Reflections on department stores

One thing that's true about the life cycle of business is reinforced by my last post. Industries start with a bunch of vibrant small players until consolidation begins, the industry matures and eventually declines.
Department stores grew in the late 19th and early 20th century by being all things to all people, selling clothes, home goods, luxury items, and offering exemplary service. Although Marshall Field's grew dominant, there were dozens of dry goods retailers in Chicago back then. Eventually Field's got big enough that it forced out the smaller players and controlled the market. But now it's in its dotage and little upstarts that specialize in one thing - like watches - are stealing market share.
Another thing about Field's - it was a racist outfit. Besides pricing at the top of the marketfor upper middle class whites, it never tried to attract immigrants who filled Chicago in it's ascendancy - other department stores did. And blacks were outright refused service. So I guess if the institution dies, it's getting its just desserts.

It's not lost on me that newspapers are susceptible to this cycle and are getting beat to death by their smaller competitors, a.k.a. Craigslist, Monster.com and other online ad venues. Don't let anybody fool you. Newspapers are not "competing" with blogs. Nobody reads blogs for local news, and most blogs link to the MSM anyway. The real competition is from other platforms that sell advertisements. Because the bottom line is, that's what newspapers make money on.