Online Shopping and the IKEA Bus Stop

City Hall is responsible for how your city is run. Amongst other things, it owns buses and trains, determines which bus goes where, and which routes are discontinued, when passengers stop using them. Factories for example. They are usually outside the city perimeter, so if they shut down permanently because the government has sent jobs to China, City Hall pulls out buses that used to service that industrial area.

Then there’s shopping. The mall is the last stop of most buses, which also makes it the first stop, when the bus takes shoppers back home. The mayor and business are in sync. We are the object of their desire. They follow us. Business wants us to flock to furniture shops, hardware stores, mega stores, restaurants, factory outlets, cinemas, ball games etc. Mayors like the sound of the cash register, taxing their profits.

How do we get to these places? In north America, most people have cars but, there are also millions who take the bus or the train. The mayor makes sure that routes to high-density shopping places are well serviced. IKEA, the big furniture store is a good example of the unholy alliance between City Hall and big business. In Toronto, there’s a IKEA bus stop. Winnipeg has one. I don’t know about other Canadian cities, probaby they also have a bus stop, created especially for this Swedish store.

Well and good. Then disaster strikes. Online shopping. We punch our phones and laptops and order sheets, desks, laundry bags, you name it. IKEA delivers for a fee. In fact, we don’t have to buy from them. We can defect to the competition. The bus computer shows a decrease in passengers, although they’ll always be those that go to IKEA for the meatballs.

The mayor becomes worried, because if more people do online shopping, buses will run empty and he might be forced to reduce the number and finally pull the plug on the IKEA bus stop.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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