It's going to have to require people to rethink their behaviour first and foremost. There is awareness in the community now about the concept of "buy local" . Also, one need only look at how many people have boycotted shopping at Walmart because of Walmart's business practises. A similar public awareness as to Amazon's business model and how it is devastating the retail landscape needs to happen.
Amazon is seen as somehow being cool or hip by many young people because they are associated with the computer age and something other than traditional brick and mortar stores. But maybe the guys who lay the bricks and mortar should really start thinking about how a company that builds a few warehouses across North America is slowly going to put all the brick layers on unemployment. (And I'm speaking metamorphically about brick layers).
And if public awareness doesn't stem the tide, then perhaps a municipal Levy against every sale Amazon makes in Toronto might help. Amazon makes a shit Load of money selling goods in Toronto, but gives $0.00 back to Toronto. That needs to change.
I was walking down on Queen West a few months ago and my favourite sex shop (Come as you Are) is now gone. A victim of the changing retail landscape. They only market their dildos on line now. I dunno about you, but when I'm buying my sex toys, I like to see what I'm getting. Also, I noticed a large number of empty stores on both Queen St and Bloor West (in Bloor West Village).
Boycotting of Amazon, Walmart, etc is silly and totally ineffective. These companies are behemoths and any small dip in sales in one area is minuscule in the grand scheme of things. The reality is that for a lot of people, online shopping beats traditional shopping pretty much every time. Some people are working odd hours and don't have the time or patience to drive to a mall, fight for parking, fight people inside the mall, and then fight to get out of the mall.
Funny that you mentioned that Amazon is only cool or hip by young people because my 75 year old dad quite likes shopping there. He is tired of going to a big box store and fight through traffic and parking just to find that the store doesn't have what he's looking for. Online shopping lets him research what he wants, read detail reviews, and shop on his own time.
This statement makes absolutely no sense: "Amazon makes a shit Load of money selling goods in Toronto, but gives $0.00 back to Toronto. That needs to change." You realize you pay HST on online orders right? And Amazon pays property taxes, utilities, etc on the buildings it has around the GTA as well as payroll taxes.
As for adapting to the online threat, major retailers are already changing their business processes. For example: Best Buy, Loblaws and Wal-Mart have online ordering with in-store pickup. So that saves people time from having to roam around the store. We'll have to see how that changes things.
If anything, online has actually helped some business because they no longer require heavy overhead with a physical store front. You can market and sell your goods online with practically zero overhead.
