The Long Tail (Was: OT: firewall program)

I haven't been able to find even one unit in the area. I've been to a
>dozen places, and don't even find a spot on the shelves where they >should be. Three Radio Shacks, Wal-mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, >Target, several K-marts and some local stores, and no one even knows >what I'm talking about. I want to see them compared side by side, or at >the very least to find out which models use the same chip sets. I have >heard that several different brands are being built by one company, with >different cases, but without seeing them, I have no idea.

Alas, the market has changed in such a way that the above desire will often not be fulfilled. Picture an exponential decay curve with the vertical axis being sales volume. At the left side is the latest hit toy from Mattel. Way over on the right are the Faberge eggs. Unless you are lucky enough to be near one of the few local stores that still follow the old ways, every store you check will only stock items that are best sellers. The few exceptions are dying off because customers buy from whoever has the lowest price.

Meanwhile, another kind of retailer has emerged, as best typified by Newegg.com Amazon.com, and Netflix.com. They carry a much wider selection, and thus you can find things that are further on the right on the "long tail" ( See

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). You cannot hold the item in your hand, so they try to make up for that with customer reviews -- not a really good substitute for looking at the actual product in you are an engineer.

The world of retail has changed, and there is very little that we can do about it.

Also see:

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