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I predict that e-shopping will never replace or even equal l-shopping. [live shopping]. At least that is, until e-shopping can match the instant gratification of l-shopping. So I offer worried e-tailers this halfbaked bagel.
Let's go back before the 1920s to when all the retailers came to your door
- the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker etc. They fascinated me, as a small boy. As I saw it, the housewive's life then was not nearly as bad as it's been painted. She enjoyed instant-instant shopping. The mall came to her.
Could the e-tailers learn from those bygone days and in some situations shorten delivery time by maintaining stocked-up roving vans in constant communication with main storage?
Charles Kuralt goes High Tech
http://www.halfbake...0goes_20High_20Tech We've been looking for something for this wired bus to actually *do* as its progress across the country is displayed on its website. Maybe it should deliver milk and eggs. [jutta, Nov 07 2000]
pubwan semi trailer
http://www.brightid...10AD3FB}&bucket_id= information about goods in these trailers would be public knowledge [LoriZ, Nov 07 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]
Schwan's
http://www.schwans.com/ The frozen food distributor company submitinkmonkey mentions. [jutta, Mar 05 2007]
[link]
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The service rayfo describes could be built up from the other side, not by having e-tailers pre-stock their vans, but by providing existing vans in low-population areas with a web presence.
You could check where the ice-cream van is now, when it's expected to be here, and schedule a stop unless they've run out of vanilla heath-bar crunch *again*. |
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This removes the need for instant delivery on a whim, replacing it with predictable, forseeable availability - the cheaper public transportation alternative, so to speak.
A shop that's open for a short while is much better than no shop at all, as long as you can predict when and where that short while is. |
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//Remember the milkman?// |
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Yes Peter, but is the milk pasteurized? |
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jutta: Would that obviate the need for the ice-cream van to play bits of Brahms' lullaby at high volume (and highly distorted) day after day? I certainly hope so. |
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(UK ICVs play such music as they do their rounds - and it is excruciating on summer days.) |
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Well, we could resurrect Kozmo. |
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Selection is a bit of an issue. |
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In the US there's a company called Schwann's that drives around neighborhoods with refrigerated trucks and knocks on your door to see if you want any groceries today - so already partially-baked. Now if they'd just bring me kitty litter and toilet paper... |
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//Yes Peter, but is the milk pasteurized?// |
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Some people forget how much we really lose in the quality of food by using preservative methods. I want fresh baked bread delivered to my doorstep, each morning, still warm from the oven. I want cows milk straight from the cow. No endocrine-disrupting preservatives. No flavor-removing processes. |
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