When the only thing left to fear is Sears itself
It seems nearly impossible to believe these days, but once upon a time, Sears was the Amazon of its day.
Capital Thinking • Issue #86 • View online
“It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff I love Amazon; I just wish the prices were a little higher,’ [or] ‘I love Amazon; I just wish you’d deliver a little more slowly.’ Impossible.”
- Jeff Bezos
When the only thing left to fear is Sears itself.
It seems nearly impossible to believe these days, but once upon a time, Sears was the Amazon of its day.
As recent as the late 1980’s, when Sam Walton was working in towns of less than 10,000, Sears was a force to be reckoned with - in retail, insurance, and even financial services.
Those days are gone forever.
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Speaking of Amazon, ...
Remember all the tales of vendors having to run the gauntlet in Bentonville just to present to Walmart, all of them hoping for the chance to get their wares in front of a few million pair of eyes each and every day.
Well, there’s a new kid on the block.
And when Sears folds and Amazon takes over?
More and more are venturing out on their own into the world of freelancing.
How many? A lot.
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Of course, the gig economy comes with fewer perks
Which can and does lead to a bit of arbitrage here and there.
And mostly not “there”.
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And if you're out in the cold...
“The trick is to nail down the things that are going to draw people in at the beginning and make them want to stick around 10 years later.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos puts it like this:
“It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff I love Amazon; I just wish the prices were a little higher,’ [or] ‘I love Amazon; I just wish you’d deliver a little more slowly.’ Impossible.”
These days everybody needs a side-gig
Frank Gargano