UPDATE: Hmm. Maybe all my talk about the growth in online shopping this Christmas season is right. Just saw a segment on Kudlow & Cramer saying that online shopping is way up, and that it may be partly responsible for the softness in other retail sales. And apparently a lot of women are shopping online for the first time this year, just like the InstaWife.

UPDATE UPDATE: Reader Mark Hessey emails:

The speed of order fulfillment seems unsurpassed as well. Of three orders placed with three different merchants; I’ve had UPS knocking within two days on two and three days on the third (and that includes Amazon’s free shipping that they intimate will be considerably longer). In fact, now that I think of it, they were all free shipping.

I can’t say I’ve noticed unusual speed — but it hasn’t been any slower, which is an accomplishment in itself.

ANOTHER UPDATE UPDATE: More on online shopping, with particular attention to WalMart, here.