on an item where quality parameters vary so much ( size, visual shape, ripeness etc), customers will not give up the value of touching and picking an item. This

on an item where quality parameters vary so much ( size, visual shape, ripeness etc), customers will not give up the value of touching and picking an item. This applies to a cabbage or a fish. In the case of a pair of socks which are standardized, they may not care as much to physically pick up stuff. --- I have always thought that the disruption to costco would be an online warehouse, that could gather the customer's preferences ( patterns of buying - and consolidate them and send them to localized centers ). Customers can then pick them up or have them delivered. Discovery will purely be through the web.