Business relics

The bank teller should have done such a good job that I didn’t want to bank online.

• Bank tellers lost to online banking, at the expense of a human guide. Tellers should have appreciated their roles as guides.
• Bookstores lost to Amazon, at the expense of expert curation. The experts should have appreciated their roles as leaders.
• Local markets lost to supermarkets, at the expense of the local community. Store owners should have appreciated their roles as community builders.
• Newspapers lost to online news, at the expense of retention and the rise of fake news. Publishers should have appreciated the undivided attention and trust they received.

As they fell in love with their medium, rather than their customers, the transformation into relics began. Had these relics spearheaded innovation themselves, perhaps we’d have modern marvels without losing what made their earlier works so special.