APAD: Bricks and Clicks

Meaning:

    A sales model that utilizes both traditional stores (bricks) and Internet

    trading (clicks).

 

Background:

   The `bricks and clicks' business model, also known as `clicks and mortar' or

   `clicks and bricks', began to be used in the 1990s. The rise of the Internet

   opened up opportunities for online trading. Initially this was utilized by

   companies whose primary business was Internet-based - the so-called `clicks'

   companies. Established trading companies followed when it became clear that

   businesses didn't have to be limited to either traditional stores or online

   trading, but could make use of both. Questions like this were being asked of

   business leaders:

 

     "Do you work for a bricks company, a clicks company, or a bricks and clicks

     company?"

 

   (from The Times, September 1999, reporting a talk by Andy Grove, chairman of

   Intel Corporation to the UK's CBI conference)

 

   Bricks and clicks is one of the many new phrases spawned by online trading.

   ...

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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I don't click for groceries or meals but shop the nearby bricks markets and cook

at home. My choices hark back to a foraging past which even I, an atavistic

Chinese, don't miss but which happened to provide not just food, but also the

knowledge of nature and self. Through foraging, homo sapiens hone their senses,

exercise their body and brain, and sharpen their judgment. It's likely a virtue

made out of necessity and nothing to brag about except that these daily

routines, less chic in the age of clicks, help me take control of my health.