The world of retail was a simpler place in the year 1900. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) “100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending,” the average U.S. household earned about $750 a year (or about $21,000 a year adjusted for inflation). With small reserves of cash,...
As this goes to press (so to speak), the annual NCAA March Madness tournament is rounding off the Sweet-16 round. There’s been plenty to watch as the tournament is hitting the halfway mark. UVA fans have been relieved to see their top seeded team not...
Shopping in the early 20th century was not a terribly efficient experience for the consumer. Buying meat was one market, seafood another, produce yet another — and bread or dessert required a trip to the baker. The concept of one-stop shopping had not entered the...
In 1995 a computer scientist working at Kaleida Labs named John Wainwright made history when he bought a book. The book was Douglas Hofstadter’s “Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies: Computer Models Of The Fundamental Mechanisms Of Thought,” which on its own would not have been historically...
There is something to be said for being a happy warrior, and Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran was certainly one this week when he spoke of Walmart’s ongoing battle with Amazon for control of the consumer’s whole paycheck. Foran described it as a “David and Goliath” battle...
There is a possibly apocryphal story of Amazon’s early days (around 2001) where Founder Jeff Bezos was invited to Bentonville, Arkansas to discuss the possibility of Walmart purchasing his still young – and, at this point, struggling – online bookstore. But Bezos really didn’t want to...
