This means you could order something over the Internet from a local business during your lunch break, it could be delivered during the next few hours, and you could still pick it up after work. You could even find out if it had been delivered using the Internet, before you leave work. In areas that are more built up, another interesting idea is the use of completely automated wide area parcel delivery services. Something that surprised me about the early development of the telegraph system, documented in The Victorian Internet , is that a system of vacuum tube delivery was developed for areas with especially high volumes of movement, including internally in larger telegraph offices, and also to and from major volume points such as the New York Stock Exchange. OK, but now that we've established package receipt as a valid business function, consider who else might get into the business.
Any shopping mall has a variety of restaurants and coffee shops, many with outside tables.
Suppose you could sit down at one of these tables, order a coffee and a pastry, and spend a few hours shopping on the internet. Granted, it would take business from the stores in the mall, but it would also offer them an opportunity. If a local store has what you want, you can buy it from their Internet site, and have it delivered to your table. And if they don't, the mall could run a package receipt service allowing cross-town deliveries to also be delivered to your table. Several tables are set up at each food store, perhaps they pay a fee, and get the receipts, or perhaps they are paid a portion of the receipts for the use of their area.