[escardin]

But that was always the case? At least as late as 2001, they had weekly milk delivery in Moncton, New Brunswick. It cost the same as milk in a store. You put your order in an envelope with some cash for next week. It wasn't just milk, you could get most non-frozen dairy that way.

Is it at all the same as Amazon? No. But it shows that you can be profitable delivering low value items right to peoples doorstep.

[MattGaiser]

It certainly was not always the case, but I think people assumed that it would be the case going forward (and given that grocery delivery has not recovered, it probably still is the case in grocery).

Walmart was the established model for "best practices" in selling general goods for a long time. Now, the Walmart model is showing its weaknesses, which people assumed did not exist.