Some larger dealership chains flush with cash are already scooping up smaller rivals, hoping that scale will help them dominate this transformation. Dealers will hold fewer cars on the lot and operate more like service-and-delivery centers, using their dealerships as hubs where customers can pick up vehicles ordered online and get them serviced.

National chains, instead of local small businesses, will set prices and give salespeople less room to haggle.

The auto dealership, as a result, could soon look like other parts of the business world upended by e-commerce. It is a shift that started before the pandemic but accelerated over the last 18 months as Covid-19 spurred people to do more of their shopping from home and demand for cars unexpectedly surged. More of it is happening online as buyers get comfortable with completing transactions remotely. The way people buy and sell cars is changing. In towns across the country, local business titans lured customers to glass-walled showrooms and large asphalt lots, where buyers bargained for the best price. A longtime fixture of American life is looking for a new model as more auto purchases move online and national chains gobble up neighborhood showroomsДЇor nearly a century, the American car dealership has retained its iconic appearance even as technology transformed every corner of the business landscape.

Med ved auto