Brian D Williams, <talon57@well.com>, writes:
> "EvMick is cruising down the road in his new hypertruck, one of the
> things going is his new GPS based ECN. (electronic commerce
> network) As he drives along he not only gets route info, but every
> fuel stop is displayed along with it's real time prices. The
> display is colorcoded (red,yellow,green) so EvMick can see at a
> glance which stations are in range. Noting that he's going to need
> a fillup, Mick spots a likely vendor on his screen, with a few
> quick keystrokes he submits a bid for a hundred or so gallons at a
> price a few cents below his posted price.
This would be great, even without the haggling. I'd love it if I could
get price comparisons for gasoline and other products while travelling.
In fact, I'd like to be able to do it at home. Do the various
"sidewalks.com" type local portals provide this kind of information?
Probably not, that would require some actual work by the portal rather
than just passing on what the vendors tell them.
By itself this kind of information would help to keep prices down and make
the market more competitive. It is already happening with online sales.
Hopefully we will see some progress in this direction for local physical
sales in the next few years.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:05:37 MDT