Why Cereal Shoppers Will Get the Most Bang For Their Buck in the Future

New York Times technology and business reporter charts the dramatic rise of Bitcoin. And while I agree that Bitcoin has been going up quite a lot lately, I don't think it has gone mainstream yet. To me it is a curiosity that has been going up, but it hasn't quite reached its "peak" yet. In all truth, the rise of Bitcoin is one of the great stories in business today, with a lot of potential for interesting development as we head into 2013. I mean, this is the Internet, right? And how many times have we heard about how the Internet was going to change the world? The fact is, though, that it hasn't really changed our lives that much, and, if history is any guide, it probably won't change a whole lot of lives that much either. What the Internet has done is created a whole new class of clientele for every major brand in every industry. Just think about all those local "grocery" store check out aisles and the various brands of cereal that are available. You've got the big names like Kelloggs, the small local names, the generic names, and the the weird stuff. The Internet has created a whole new class of consumer for every brand of cereal, and now you've got the hipster coffee shops that serve actual espressos, and the weirdos who eat whatever they want. In the past, if you wanted to buy cereal online, you were either looking at ordering from a distant warehouse, paying more than $5 a box for high-quality products, or having to sit through ad nauseam about how boring and non-creative advertising is for cereal companies. Now, though, you can get what you want at the speed of light. Just think, all those local grocers now have websites, and can hook you up with whatever you want. And if you're a hipster, you can have a java in the afternoon or a crumble in the evening (or at night, if you so choose). And if you're not a hipster, you can still buy whatever cereal you want from these places. There's even the option of paying a small monthly fee, as long as you buy enough boxes of cereal to fill a couple boxes each month. That way, the company gets a small amount of money each month, even if they don't sell a box. Of course, they are only getting one-fifth of a box anyway, and most customers don't go through a couple boxes. But you get the idea. The Internet's been making things much cheaper for cereal companies, but we're talking about a company that is a household name across the world. As time goes on, more and more cereal companies will start to take advantage of the convenience. Some, like Kellogg, will offer free shipping on all their products. Other companies will start to offer "Buy One Get One Free" or "Buy Two Get One Free" promotions. And you can bet that many more cereal companies will start to make everything online, with free shipping at least initially. In the future, you might even be able to find cereal at your door step, as well as coffee and energy drinks. All good, but what about the hipsters? You see, hipsters are different from cereal shoppers in that they're willing to forgo the actual cereal and go for something else, like a piece of fruit or a bag of pretzels. This means that they'll be willing to spend slightly more than cereal shoppers, but not nearly as much as cereal shoppers will pay for a bag of pretzels. This is good for cereal shoppers, because they'll get a little more bang for their buck. This is bad for hipsters, because they'll end up getting more cereal and less pretzels. In the future, cereal shoppers will get a lot of bang for their buck while hipsters will get little or none.