Many sellers I know were able to keep their physical locations afloat by using the internet to supplement their businesses, so maybe that will be the case here.

rather than give up their dreams, they re-crafted them and jumped into the world of e-commerce

Which is what the guy who owns the card shop says he might do. But it still doesn’t cushion the blow of losing a physical location where the regular patrons had built a community, including kids keeping themselves out of trouble after school.

I tried to figure out why I had such a strong reaction (after all, I read stuff everyday that I don’t agree with, and I don’t feel compelled to say anything), and I think it’s because I started my business on eBay and that gives me a unique perspective.

I spent several years running an eBay store, and in the process became a part of the eBay community – posting in forums, answering questions in the answer center, etc.

Along the way, I encountered droves of people just like the ones you mention in your article – small business owners who found themselves losing business, or having to close their B & M store altogether – because of competition with larger businesses. But rather than give up their dreams, they re-crafted them and jumped into the world of e-commerce.

They – like me – found themselves getting a crash course in web design, marketing, photography, copy writing, and SEO just to make their eBay businesses viable. Those are difficult subjects to master, and most people vastly underestimate how much work it is to run an online business. (Only my husband and God know how much time I’ve spent on mine…)

I like what you say here (see, I can be positive!): “Let’s look below the surface a bit, where I believe we’ll find that not all small businesses are appreciative of the “opportunity” that the internet presents.”

You’re right, not everyone finds it easy to leave one dream behind and latch onto another one. It is a ton of work and success can be elusive. But in that case, wouldn’t the true enemy be the fear of change, not the internet? I think that was the point I was trying to make in my ramblings.

The gist of your post, as I read it, is that the internet can be an enemy of small business. But that’s not really true, is it? Small businesses have always been at the mercy of larger ones, even when they were all brick & mortar. You’re blaming the venue, which is a misdirection.

Well, I’m not blaming anything – the business owners are. But if you don’t think the internet can be the enemy for some, I’d again suggest the examples used in my post — small bookstores, small music shops, etc. I’m a music fan and grew up frequenting independent record shops. I still try to to this day, 20-25 years later. But it’s tough, because many of them are long gone. I think it would be naive to think the early popularity of CDNOW and then the rise of Amazon had nothing to do with those shops shutting down.

That’s not a knee-jerk reaction, that’s a fundamental principle of business that applies to everyone, small businesses and large businesses alike.

I agree it’s fundamental, and perhaps “kneejerk” wasn’t the best word choice. My point there was to say, essentially, let’s not just turn our eyes and dismiss these kinds of stories, let’s not just stay on the surface. Let’s look below the surface a bit, where I believe we’ll find that not all small businesses are appreciative of the “opportunity” that the internet presents.

This is so misleading:

With all due respect, I don’t appreciate the suggestion that I’m misleading my readers. The sentence I wrote which you quoted is not misleading; it’s an accurate summary of the newspaper article. If you’re referring to the article as being misleading, then I apologize for this part of my comment. But it appears you’re suggesting that I’m misleading people.