@socal:
You're mixing success of online shopping with need for physical stores.
The two can co-exist and the proliferation of one doesn't necessarily mean the demise of the other. There are many things that most people can only buy in person. Browsing through those online clothes stores, you can't try something on to see if it fits or how it looks on you, you have to order it first, then try it on and if you don't like it, ship it back... not very convenient. My wife orders some clothes online, but when she returns it, she goes to the store to do so.
I have always bought shoes in person, because each brand/style fits differently. For those hardware store examples you mentioned, what about the rest of the stuff? Nuts/bolts, tools, wood, brick, tile, plants? Some of that becomes cost ineffective or shipping ineffective... I would much rather get a piece of lumber cut at the hardware store than try to order it online... or buy a plant/shrub/flower flat from a physical store than shipmeplants.com.
You buy ALL your clothing online... you are in the minority, more people buy clothes in person. If Home Depot and Lowe's sales were mostly online, they wouldn't have physical stores. Are you going to tell me that MOST people buy their groceries online? I know you go to the grocery store... why? I think you are in the minority again. What was the name of that online grocery site that was all the hype and failed... HomeGrocer.com?
http://www.investopedia.com/financi...s-why-online-grocery-shopping-is-failing.aspx
Some of those reasons apply to other products.
Maybe one day, brick&mortar will go away... but until advances in the first leg (browsing/shopping) and the last leg (delivery to the customer), those will always be the speedbumps to online becoming the majority. And don't get me wrong, many things have gone into or are going majority online (music, apps, movies/tv)... but as long as something is still physical... well.. it's still physical.