On Sat, 7 Jan 2017 09:05:54 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/6/2017 6:06 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/6/2017 3:46 PM, Leon wrote:


Not to disparage you guys, but you are basically saying Sears should
have been able to predict the future. Everything would be better if
we could all do that. Sears did not predict the future so they did
not use their catalog business to become the major retail seller of
the future. If that is the logic you are using then we are all idiots
because we did not invent Apple before Jobs and Wozniak did in 1976.
Why didn't you know computers and mobile phones and online was the
future? Are you stupid? Who sitting here today knew that buying
stuff from home using a computer was the future? Shopping in stores
was out?


I think you hit the nail on the head.

Monday morning quarter backing is easy but non provable.

No, this is not Monday morning, it is 16 years too late. Amazon stated
in 1994. Sears let many Mondays pass and is still not an internet
presence. They (and many others) ignored what was going on around them.

Auto dealers were losing ground and finally caught on a few years back.
My last car was bought at a dealer in 15 minutes after using on line
sources to get the best price. I sat down with the salesman he made an
offer. I told him what the numbers had to be and he said "no". I
showed him the numbers on my phone and in two minutes he met the deal.
The horseless carriage was just a novelty, as was the telephone,
television and most every advance and new technology.

I think you might have just caught on to the car buying technique. I
bought our Chevy PU that way, in 1997. And I had the deal before I
walked in the dealership.

I still have to test drive the vehicle and go through closing, I wish
that only took 15 minutes.

Two of my employers (one I retired from and the other is my current
employer) have deals with all of the auto manufacturers, known as the
"X-Plan" (manufacturer emplyees get "A-Plan" and dealer employees get
a B-Plan, both of which are even better deals). Essentially, the
X-Plan deal is what the dealer pays for the car, including all dealer
incentives. If I select the plan, the dealer isn't part of the deal
anymore but is paid a fee by the manufacturer for the paperwork. Even
the sales person is paid by the manufacturer. The dealer can opt out
of the X-Plan but if they participate, they can't discriminate. Their
entire inventory is available. Well, in theory...


I'm going to check out them new fax machines. I understand you can send
copies of things in minutes to another machine.

LOL.... I remember about 20 years ago wondering why FAX was still being
used over e-mail. Only now is Fax falling to e-mail and PDF's.

There are legal reasons for this.