That wasn't an eBay store, but her job was selling other people's junk on eBay for them. As for the future of e-commerce, it's whoever can get the product to me fastest. Brick and Mortar still wins that race, but lose on price more often than not.
There are a lot of products that bricks and mortar lose on, simply because they can't carry the diversity of inventory that ecommerce shops can access.
Agreed. It's on the b&m stores to keep a product mix that will sell the most efficiently, and the ones who are surviving are the ones figuring that out. I'm lucky enough (or unlucky, depending on perspective) to live in a city with a Fry's - there aren't a lot of products NewEgg can win on if I'm feeling impatient, for example.