The Sears catalog had an even bigger impact in 1900 than Amazon has had today | Hacker News Reader

The Sears catalog had an even bigger impact in 1900 than Amazon has had today

bloomberg.com

38 pointsca98am7915 comments

I think Sears really dropped the ball in not putting its' catalog(s) online in 1995-1996 or so. They, at the time, were one of the only companies around with most of the infrastructure to handle that scenario... I think the K-Mart merger was probably a bad decision as well.

Even if they'd put the catalog online, and established a "cart" where you had to call to place the order, they could have done it well before CC processing online was common.

The K-Mart merger was probably a good thing, you can't cure a terminal illness. Lambert is carving up the pieces and redeploying them where they will have more value.

That argument against it was that it was like taking blood from a diseased patient and trying to inject that into an already sick patient. Big mergers are tough when the companies are healthy. Are there cases where this has ever been successful?

Yes. Somewhere I read an excellent writup about how their CEO dismissed e-commerce entirely at the time, saying no one would want to buy anything online... and that if they had gone they way, Amazon wouldn't have been able to move beyond books (remember when they were once just a bookstore!?). Instead, they doubled down, paving the way for Amazon to break in.

Yeah, I actually recall a discussion with one of their very senior IT guys and being rebuffed that the web was a fad, and it'd go the way of Prodigy. If Sears had come in around 1996, they'd be the biggest retailer globally today by a large margin... they already had most of the infrastructure ready. I remember hearing on the news when they shut down their catalog dept, and thinking to myself, "dumbass."

On a similar note, may need to start considering looking at them when shopping for some things on line as my trust in Amazon is waning a bit.

Really surprising how Sears isn't bigger than even Amazon with how they started with their catalog.

One of the downsides of not taking technology seriously. Though, there's a flipside to it too. Colecovision failed too during the video game crash.

Colecovision was made by Connecticut Leather Company.

So jumping into technology isn't always a sure bet either.

Amazon just needs to sell DIY houses now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home

It'd be interesting if Amazon (or even Sears) did sell a "DIY House Kit" system.

Imagine if the house came as a series of 3/4" plywood sheets, pre-marked with cut lines; you cut out the pieces, then they are assembled slot/tab style into a home using an instruction booklet (plus glue, nails, insulation, etc to complete). Almost like a flat-pack home delivered in a 40 foot container or a flatbed trailer.

That could be the "base model"; there could also be a model where you purchase a custom 4x8' bed CNC router table. Feed it "blank" 3/4" plywood sourced locally, and it cuts out the parts from plans "in the cloud" or in some other manner. Parts are assembled in the same manner.

Final level (?) might be an on-site crew to assemble it, if you don't have the skills or time to do so yourself.

Only thing you'd have to supply otherwise would be a foundation; this could potentially be concrete slab, or maybe wood or other material raised above ground on pylons cast from concrete or made of native materials (or, maybe it too could be included in the kit?).

Kinda pie-in-the-sky, but the concept of building such a house has been prototyped (first saw something like this in the book about the MIT Fab Lab), the software and hardware all exist; in theory you could DIY this whole solution if you wanted to today (you'd have to create your own custom home design, though - that's where it would be tough).

There'd also be the maze and potential rejection of homeowner's insurance for non-standard construction (similar to what people building straw-bale or rammed-earth houses face), or rejection for the same due to strict codes on construction allowances for the home site...

...which is probably why it hasn't been done yet.

You're basically describing the Sears kit homes. They were quite successful; it's a real shame Sears stopped making them.

Wonder why DIY houses aren't a thing anymore? Seems like a good idea.

I think self-assembling DIY house would be a huge game changer.

Local home builders and government permit issuers have formed a racket mafia around it.

You can only build in/live in homes that are "up to code", which they've written to be compatible with only the types of homes that they build.

In the name of public safety or whatever.

RVs, mobile homes, etc are all illegal to live in in many counties and towns. Local ordinances enforced by crooked small town cops and officials.

If it didn't exist, there would be no real reason to live in an apartment or house. Most people's needs are wayyyyy below that cultural standard.

hopefully I'm not murdered for this post

I live in an older neighbourhood in Edmonton, and there's a bunch of them. They're all roughly a century old, and still in great condition. Think your home will still be standing a hundred years from now?

Menard's sells home kits online: https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/landscaping-...

The benefit the Sears catalog brought America are basically identical to the ones Walmart did.

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