Word: flea
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...sheer number of competitive websites alone will put pressure on Amazon's growth--one reason Bezos is adding categories as fast as he can. During the past year, he's added video games and DVD movies, toys, electronics, software, home-improvement products, auctions and zShops--an online flea market where anyone can sell anything. Bezos says he wants to double his offerings again next year. The company also has minority stakes in other e-commerce companies such as Drugstore.com Pets.com HomeGrocer.com Gear.com and Della.com a wedding and gift registry...
...Kansas City, Mo.--and he says the number of vendors at both has slid 30% in the past 18 months. And eBay is the reason. "It has the potential of absolutely destroying the business," says Spotts. "I've seen several shows around the country that are near shutting down." Flea markets could be the next to suffer. When the National Flea Market Association held its annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., in October, 100 members jammed into a session on the Internet future to hear dire predictions of what the Net would do to their land-based businesses...
...Flea-market aficionados insist that eBay is doing a more abstract kind of damage: it's destroying the pleasures of the offline collectibles world. Al Hoff, author of Thrift Score and collector of "everything but Levolor blinds," says eBay has changed the atmosphere in flea markets and thrift stores. She now comes across entrepreneurs who are trolling the aisles looking for items they can resell for a higher price online. "The code of ethics used to be that you bought things for yourself," she notes. And she objects that eBay's efficiency is making it harder for bargain hunters like...
...global online marketplace will be here before we know it, and eBay's refrain "eBay everywhere" seems destined to become a reality. It's something the National Flea Market Association members are starting to accept. Several members of the association have begun moving online, working to put together virtual-flea-market sites like Fleamarket.com And even diehard thrift-shop mavens are becoming reconciled to the fact that the future belongs to eBay. "You can't stop the wheels from turning," sighs Hoff. "In fact, I have to confess: I just bought something on eBay this morning...
...deals mostly in what the trade calls smalls: candlesticks, glassware and other such collectibles. He's still got the store, but today his business--and his life--revolve around a warehouse a few miles away, where he stores the treasures he has gleaned from scouting estate sales and flea markets. From a cramped, windowless cubicle, he monitors the hundreds of auctions he has posted--moving anywhere from $40,000 to $75,000 a month. He has hired a full-time employee to oversee his eBay business and plans to move to a new space complete with a miniprocessing center...