Britain has never had its own Amazon ... thank God

IMAGINE a firm that flipped the retail sector on its head. Instead of strolling round the aisles of a shop with a basket, its customers browse pictures in a catalogue and have items brought right to them.

- Simon Hunt

Instead of fancy shop displays, it has a warehouse network across towns and cities to distribute and restock inventory much faster.

I could be referring to Argos, the chain which appeared on Britain’s high streets in 1972. In fact I am thinking of Amazon, the plucky internet start-up which arrived two decades later and turns 30 tomorrow.

When Amazon opened for business in 1994, shoppers were reluctant to enter credit card details over the internet in what was, for many, their first online purchase.

But five years later, Amazon’s revenues were already neck and neck with those of Argos at about a billion pounds, while the boss of the latter was still ruminating over “the lessons we are learning from our website trials” and how “internet sales” were “likely to play a significant role in the retail industry in the future”. You don’t say.