The History of Comparison Shopping

Humans have been comparison shopping for thousands of years. The first documented case took place in the Garden of Eden when Eve famously compared apples and oranges - thereby setting the stage for humanity and creating a catchy new phrase at the same time.

Not long after that, the concept was again utilized during the first ever shopping experience for clothing.

"Adam... does this fig leaf make me look fat?"

Recent archeological discoveries in Egypt show comparison shopping in full swing by 1400BC. King Tutankhamen's tomb alone provided a treasure trove of historical information. Full color brochures featuring pyramids (some assembly required), mail order catalogs of solid gold knick-knacks, and Elizabeth Taylor's original list of favorite places to purchase eyeliner are just a few examples of how civilized societies comparison shopped even in ancient times.

When Christopher Columbus first set foot in the new world, he brought with him the equivalent of three fully-stocked dollar stores. The natives were very excited. It was like redeeming your tickets at Chuck E. Cheese's, only the tickets were golden bracelets, statues and bookends. "Um, I'll take a slinky, a Tina Turner wig and two bags of those gummy worms in exchange for these bricks of gold - OK?" At least, that was Christopher's dream. What he really got was balls of yarn and directions to where the gold was (supposed to be) further up the coast. Moral of the story: In order to get the best bargains, you need to know WHERE to shop.

With the gold rush of the 1840's, trading posts began popping up in every town across the old west. For the first time in history, a consumer - typically a grizzled prospector - could select from a variety of fine china, bins of candy and styles of long underwear (with and without the convenience flap) all while standing in one spot.

By the early 1900's, change was in the air. The steam ship, aero plane and horseless wagon made the world (a little bit) smaller and faster. People in countries across Europe read newspapers over breakfast and were drawn into the comparison shopping game. Front page articles described America as the "land of opportunity", with "large statues of women holding torches" and "great benefits". One couldn't help but compare this to the ad in section 7b: "Move to Peru - We don't sacrifice humans anymore."

The 1940's and 50's introduced a new feature of comparison-shopping; the "Side-by-Side Comparison", but in a sad and tragic kind of way. Boys and girls all across the country were forced to line-up facing each other at school dances - and choose a partner. This abuse of a good feature almost ruined it completely, and the side-by-side comparison never fully recovered until the advent of the World-Wide-Web decades later (ironically by a geek).

1970: To "Comparison Shop" meant driving from one gas station to another looking for the shortest line.

1980: "Comparison shopping" involved spending $10 in gas driving from Sears, to JC Penney's, to Macys -- to save $5 on a pair of pants.

Side note: It was about this time that the former Soviet Union tried one last attempt to bring the citizens of America to their knees. Through highly placed communist executives in leading department store chains, they devised an evil and totally unfair plan to create the "Blue Jean Wall" in honor of the Berlin Wall (which in an ironic twist, would soon be pummeled to the ground by angry shoppers in East Germany). By partnering with China to produce over 328,000 different styles of jeans in 162 brands, they stocked thousands of stores with an entire wall of blue jeans using a complex shelving system from IKEA. "Regular", "faded", "pre-faded", "stonewashed","whitewashed", "torn", "pre-torn", "torn - then partially repaired", "tie-dyed"... Then they mix them: "pre-torn regular", "regular faded", "pre-torn faded"... Next they would add the cut to the mix: "bell-bottom", "slim", "broke-back", "form-fitting", "wide-end", "low-hipped", "rapper-special". Finally you had to make the difficult decision between "zipper", "button" or "Velcro" fly's. It was a comparison shopper's worst nightmare. The diabolical part was that once you finally determined the exact style you want - they'd never had your size in stock. Never.

1990: Newspapers stopped being a source of news & information and instead became folders to hold hundreds of flyers and advertising inserts. Savvy consumers would then spread the contents across the living room floor to determine the best bargains by comparing offers from grocery stores, retail establishments and the Franklin Mint.

1994: Brick and Mortar stores feel a disturbance in the force.

1996: "Search Engines" arrive on the scene.

Side note: For years, search engines would be the first stop for anyone wanting to find something on the web. They were also the first generation of comparison shopping sites. Simply enter a query and get side-by-side comparisons of results (actually the results were stacked one on top of the other and oddly enough still are to this day). Search Engines were only mildly effective until they discovered the missing secret ingredient -- a FUN name. Gone were "search.com" and "find.com" only to be replaced with "Yippee!", "Yahoo!" and "Google".

1997: The domain ComparisonShop.com is registered.

1999: A new breed of programmers un-leash their genius onto the Internet world. Between Star Trek and Super Mario conventions, they find creative ways to collect data on millions of products from thousands of online retailers - and sort it in some semblance of order.

2000: After intense negotiations, permission is granted from restaurants and hotels around the globe to allow the infamous "FIVE-STAR" rating system to be utilized in the grading of products as well.

2002: Social Networking leaps onto the Internet scene as consumers begin sharing the experiences they've had with various products, services and boyfriends in the form of comments (aka: "Reviews").

2003 - 2006: A variety of websites bred expressly for the purpose of comparison shopping appear on the stage. A fierce rivalry ensues. Looks, personality, distinctive features, as well as the consumption of an occasional smaller rival contribute to their success. By the end of 2006, only about a dozen major CSE's (Comparison Shopping Engines) are left standing.

Side note: Around 2005, someone decided that comparison shopping should be a community thing. Apparently they felt the Internet had been way too impersonal and needed a big group hug. So they arranged for Social Media and a Comparison Shopping Engine to meet on a blind date. Soon after, Social Comparison Shopping was born. This was great because now complete strangers could tell you, for instance, where they got their Wii, what happened to the rest of the name and the best way to treat controller induced injuries. You know you can trust this person's judgment implicitly because they have 653,724 friends, contributed over 2.3 million reviews and besides, their avatar is Marge Simpson.

2008: This is the year that services thumbed their noses at products in an "imitation is the best form of flattery" kind of way -- and got their own comparison sites. All of the sudden there were comparison shopping engines devoted exclusively to service niches. Airfare, cruises, hotels, cell phones, insurance, schools, teachers, husbands, doctors, hospitals, chimney sweeps, gas prices, diet plans, spicy hot sauces, subprime mortgages, satellite TV providers and United States presidential candidates... just to name a few.