It's that time of the election cycle when a few rich buttheads get together and openly mock each other until a quarter of the American electorate says one of them can be in charge of all our nukes. One of the big topics in every election cycle is the role of small business in society. Something that grinds my gears is this ongoing trope that small businesses are mom and pop stores down the street, and that they face serious pressure from the big bad online stores. It's my personal and absolutely biased opinion that in 21st century commerce, mom and pop are online. Actually, it seems that more and more, brick and mortar shops are the domain of big business that can afford the overhead of a traditional location, while ecommerce has been a boon for the small startups, boutique brands and family-owned businesses more than anyone else due to the low overhead and massive audience that can be achieved relatively quickly.

Maybe it's not much of an issue compared to gun control or abortion or civil rights, but what do you guys think? Should politicians favor the traditional brick and mortar shop over online entities? Perhaps more importantly, what role do you think brick and mortar shops will play in near to mid future?