Meaning:
A sales model that utilizes both traditional stores (bricks) and Internet
trading (clicks).
Background:
The `bricks and clicks' business model, also known as `clicks and mortar' or
`clicks and bricks', began to be used in the 1990s. The rise of the Internet
opened up opportunities for online trading. Initially this was utilized by
companies whose primary business was Internet-based - the so-called `clicks'
companies. Established trading companies followed when it became clear that
businesses didn't have to be limited to either traditional stores or online
trading, but could make use of both. Questions like this were being asked of
business leaders:
"Do you work for a bricks company, a clicks company, or a bricks and clicks
company?"
(from The Times, September 1999, reporting a talk by Andy Grove, chairman of
Intel Corporation to the UK's CBI conference)
Bricks and clicks is one of the many new phrases spawned by online trading.
...
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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I don't click for groceries or meals but shop the nearby bricks markets and cook
at home. My choices hark back to a foraging past which even I, an atavistic
Chinese, don't miss but which happened to provide not just food, but also the
knowledge of nature and self. Through foraging, homo sapiens hone their senses,
exercise their body and brain, and sharpen their judgment. It's likely a virtue
made out of necessity and nothing to brag about except that these daily
routines, less chic in the age of clicks, help me take control of my health.
