Yeah, last time my childhood was hit that much was when the Toys´R´Us (which is actually a few blocks from that) had its entire first floor replaced by a shoestore(and that was years before the current crisis). Because there need to be soooo many shoes! 
That’s a weird one, because toys would be a fairly sustainable market, you’d think. Our Toys r Us only closed about a couple of months ago. But I guess cheaper online equivalents have chased them out.
And that is the part I will never get.
What could ever replace the excitement of going to the toy store on a weekend with your parents? Sitting next to them while they´re browsing for toys for you on their laptop?
I´m really glad to have been a child when I was, it seems.
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Indeed. Most of them are probably even browsing themselves, these days, sigh.
Your grumpy old man demeanour appears to be contagious 
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(I´d rather have a rocking chair, but I´ll take what I can get from you, discourse!)
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How about an old people’s home chair? 
probably an aeroplane chair but looks the same
Toys were one of the first products that were sold successful via the Internet (together with books and computer stuff). Here all smaller toy shops closed 10 or 15 years ago.
Today everything is sold via the Internet - except bets and fresh made coffee.
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Yeah, I guess that’s true, especially with the smaller ones that were just driven out of business.
I sometimes wonder if I’m the only person who likes to look at things before I buy them. I do a lot more online shopping than I used to, but only for quite specific, generic things.
Cudtomer service in shops has gone wayyyyy down though, which doesn’t help their case. Long gone are the days where it was a benefit to be able to ask questions of an expert shop assistant. Wasn’t that long ago I went into a big, famous department store looking for a cravat and they didn’t know what it was.
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I dunno, I don´t want to end like the old lady from Gremlins.
What stops people from submitting them via an online platform?
Plus there seems to be a great desire for them to stay anonymous (like with Sex Shops) because you can never look inside the windows of the betting shops since they always plaster these giant wall tattoes all over them. So wouldn´t betting online be more comfortable instead of having to go to one of a billion places in town?
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The problem is: I am forced to buy online. For example our books shop had a huge section with computer books until the end of the 90s. Now they have one tiny book shelve. If I would like to buy a computer book I have to order it online. The same is now starting with shoes: Most shops offer each model once in each size. If I enter the store the most common shoe size is gone. So again I have to order the shoes in the Internet.
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It’s forbidden in Germany.
Yeah so the betting has to have a stately blessing. But there are also online casinos that are legal because of that so why not the betting?
Yeah, I don´t personally feel like I had an active part in killing the businesses because I went for the online shopping. I went for the online shopping because I couldn´t find the music/books/movies/etc. I was searching for in the shops. They disappeared and closed before I could abandon them.
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That was a small exception: Schleswig-Hollstein has given licenses to some online casinos for a (short) period. So they are still legal, but AFIAK the licenses are expiring in the next month. (I don’t know the actual state at the moment.)
I can´t imagine they just stop, because they should get some cuts due to the monopoly, right?
I remember some casinos had to remove the word “Casino” from their advertisement and billboards recently because the word “Casino” was outlawed for all non state santioned businesses.
Is the problem with the online business that it is harder to regulate? Why not just make it mandatory to have a local adress and be done with it? Do they have to be able to locate offices they could seize if they needed to which is admittedly a bit harder with an internet business?
Uhm, I really don’t know, because I never had anything to do with online casinos. 
A lot of foreign online casinos have pages in German. Even if they aren’t allowed to let Germans “play”, they just ignore that law.
The main problem is AFAIK, that the (online) casinos have to prevent gambling addiction in some way.
Oh, and don’t forget the manicure salons and nail bars …
Those are great! I love passing by them and making eye contact with the people inside, they always have that guilty look on them like I just caught them with their pants down, it´s hilarious! 
I like to stop in front of the windows of those freaky gyms in which there are people running on the treadmill, seeking for eye contact.
I should do that eating an ice cream or any high-fat food*
*C.A.O.S.R.
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A friend of mine actually owned a studio once and when I noted there were TV screens on the ceiling above the treadmills I suggested exactly that to him that there should be clips of people eating ice cream or any high-fat foods running non stop on them. He found the idea very funny (but I don´t think he ever took the suggestion. 
)
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