3. On convenience

One of the biggest changes moving from New York City to Melbourne at the end of 2015 wasn't the weather, nor the lack of subways, nor my kids current inability to find a satisfactory bagel. It was the ‘loss’ of Amazon Prime. The constant stream of consumer items delivered within 48 hours to your door by delivery staff paid as ‘independent contractors’ and thus not obliged to be paid a poorly enforced ‘minimum wage’. In fact on East 90th St where I lived - a short walk from Cooper Hewitt where I then worked - the street was often blocked by delivery trucks, full to the brim with Amazon parcels. And free returns (not all of which get resold). It is hard to imagine that it is cheaper to get light bulbs delivered from half way across the USA, than it was to walk to the hardware store one block away - but it was. Of course the full cost of those cheap light bulbs, once you include all of what economists call ‘externalities’, was far more.

Delivered light bulbs be cheaper.