ThisIsRetail #20
Welcome to ThisIsRetail, your weekly look at some of the more diverse and unexpected stuff influencing the way we buy, sell and consume in the 21st century.
This week we're exploring the tangled thread of innovations running through the department stores of yesteryear to today's 'Everything Store'. And if we can learn anything from Sears' 'Book of Bargains', A.J. Frieman's 'Vis-O-Matic', or CompuServe's 'Electonic Mall', it's that time marches on and nothing lasts forever.
Amazon, even you are on notice.
An Illustrated History of the Department Store
They changed the way we shop and influenced culture right around the world, from Victorian London to Soviet-era Moscow [BBC Culture]
The Rise & Fall of Sears
From a 19th century mail-order firm, to its heyday on Main Street and in suburban malls (and then back again), Sears mirrored the ups and downs of the American economy [Smithsonian]
Look to the Future
How one Canadian Department Store tried to revolutionise distance shopping when it opened what we'd now recognise as a 'showroom' - 1950's style [Smithsonian]
Back to the Future
A retail giant that shipped millions of products by mail moved swiftly into the brick-and-mortar business, changing it forever. Sounds familiar? How the history of Sears predicts nearly everything Amazon is doing [The Atlantic]
It Started with a Click
From a CD of Sting's 'Ten Summoner's Tales' ($12.48 + P&P) to subscription toilet paper. Really, how did we get here... and where are we heading? [Wired]
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