The convenience of paying bills online etc is in my view great though I accept maybe there is a social aspect missing. The other thing I don’t miss are travel agents. One has to wonder about the privitisation of utilities and whether it was a success.
Supermarkets (the big 4/5 in UK and others elsewhere) have sucked out all the local businesses and offshored the profits taking money from the local economies. Living in London for 30 years I saw the disappearance of local butchers, bakers and independent off-licenses amongst others. It was a shame. The manufacturing base the UK used to have moved away to places where labour was cheaper. Ireland (Rep) never really had one in the first place though two factories in the town I am from making shoes (Clarks) and Cigarettes are now long gone. There are some new ones, Paypal being one. 😀
Now we have the problem taxing multinational corporations especially, though not exclusively, big tech with Ireland being a holdout. I don’t think that can last and I’m not proud of Ireland for that.
I don’t have a problem with online shopping and in terms of climate/energy usage it makes sense having one delivery van drop off 50 people’s shopping than 50 people getting in their vehicles and going to the shop. I see this is where it is going though I again accept there is a missing social aspect to it. That social aspect will have to be replaced with something.