Amazon Is Following the Sears Playbook—But Can it Avoid Making the Same Mistakes? David Z. Morris from Fortune takes a look:
Amazon, born online, has recently made a big move into physical retail with its acquisition of the Whole Foods grocery chain. That transition from sending products through the mail to brick-and-mortar replays the path of the 20th century’s defining retail giant: Sears.
The parallels between Amazon and Sears go much deeper, though, as Atlantic senior editor Derek Thompson explores in a comprehensive new rundown of Sears’ past—and Amazon’s possible future. Here are the two giants biggest similarities.
Mail Was the Internet
Believe it or not, in the late 19th century, the good old U.S. mail was still something of an innovation. The spread of telegraphs, railroads, and pre-paid postage made communication and delivery cheaper than ever before. That opened the door for the Sear’s Catalog, the Amazon.com of its day. Sears was founded in Chicago in 1893—almost exactly 100 years before Amazon was founded in Seattle, in 1994.
Read the full post on Fortune.com