What do a JP Morgan report on Nordstrom, a White House report on artificial intelligence, and the Crock Pot have to do with rural broadband? To learn more about the changing needs for connectivity and how you can help rural communications infrastructure, keep reading.
Somewhere in the not-too distant recesses of my mind I have memories of standing outside the Lazarus department store in downtown Columbus, Ohio, waiting for the doors to open at 10:00 a.m. Although I could not find an image or reference on-line, I remain convinced in my recollections that the front of the store facing High Street featured an immense set of pocket doors that retracted into the walls, leaving an expansive opening to the street. And, although I was or am too young to remember personally that customers could leave their cars for services appointments while shopping for clothes, I do remember ordering eyeglasses there and playing with the bank of Wurlitzer organs in the piano department. And, when I was older, visiting in between the time I got off work from my summer job and when night school began, looking for bargains in the Final Countdown section on the sixth floor.
These are memories my children probably will not have, and not because Lazarus closed more than a decade ago. Rather, the department store, generally, is in decline, according to many reports.
Jim Cramer of CNBC reported earlier this week that JP Morgan downgraded Nordstrom, noting that foot traffic in the retailer’s brick-and-mortar stores are at their lowest point in more than 40 years. Cramer observed, “The better Nordstrom’s website becomes, the less incentive you have to actually go to their stores. In other words, they are cannibalizing themselves.”