Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by ThePadawan | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

ThePadawan

Millennial here:

I can't remember the last time I went into a department store other than

* to eat in their integrated restaurant

* to go to their integrated supermarket

* because it was raining

View on HN

More reasons:

* To enjoy free AC on hot summer days.

In southern European countries were summers are very hot, humid and electricity is expensive it's nice to let someone else pay the bill.

Still, most department stores on western countries are being slowly closed since they aren't profitable. There's a mix of reasons like online websites (Amazon, Aliexpress), smaller middle class... They call this the retail apocalypse [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail_apocalypse

Hah. A heat-averse relative used to travel several blocks north and east in Washington, DC, going from department store to department store. But the stores she used in the 1950s were already closing before 1980. At this point, Macy's is the last real department store in downtown Washington.

Another millennial here, shsrig some memories from way, way back in my youth:

I remember toast in the cafe at the top of Beatties, and looking out the window to the streets below.

Going in to Debenhams to get an original chunky Xbox.

It's weird that I have memories from my early teenage years of the high street (had to go through it from secondary school to the bus stop), and there's no new memories as it's all vape shops, poundlands or franchise cafes now. :/

If you ever legalize marijuana, expect a million of those shops too.

Sincerely, Toronto and area where you can buy the same thing online and get it sent to your door for the same price.

I am concerned of a significant drop in the quality of air that surrounds the non-weed-smoking single mom of two young toddlers living in a block of flats encounters when the flats above, below, and to the side, are all occupied by legal weed smokers (And the majority of stores sell weed). Am I wrong to be concerned?

What pollutants are you thinking of, and which of them would travel through walls and floors?

I live in an apartment, and on a number of occasions I smelled weed. I don't know whether it harms my health at all or how it would compare to tobacco. The smell was a bit bothersome though.

I recently moved out of Barratt apartment that was built so poorly that I could smell the neighbor's smoke in the bathroom (which was in the middle of the place and had no windows).

Smoke also drifted in through windows.

Makes no difference if it's weed or tobacco.

I don't feel I need to specify pollutants at this point. The smell may be offensive, upsetting, linger. We can discuss potential harm that (along with the general air quality) additional secondhand weed smoke may have on the under three's lungs if you like.

In return, are you suggesting that air quality does not change and there is no need to be concerned in any way whatsoever? Or perhaps you are hinting that the air quality improves in such a scenario?

> Am I wrong to be concerned?

How do you feel if you substituted "tobacco" in your sentence?

I am still concerned. The toddlers have no choice. And living poor, the adult has few alternatives.

Birkenhead?!

* To go to toilets when traveling

Same here, with the exception of John Lewis, who are just plain great. Good prices, great selection, and a worker co-op to boot!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com