But What Will We Buy?

I was going down the escalator in the HMV shop in London yesterday when it occurred to me that soon everyone in this bustling, busy, store would have no reason to be there. In a few years only those who want hardware will actually need to turn up. All the music, movies and games will be available digitally via the Internet. If you factor in piracy, we are pretty much there now I suppose.

I began to wonder what we will actually go out buy in the future. I think that people's love of shopping will drive them out of the house to purchase stuff, but I'm not sure what they will actually take home. Maybe the entertainment vendors will still let us take boxes home, but now they will just contain keys to downloaded material. Maybe eventually all the media shops will vanish. In the future the high street will contain nothing but clothes shops, chemists and Starbucks......