Slightly OT How to get from old world to new world (parts and vendors)

Twenty years ago everything slightly technical came through a distributor that provided technical support.  Today the internet is a source of that support, so what function does the distributor provide?

I was looking to buy some tooling for my lathe. (Names not included to protect the innocent)
I found the exact thing I wanted where a vendor had a nice description of how to use the tool and had captured the exact thing I was looking for...

I emailed the vendor, they entered my information in their system and one of their technical people provided me with a quote and some nice technical information on the proper usage of the part....

So far we are happy everything is golden....

The problem is there was no way to order the part.  On their website their was a list of 29 distributors for their stuff in CA.  I called one at 2:15 pm they said the factory is closed I can't get you delivery info.... I'll call you back on Wedensday.... After some more searching I found no on-line vendor for this "Exactly what I wanted part"  So I went to MSC direct and figured out what I needed to order to do the job, probably not as well as the part I wanted, but I placed the order  at 4:59 pm.

Today I received a call back from the distributor at 1:15 pm saying the part was not in stock.
I got the parts from MSC delivered to my house (UPS ground from NV) at 1:57pm.

So here is a vendor with good marketing an a quality product that failed to make the sale.
Why?  They aren't stupid they know this process is killing them why no online ordering or stock check?

They are a successful company that was actually profitable and doing well before the internet.  100% of their revenue comes via distribution and if they open an online store they kill all their distributors and loose most of their existing business flow.   If they offer their product line through some existing on-line distributor they upset all of their existing customers. Its sad, but they are trapped.

In my day to day life I see a lot of these....

Its one of the things that's changing in the world,  it takes a lot less people to run a few centralized where houses set up to ship quickly than it does to have a real human at a distributor in every city.

Just this past weekend our dryer died, in years past this would have involved a drive down to the appliance parts store in Chula Vista on Monday morning..... This time I ordered a new dryer belt from amazon Saturday at 9PM and had it at 9:30am Monday morning.

The internet and automation is going to eat a lot more jobs before its done. Its not just automation replacing specific workers, its a new structure of doing business that is decimating a whole layer in the supply chain that used to employ millions of people.  May you live in interesting times...