Kids now have no idea how exciting a great retail store could be before the web. It used to be that you could only buy (or even know about) whatever was in your local store, which was the same as in other local stores.

A great, specialized retail store was something you'd probably have to travel to another town to visit, and that you'd look forward to for a year. I still remember going to Hamley's in London, and later to the gift shop of the National Air and Space Museum.

We still have a tradition of going on pilgrimages to famous retail stores, but without realizing why. The stuff is all stuff you could buy online. For kids, the excitement now is permission to buy something. It used to be permission to buy something better than you'd ever seen.