I was out with my son yesterday at the local auto museum and he noticed that one of the cars was a Sears. A Sears Motor Buggy in fact from 1911 that was designed in the typical fashion of that period. He was full of questions at that point: wanting to know why Sears would sell a car and why they stopped selling cars and just started selling (or attempting to sell) clothes, tires, and washing machines (his words there). His questions got me to thinking about just how full circle we've actually come in our shopping and how at first glance it seems that we've gotten more sophisticated, in a way we're still shopping like we did in 1911.

In 1911, most people purchased the items they needed at probably just a local general store, but they depended on the catalog (like the Sears catalog) for items they wanted to save up for and purchase or to find items that the local store just couldn't stand to carry in inventory.

Today we can purchase just about anything locally, but we don't do we? No, we might window shop locally for televisions, cameras, Blu-ray players, and the like, but when it comes right down to it there's a high chance we'll just use the internet and purchase from Amazon, eBay, or the other host of sites available to us. The prices are usually better because they don't have to build up a physical location, they don't have to hire local employees, and the inventory costs are easier to handle since they control it from central locations.

And just like in 1911, you can purchase a car by "mail". Ebay has been doing this for years and provides a way to not only purchase cars, trucks, and motorcycles, but also makes it easy to ship it from whatever location you might purchase that item directly to your door.

I understand how these online retailers might be harming local economies by overriding the local stores and the employment, but if you think about it, the catalog of years ago was already doing this anyway. The Sears catalog made it possible to circumvent the general store or whatever Mom and Pop shop was available locally and bring in seemingly exotic items from far away places.

I think that what the stores and shops that have physical placements available have to realize is that what they have going for them now is what they had in years past. Namely, the convenience of providing an item for sale right now. No waiting for the mail to send it to you. The immediacy of owning something is what makes the local store viable. They really can't compete on price so incorporating a nationwide sales tax won't really do much to make the pricing closer. The cost to carry and the cost to employ is too steep to compete.

All of this to say that I find the debate about internet retailers harming local businesses a bit dated after our visit to the museum yesterday. In 1911, local stores found a way to beat the catalogs by providing what their customers wanted right now and left it to the catalogs to get them what they can wait on. The local stores need to do the same today to thrive. Don't compete with online retailers. Find out what they can't do and do that part better!

B. Daniels is the lead review expert with Find Cheap Bargains. B. was more than likely the person responsible for the hands-on review of every product on the site. He also spends time searching for sale bargains when not conducting and writing the reviews.