Yes, there is a critical point at which you first think of buying something you need on the Internet before you think of looking for it at a retail outlet.
I passed that point a few weeks ago and I was surprised.
Whatever the object I was thinking about, I realized immediately that it would be outside the top five selling products in this line. Therefore it would not be worth looking at retail stores. I live in San Francisco, not in a suburb where there are large sprawling stores. San Francisco stores maximize their floor space by limiting the number of objects per product line.
This critical inflection point, where the first thought about a needed product is the Internet, may come later in life for a person in a suburb. It may come earlier in life for someone with a chaotic full-time 60 hour work week where nearly everything is bought online and much food is brought to the front door, still hot.
From a business point of view the trend lines that show the American population moving to the Internet as its first thought, will play a significant role in the design of our cities and our lives.
Having reached this inflection point, the first thing I noticed is that the local Best Buy stores have a large counter near the entrance for people to pick up their online purchases.
I now feel a new level of freedom. It is a positive feeling to know that virtually any object product or service I can imagine is potentially in my hands and I don't need to go look in a brick-and-mortar brightly lighted aisle.
This is not to say that many people, and occasionally for me, it can be fun to wander around and look at merchandise. It is now a matter that merchandise-wandering has become a luxury that is independent of my purchasing practices.