Remember the first time that traditional retail stores were supposed to disappear due to competition from online outlets? Amazon introduced the Kindle, a bunch of bookstores eventually closed, and plenty of pundits envisioned the same thing happening in a host of other retail niches. Take a walk through the downtown of any busy city, and you will quickly see that reports of the death of traditional retail were greatly exaggerated. It’s not just that traditional retail can still thrive, but that we have access to a more diverse, eclectic mix of small business than ever before!