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Yeah with all the innovation it indeed seems like we are living in a fairy tale. 20 years ago it would be impossible to think that you can order stuff from an u

Yeah with all the innovation it indeed seems like we are living in a fairy tale. 20 years ago it would be impossible to think that you can order stuff from an unknown location/seller using a piece of glass. And soon we'll have drones coming to our house with packages.

notJim 7y ago
20 years ago was the year 2000. Amazon and eBay were founded in 1995. Also: imagine you could write what you want on a ground up dead tree, drop it in a special box and a few weeks later, the item shows up. That's a catalog, and Sears was making them in the late 1800s. I bet there are older examples.
- wott 7y ago
  > imagine you could write what you want on a ground up dead tree, drop it in a special box And then, later, we could also order by phone and credit card, just giving our card number over the phone (since we didn't expect to be dealing with or be surrounded by assholes, like nowadays on the IoA) and getting the items after a few days (since the standard Post was better organised than the pitiful mess it has become now).
- Izkata 7y ago
  > imagine you could write what you want on a ground up dead tree, drop it in a special box and a few weeks later, the item shows up. And suddenly I'm reminded of If all stories were written like science fiction stories https://web.archive.org/web/20040929041451/http://www.shrovetuesdayobserved.com:80/flight.html https://web.archive.org/web/20040929041451/http://www.shrove...
hk__2 7y ago
> 20 years ago it would be impossible to think that you can order stuff from an unknown location/seller using a piece of glass. FYI 20 years ago the total yearly e-commerce trade sales accounted for $27B in the US alone [1]. [1]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/185283/total-and-e-commerce-us-retail-trade-sales-since-2000/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/185283/total-and-e-comme...
goatlover 7y ago
People were thinking of that in the late 90s. During the dot com bubble people were predicting the end of physical retail stores and people leaving their house to shop. A few years later people were predicting the end of printed materials.
wott 7y ago
If I set aside the 'unknown seller', which is not really unknown: Mid 80's, France: order something with your Minitel (terminal available free of charge) from any of the major mail-order companies, get it delivered in 48 hours.
JohnFen 7y ago
> 20 years ago it would be impossible to think that you can order stuff from an unknown location/seller using a piece of glass. Except for the fact that you could actually do this 20 years ago.

notJim 7y ago

20 years ago was the year 2000. Amazon and eBay were founded in 1995. Also: imagine you could write what you want on a ground up dead tree, drop it in a special box and a few weeks later, the item shows up. That's a catalog, and Sears was making them in the late 1800s. I bet there are older examples.

wott 7y ago
> imagine you could write what you want on a ground up dead tree, drop it in a special box And then, later, we could also order by phone and credit card, just giving our card number over the phone (since we didn't expect to be dealing with or be surrounded by assholes, like nowadays on the IoA) and getting the items after a few days (since the standard Post was better organised than the pitiful mess it has become now).
Izkata 7y ago
> imagine you could write what you want on a ground up dead tree, drop it in a special box and a few weeks later, the item shows up. And suddenly I'm reminded of If all stories were written like science fiction stories https://web.archive.org/web/20040929041451/http://www.shrovetuesdayobserved.com:80/flight.html https://web.archive.org/web/20040929041451/http://www.shrove...

hk__2 7y ago

> 20 years ago it would be impossible to think that you can order stuff from an unknown location/seller using a piece of glass. FYI 20 years ago the total yearly e-commerce trade sales accounted for $27B in the US alone [1]. [1]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/185283/total-and-e-commerce-us-retail-trade-sales-since-2000/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/185283/total-and-e-comme...

goatlover 7y ago

People were thinking of that in the late 90s. During the dot com bubble people were predicting the end of physical retail stores and people leaving their house to shop. A few years later people were predicting the end of printed materials.

wott 7y ago

If I set aside the 'unknown seller', which is not really unknown: Mid 80's, France: order something with your Minitel (terminal available free of charge) from any of the major mail-order companies, get it delivered in 48 hours.

JohnFen 7y ago

> 20 years ago it would be impossible to think that you can order stuff from an unknown location/seller using a piece of glass. Except for the fact that you could actually do this 20 years ago.