vtsnowedin wrote:And with what fuel will the online stores deliver their products to you?
It's a hell of a lot more efficient for the brown UPS truck (or other brand equivalent) to drive an optimized route and drop off hundreds of packages, than have everyone travel to a retail store, miles away on average. It will be decades before such delivery is really unaffordable, but if FF's get expensive then there will be a delivery surcharge. We already saw some of that in 2008. Inconvenience. Not doom.
Oh, and the fuel will be what is most practical. UPS is experimenting with electric delivery vans, NG delivery vans, etc. Such business look ahead and try to be prepared, which is one of the reasons they are competing successfully.
vtsnowedin wrote:I think you will end up walking to the nearest B&M store that sits next to a rail line to pick up your order you had sent by rail to them with an online order.
In how many decades? Five? There is a LOT of NG and coal. There is also a LOT of oil, though it might get rather expensive.
People can adapt and will adapt if forced to. If oil gets to something like $20 on a sustained basis, the fuel will be predominantly green electricity. NG and coal might still fire some of the electricity, depending on how the green energy curve ramps up.
Again, not doom. Change. Perhaps more cost and inconvenience. But we put up with some of that all the time -- it's called living on a more crowded planet.