Long Tail pioneers prior to the Internet

Anywhere in history where we saw the cost of production and/or distribution going down by orders of magnitude, we would find the "Long Tail." For example, a former railway agent in Minesota, Richard Sears, saw opportunity in printing catalogs of products and selling to farmers back in the late 1800s. He partnered with Alvah C. Roebuck, and together they built Sears and Roebuck in 1906, and revolutionized product distribution and retailing.

The supermarket is another example of the longtail at work. Instead of daily trips to the grocer and other stores to address a family's needs, the supermarket enabled weekly trips and provided a 'one-stop-shop' for all your grocery needs. The US Food Marketing Institute describes the effect on society:

The supermarket helped create the Middle Class. Its low prices freed up substantial funds for families to spend on cars, homes, education, and other needs and amenties of life. pg 45

Needless to say, these disruptive business models would not have been possible without the following enablers:

1. The railroad as the lowest cost of transportation (at that time) for Sears
2. Refrigerators which promoted weekly trips to the supermarket.
3. Toll-free 800 numbers for direct mail order in US

Needless to say, the most recent and the most important enabler as of the last decade is the Internet. By combining its low cost distribution and online retailing capabilities with the credit card, Amazon.com was born, along with other e-tailers.