Go, a Store of the Future)
• All fast food will be self-order through in-store computers or apps, most kitchen jobs will be replaced by robots.
• Many research positions (e.g. finding relevant cases via legal research) will be replaced by artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Legal Practice | Legal Insight).
  
• Supermarkets and warehouses will have robots performing restocking and movement of stock, probably packaging and shipping too.
• AEV's (including drones) are likely to replace a lot of delivery drivers (from your local pizza shop to your mail order items).

This is the tip of the iceberg.

 

Book stores,
and yeah, I didnt get the whole internet cafe model,

they were like $2 per hour for internet, you needed good machines and a good expensive internet connection,


unless you were up selling food or alcohol, dont know how any of them any made any money

also surprised that the likes of Myer and DJ are still around

 

I can tell you what has not decreased business: Exotic dancing industry has NOT reduced in value despite information/video/data more easily available.

 

They did quite well back in the day of dial ups. I remember a mate who liked to splash dollars was on $110/month Optus Cable plans capped at 2 gig a month before being thrown back on to slow speeds. I think from memory Telstra prices were even more ridiculous at the time.

I had a mate who ran an Internet cafe and he made a bit but was hit quite hard down the track because he didn't get out soon enough.

It would be really interesting from the above posts on future developments and what this thread would look like in say 2025? Personally I can't wait till what drones can do in the delivery space.

Would we still be typing in forums and not like using voice via google to type or meet and see each other whilst discussing in a "virtual forum"? LOL.

 

The ones that caught my eye were in tourist towns like Cairns where they sold tours with hefty commission. They would have done well.

 

Fax machine/typewriter shops.

 

Me too. They've been looking very sick for years. Even discount department stores are struggling. The mall, largely, replaced the department store.

It's been said for a while that physical retail will be dead by the end of the year (2014?, 2015?, 2021?) - replaced by online. Yet the big Westfield malls continue to expand and fill with specialty stores.

 

Will be interesting to see what happens to all the service station real estate once electric cars fully take off. Some of them may be charge stations I guess but you'll largely be able to do that at home some they will mostly be redundant.

 

I just spent up big at Harris Scarf this week. Good prices, clean store, excellent service. They can compete if they keep the retailing simple and take on professional hard working staff.

 

Service stations in cities are largely convenience stores now, and will continue to be so. Rural one's may become charging stations. The big freeway ones will continue to be food courts.

 

Some rural ones replace supermarket with healthy margins for operators. I think there will be a contraction with rural supermarkets causing more of this.

 

And you took your purchases home immediately and used, or looked at them. Online doesn't arrive for a few days, and then, invariably you have to go to a post office to pick them up. It's mostly not convenient. Physical retail is not dead - not even sick. Department stores maybe.

 

In many cases the lease is very restrictive on the retail component.

 

I'm more curious what happens to these oil rich nations when every car becomes electric

 

True, but 90% of people are only there to buy petrol even if they do Make more pushing snickers bars on you at the till. Have to get the people in there first.

 

I think the disappearance of rental video stores and taxis will look very small fry compared to the changes coming inthe next few decades.

I believe the IT experts when they say we are on the cusp of another major shift in society similar to the industrial revolution with the rate of progress in AI/machine learning, robotics, selfdriving vehicle's, VR, 3d printing, big data analysis etc. It is not unreasonable to see a future in which massive sections of our economy are made completely redundant by this progress.

Not just limited to basic tasks either, think medicine, law, finance, logistics, construction, engineering, mining, agriculture and obviously manufacturing. No industry is immune. Best protected are those roles that are truly creative, or involve human to human interaction/care. Major shifts in society and how people earn an income will be needed.

 

Yep. The pace of change in the future will never be slower than it is right now.... it's so easy to get information from everywhere in the world now, and it will even speed up even more. With that will come rapid advancements in technology. Easier collaboration.
Just gotta embrace change.