Raise your hand if you have ever tried to buy anything online, or in a store for that matter, and given up because the line was too long or the process too difficult.

I see a lot of raised hands.  And yet, wasn’t that the initial secret of Amazon’s success?  It was fast, convenient and easy to use.

I still remember sitting in a poetry class in the late 1990’s when the teacher asked us to buy books by a variety of poets.  “Some of these books may be difficult to find,” he said.

“Why not order...