In the mid 1800s many people moved west in covered wagons. The trains of wagons being pulled by oxen would travel for hours each day and circle up at night. Once railroads were built, it was cheaper, easier, and safer to move west on a train. The wagon producing industry died. This is a typical response when new technology is developed and becomes cheaper than existing technology.
Another instances of the effect technology has on current business came to my attention over the weekend. J.C. Penney is turning last page on its Big Book:
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The J.C. Penney Co. Big Book is dead – a victim of shoppers' growing reliance on the Internet.
Plano-based Penney confirmed that its fall/winter 2009 catalog is its last semiannual, telephone-book-size volume.
The Internet has made the 1,000-page shopping venue obsolete, and printing and transportation costs have been rising annually. The move also improves Penney's environmental footprint, reducing its catalog paper use by 30 percent next year.
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It is the passing of another era.
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Technorati tags: technology, change
1 comment:
Bummer, I like getting the Penney's catalog.
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