[andyking]

I've always wanted a service like this.

I needed a USB hub the other day, and I couldn't really wait days for it to show up from an internet store.

I could search the website of a big (expensive) chain store, PC World, but we have lots and lots of tiny local computer stores, and supermarkets with small tech sections, whose inventory is an absolute mystery unless I was to go and expend gas driving around them all. I often just bite the bullet and pay over the odds at PC World because I know they have the item, and I won't have to spend money and time travelling round and round.

I've often thought "where's my nearest store that sells X, right now?" would be a neat idea for a startup. It sounds like an administration nightmare, though.

[18pfsmt]

What you describe sounds like Milo[1] before Ebay bought them last December. I'm not sure how they've kept up post-acquisition.

[1]http://www.crunchbase.com/company/milo

[pratster]

You mean like this search using Google shopping?

http://goo.gl/UIapv

[shalmanese]

This is what Milo tried to do. They found it difficult enough that they sold to Google instead.

[chrismiller]

Milo was acquired by eBay [1], not Google.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/02/confirmed-ebay-acquires-mil...

[shalmanese]

my mistake.