This is New Text City, WNYC's weekly look at how technology is changing the way we live.

I'm Manouche Summer Odie.

The beauty of online shopping is that you never need to leave the comfort of your home,

right?

Think Amazon, Zappos, eBay, click a button, you get diapers, shoes, those vintage lamps

you've been coveting.

But before online shopping, came the catalog, and I will never forget how excited I was when

as a teenager, my favorite catalog opened its first real store.

It was 1989.

And instead of ordering my J Crew shorts by phone, I made a pilgrimage to South Street

Seaport here in New York to feel those plaid chino shorts before I bought them.

Fast forward and some e-retailers are also realizing that real-life physical stores are the

way to grow a business.

As New Text City's Ilya Maritz found out when he went shopping for pants, retailers

are opening brick-and-mortar locations, but with a twist.

If you're a retailer, this idea of selling things without operating physical stores

is very attractive.

You can sell to anyone, anywhere, you don't have to pay rent, or hire sales staff.

For the past few years, a businessman named Andy Dunn has been telling the world how he

did it.

Here he is on Fox Business Channel in 2011.

Dunn's business is selling men's pants.

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