One of the things that stood out to me most from my trip to Costa Rica was the importance of physical storefronts and sales within the country. I believe that this stems from a quirk in the country’s road system – the street names aren’t visible or widely used, and houses aren’t numbered. Because of this, and the fact that virtually all residential doorways are barred and recessed, it would be nearly impossible to deliver packages directly to a customer’s door, as is common in the United States. In lieu of Amazon and online shopping, Costa Rica had an abundance of stores filled with clothing, household goods, furniture, and just about anything else you could think of. By far the most striking example of the physically-dominated consumer culture in the country were the massive luxury malls. I had a chance to visit one of them, and the atmosphere, restaurant, and storefronts were on par with the nicest malls in the US. Except, where an American mall might have only a few customers there for specific items, the Costa Rican malls are filled with people of all ages, from children running and playing to retirees perusing the shops. Malls are alive and well in Costa Rica, along with the entire ritual of commuting to a physical location in order to buy a product. In the US, that habit has largely faded, replaced by the ease of online shopping, but it has fundamentally changed our buying habits. These differences in medium impacts almost every process for retailers, from the supply chain to marketing.