

Shopping changes more every day as businesses strive to figure out what customers want and how to convince them to buy it. Go to a store to find a product, pick it up and drive home? That's yesterday's model. Now you order it online and it comes in the mail. Or you order it online and drive to the store where an employee puts it in your car. Easy enough.

An increasingly popular option is the subscription model: You don't just subscribe to newspapers and magazines. Now you can subscribe to cleaning products, video streaming, clothing and more.

Nike has decided it wants a piece of that sweet subscription action. Why not? Selling shoes isn't as easy as it once was. Neither is anything else. (Trust us.)

This is what an online shopping economy has done to old-fashioned souls like us who don't trust that the picture of shoes we see on Amazon or Walmart websites will fit on arrival. It's turned what was once a normal activity (with those fun metal foot size measuring devices) into an awkward chore without any guarantees.

Nike's shoe subscription idea sounds odd, but then again so did getting into a stranger's car you summoned with a phone for a ride. This is 2019.

Here's more on the upcoming service from CNBC: "The No. 1 sneaker retailer in the U.S. is launching a subscription service for kids called Nike Adventure Club. It will allow parents to order shoes for their kids ages 2 to 10 either on a quarterly, bimonthly or monthly basis, paying monthly fees of $20, $30 or $50, respectively. The last option shaves off $10 per pair of Nike shoes purchased, with the average kids' sneaker retailing for $60."

You save a little money, and Nike gets repeat customers' debit or credit cards to charge every month. Having shoes pop up in the mailbox monthly as your old ones wear out or your size changes does sound convenient.

But for now most of us will just keep wandering zombie-like through the aisles of Walmart, Shoe Carnival or JCPenney, staring at prices and sizes until our brains finally have had enough and grab at a box. Old dogs and all that.

Until, perhaps, 2020.

Editorial on 08/14/2019

Print Headline: EDITORIAL: Subscriptions everywhere

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