The Information Age--truly.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Rundles Wrap-Up - Column

SOME 15 YEARS AGO, I WAS DISPATCHED ON A JOURNALISTIC ERRAND TO TALK with "the best computer retailer in Denver," a phrase probably created by the retailer himself, foisted on everyone else by a PR person, and pretty much taken as Gospel by the advertising departments at every publication and media outlet in town.

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I mean, this guy got a lot of press.

I personally had no reason to doubt the statement, however, since I didn't own a computer and rarely used one--even working as a journalist in the late 1980s.

Nevertheless, I knew two seconds into the interview that this person wasn't "the best computer retailer in Denver." He was delusional and not long for the business world. He told me that it was stupid for all the discount computer retailers in the market to be selling cheap computers because they didn't know anything about computers.

He, on the other hand, had vast computer knowledge and he could charge more because he obviously had more to offer.

I hadn't thought much about that interview over the years until last month when I read a news story in one of the dailies about a "high-end" electronics retail store that was arguing that expertise and knowledge trump low prices every time. It sounded too familiar.

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Change is a terribly wrenching thing, no doubt, but it is even worse to witness pathetic denial. Someone once said there is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come, and brother, this is the time of low prices. Hardly anyone chooses an airline to fly because it has higher-paid pilots and flight attendants with more benefits. Most people, when they want to go to Pittsburgh, take the lowest fare.

TVs? Yeah, right. "Hey, buddy, I'll pay you more for this set if you can explain the intricacies of high definition to me, OK?"

This is indeed The Information Age, and by the time I have purchased an airline ticket, or a TV, or for that matter anything--a car, a bank CD, fertilizer, golf clubs, cat food--I have pretty much checked it out every which way but loose.

I hit the Internet. I grab magazines. I chat with my neighbors and coworkers. The more expensive it is, the more I already know before I ever set foot in a...