Book excerpt: "Some day, consumer information sources like those envisaged by Snider and Ziporyn will materialize. The more this book is read, the sooner it will happen." ---F.M. Scherer, Professor of Business and Government, Harvard University"Snider and Ziporyn powerfully describe the glass highways of the future, which will not only benefit consumers but will also provide fantastic opportunities for schools, hospitals, businesses, and the average American as we enter the Information Age of the 21st century." ---Conrad Burns, Chair of U.S. Senate Communications Subcommittee"Future Shop is a look into tomorrow's world of household/buying. It is full of surprises, disconcerting ideas, and useful information. I would think that forward-looking businesses would profit from it as much as forward-looking consumers." ---Robert Heilbroner, Professor of Economics, New School for Social Research"Future Shop describes a telecommunications age in which the foundations of our market economy will be radically different. The authors present a bold, innovative manifesto for change. It's amazing that work on a subject that means so much to consumers has not appeared before." ---Marvin Cetron, author of American Renaissance "Future Shop is well-intentioned, well-reasoned and intentionally provocative--Snider and Ziporyn deliver on their promise to remake the very idea of consumerism." ---Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times Book Review "The authors have documented and quantified what most of us know through personal experience; that our retail distribution system has become increasingly inefficient and is fostering confusion and abuse to the consumer. The enormous conservation of resources in our society that this book describes makes its contribution significant." ---R.K. Snelling, Executive Vice President of BellSouth Communications * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For hundreds of years the marketplace has been growing more complex and more confusing for consumers to navigate. Published in 1992, long before the Internet became a household word. Future Shop argued that new information technologies, combined with innovative public policies, could help consumers overcome that confusion. A prescient manifesto of the coming revolution in e-commerce, Future Shop's vision of consumer empowerment still resonates today.This reprint of Future Shop includes a new preface analyzing the huge changes in the consumer marketplace during the past twenty years and forecasting that the changes in the consumer marketplace over the next twenty years could be even greater.