What happens to all the Wal-marts when we have every last Q-tip droned in from Amazon warehouses?
John Hermann describes “the lowest-hanging science fiction prompt in any given town,” where there is in fact little need for multiple 30,000 square foot churches, libraries or prison labor centers.
Perhaps there is an efficiency to be found, here:
…after destroying those retailers, they can turn those buildings into distribution centers. Those warehouses will be supplied on one side by the trucking industry, which is surprisingly close to automation, and accessed on the other by people using their cars to deliver Amazon orders to their neighbors for a few extra freelance dollars. Then, finally, when those cars drive themselves, those old buildings will settle into their role as a nodes in a new retail economy which would be based, much like the one before it, around cars, with the difference that you rarely leave your house except to fetch products that you can somehow afford from the ground-drone or sky-drone waiting in what used to be your driveway. Speaking of which, those big flat Walmart roofs will make great quadcopter pads.