Like I did last year and perhaps the year before
I am doing my Christmas shopping without entering a store
I request a list from my family members of what they seek
With a little bit of luck, I may be finished by the end of this week
Just have to go to the depot and they will bring it out to you
That is the procedure that some of us have chosen to do
You can also go online and arrange to get it shipped right to your front door
We think that this is so original but we all know it’s been done before
I thought to myself, is this really anything new?
This is something most of us Canadians used to do
It might seem so primitive by the standards we have today
The way that we accomplished this was in a different way
Two companies above the rest catered to us for our every need
It makes me still wonder, how come they didn’t continue to succeed
I now look at “Amazon” that is basically operating the same way
Still wondering how come these establishments aren’t operating today
If you were to think about it, they were ahead of their time
You got free delivery, no need for “Amazon Prime”
We had our Canadian company “Eaton’s” and their competition was American “Sears”
These institutions each lasted for over a hundred years
They issued out catalogs spring, summer, winter and fall
The edition dedicated to Christmas was the most cherished one of all
This was the publication that each child was eager to take a look
“Sears” cleverly marketed it as their “Wish Book”
When this arrived, you knew Christmas was getting close
Things that we hoped for were circled and some of us scribbled notes
This tradition went on every single year
Both companies went bankrupt with “Eaton’s” being the first to disappear
If you didn’t have one in your town, you could order from their book
Just calling up one of their clerks was the procedure that you took
You could place your order on any given day
In minutes it would be processed and soon be on its way
These were hired people that pleasantly placed your order
Not something that was said over a recorder
So many employees , the profit margin must have been small
This must have been the major reason for both of them to fall
“Jeff Bezos” is a multi billionaire and is performing the same task
So how come he is so successful, one might venture to ask?
Nowadays we order online and don’t require a clerk
This is now how most of these companies are designed to work
The timing he had is his claim to fame
Being it was the computer age, that’s why he’s a household name
If it happened a couple of decades earlier, “Sears” and “Eaton’s” would still thrive
This would mean that “Bezos” would still be selling books, trying to survive
The Black Sheep Poet 