The Past and The Future
Much of the future of retail has its roots in what exists today. People will continue to have a need or desire to buy something, whether it be a pear, a pair of pants, or a sailboat. It also seems that the need and urge to buy things in stores traverses time. Going back a few thousand years, archeologists have found remnants of stores that were set up in Ancient Greece and Rome. Currently, we still have physical stores where people go to buy things. Going back to the early 1900s, there were some mail-order catalogs where you could order items. The Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog was a very prominent example. Sears, Roebuck and Company had actually started in 1892 as a completely mail-order company, with its physical retail stores only opening up starting in the 1920s.
The idea of ordering something without having to go to a store and having it delivered directly to you is certainly not a new one.
Figure 7.16: Photo credit: Sears, Roebuck and...
