That just made an idea click about Excel's incredible popularity. We all talk about how it's a horrible tool for building apps and databases in... but usually

That just made an idea click about Excel's incredible popularity. We all talk about how it's a horrible tool for building apps and databases in... but usually the spreadsheet is build by an expert in the business domain. Sure, maybe the SKUs are randomly interpreted as text half the time... but at least it has all the columns you need, in the proper order for efficient entry and sorting. Maybe a crappy, buggy app built by a business domain expert is _better_ than a wonderfully architected app built by a developer that doesn't understand the business process.