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This is the heart of it. In 1993 they cancelled their "catalog", which was the amazon.com of it's day. If they had had the foresight they would have put that on

This is the heart of it. In 1993 they cancelled their "catalog", which was the amazon.com of it's day. If they had had the foresight they would have put that online. Same interstate tax savings, same larger selection. I once worked for an online savings / coupon site that had been a catalog ordering company and transitioned the right way (ShopAtHome.com) from a printed catalog business in the early 90's, and had great respect for the founder's insight in doing so.

mark-r 11y ago
The interstate tax savings only works if you have no physical presence in a state. Since Sears was everywhere, it wasn't a possibility for them. Amazon got so much flak for taking advantage of this, they finally decided it was easier to open warehouses everywhere and charge the taxes. But that opened up the possibility of same day delivery.