In case advertising didn't work out, Prodigy also envisioned another lucrative revenue stream, this one reflecting Sears's ownership. It saw itself becoming the world's dominant computer-based shopping network, something akin to an early Amazon. “We had a belief that goods will be sold electronically,” said the CEO, Ross Glatzer, “so why not establish dominance in the marketplace?” Unfortunately, the entire retail strategy was based on a faulty premise: that online retailers would naturally be able to charge more than brick-and-mortar stores. It didn't help that, given the state of computer graphics in 1992, one only had a rough idea of what one was paying a markup for.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 704