Topsy-Turveydom

"THE other night, from cares exempt, ...
I dreamt that somehow I had come
To dwell in Topsy-Turveydom!
- My Dream, W.S. Gilbert, March 19, 1870

In today's NY Times, the Bits column highlights an online directory to goods available offline, in your area in "Milo, a Site to Help People Shop Offline."

"Where vice is virtue — virtue, vice:
Where nice is nasty — nasty, nice
Where right is wrong and wrong is right —
Where white is black and black is white."

The details: on the Milo site you enter a location (address or zip) and what you are looking for. The site returns a list of nearby stores that have what you want, in the size or color you want. Quoting the founder, Jack Abraham, the NY Times reports: “We sort of view ourselves as the opposite of Amazon.com, we search the shelves of stores near you in real time.”

We move toward the web, we move back again... topsy-turveydom indeed.

From Main St. in Anytown to Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn (my town) and in every shopping mall there is newly empty retail space. Some from the over exuberant building of the last several years, some from the recent economic disaster. Whatever the cause the space is excess and available. Too much excess of anything usually means that its price falls.

From the landlords point of view, ultimately, some rental income is better than no rental income. As the recession fades (and it will) lower rents will lead to more stores opening and expanding. Mr. Abraham and his Milo service will not be the last to expose retailers inventory to the searches of consumers. And though it looks like he serves the larger retailers, soon he (or others) will reach into the databases of the mom-and-pop shops. Letting the sharp retailers among them turn the Internet to their advantage for a change. The new retailers will be more likely to do this that the older ones.

People enjoy the social activity of in-person shopping (see Shopping Storytelling) and, as consumers, we have realized that we can exercise our rights to grant or withhold permission: permission to receive mailings or catalogs (see Catalog Choice), to opt out or block email.

And then there is UPS and FedEx, those convenient, efficient companies that connect us to our favorite e-tailer, be it Amazon, Zappos, or WalMart. The very same efficiency works just as well, even more efficiently per pound shipped, when the deliveries go from a distribution center right to the nearby retailers: regardless of size. For bulk shipments the common carriers (truck lines) are not far behind in quick predictable delivery.

It is going to be an interesting environment in which to create new products.

With Mr. Gilbert then we return,
back to Topys-Turveydom...

"How strange," I said to one I saw,
"You quite upset our every law.
However can you get along
So systematically wrong?"

"Dear me," my mad informant said,
"Have you no eyes within your head?
You sneer when you your hat should doff:
Why, we begin where you leave off!

"Your wisest men are very far
Less learned than our babies are!"
I mused awhile — and then, oh me!
I framed this brilliant repartee:

"Although your babes are wiser far
Than our most valued sages are,
Your sages, with their toys and cots,
Are duller than our idiots!"

But this remark, I grieve to state,
Came just a little bit too late;
For as I framed it in my head,
I woke and found myself in bed.

Still I could wish that, 'stead of here,
My lot were in that favoured sphere!
Where greatest fools bear off the bell
I ought to do extremely well.

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