I think the anecdote you describe is showrooming. That's an example of showrooming: you've gone in and you've used the showroom, but you haven't actually made the purchase in the store. Now, presumably if they had an online store and their prices were competitive, they may have gotten the sale themselves online. But as part of this democratization, with everything becoming easier and less expensive, the fact that the barrier is lower means that there is also a lot more competition. Instead of having five bridal boutiques in this area, maybe you now have 100 bridal boutiques.
What I think it forces us to do as savvy business people is to be more creative. An example that I would give, taking a cue from your anecdote, is that if I went into that bridal boutique with my fiancée and we had the most unbelievable experience ever—we had champagne and we got an explanation of the types of garments, why they're made like this, and background on the designer—we might not necessarily care if it was cheaper to go online, because, all in all, the experience is better in the store. I think creativity is going to become the commodity, as opposed to just price.
The second thing I would say, going back to the La Bottega example, is that La Bottega wasn't able to retail the olive oils at a certain price point any longer because the original manufacturer of the olive oil was going direct to consumer. It forced La Bottega to create a private label brand called “La Bottega”. Now they have their own olive oil. They used that challenge and now have actually created an entire line of La Bottega-branded products.
So I think we have to be creative. I think that if we're going to accept technology, there are some challenges that come with it. I think the opportunities far outweigh the challenges, though.