Goodbye, Jysk

Final sale
London, ON
October 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

What happens when retail stores die? Funny you should ask.

We went out for ice cream not that long ago, and as I happily devoured my cherry-flavored cone on the sidewalk out front, I noticed the big box store next door had quietly gone out of business.

The emptiness saddened me, though I quickly reminded myself that I hadn’t shopped there - for plasticky storage solutions - in, well, forever. So perhaps its disappearance was my fault.

Blame notwithstanding, the aesthetic of a giant, empty, fluorescent-lit store in the corner of a shadowy strip mall struck me as emblematic of a landscape undergoing generational change. So it was a preordained certainty that I’d frame up my smartphone against the shuttered front door and grab the photo.

The result you see here betrays the retail logic that not so long ago dominated the cities and towns we call home. That logic was fairly simple: retailers could print money if they built the right store in the right location.

We don’t shop the same way anymore, of course, and as I stare into the empty store not far from my house and ponder the why, I’m guessing it became just as easy to find Tupperware(™)-like storage boxes on Amazon.

I’m not sure where the e-commerce revolution leaves places like this. I don’t know who or what will fill the giant spaces in the urban or suburban landscape rendered obsolete by our Digital Age ability to buy anything we can imagine by pulling our smartphones. Similarly, I’m not sure what post-tech cities will look like when the once-dominant icons of local commerce cease to exist.

I do know, however, that the aesthetic of dead retail speaks to me. And I’d feel my own form of emptiness if I didn’t record the transition as it plays out not only in my own neighborhood, but anywhere we all used to congregate.

Where we all go next is anyone’s guess. Hopefully the ice cream store sticks around.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #masonville #random #retail #store #retailapocalypse #jysk #street #streetphotography #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded