A dedicated Home Page for each of the participating individual retailers would be linked directly to the Web Site and accessed immediately by a click on our home computers. The Internet is becoming an excellent venue for retailers to advertise products and services. An expanded community-based service could include home delivery within the Village and, perhaps, many of the surrounding communities. Customers always would have the option of picking-up their orders. For the smaller retailers who lack adequate packing resources and shipping facilities, the expertise of the staff at our local MailBoxes, Etc., on Franklin Avenue, could help to play an important role in the success of this part of a community-wide effort.
Internet shopping is now a reality of the retail market place.
Its continued growth within the home consumer markets, as presently projected to take place over the next several years, is expected to reach near mega-size proportions. The quintessential point that our Garden City retail business community must now face is whether to move quickly to the head of the line and be amongst the first to develop an authentic community-based shoppers mall on the Internet. The alternative is to wait and do little or nothing in this realm. And, probably, to fall behind. In such an event, it would be a safe bet to expect that the retail interests of our local business community will continue to lose out to the various specialty, outlet and discount stores that prosper in the surrounding communities and malls.