When I saw my grandmother ordering gardening supplies online, it struck me that the days of brick-and-mortar shops might be doomed. Not that my grandmother is a dinosaur, mind you. She is a wizard with the remote, uses social media to stay in touch with her friends, and sends text messages with ease. However, she is certainly not of a generation that grew up with computers or the Internet.
Her purchase got me thinking about the early days of online shopping, when people were anxious about ordering merchandise from the Internet. What if the items never arrived? Was putting all my personal information online safe? Should I really disclose my credit card information to some unknown entity? Is this online company legitimate? And last but not least, who would buy something without seeing it first? But my grandmother's transaction made it clear: online shopping has become as commonplace as brushing your teeth.
What is the cultural context of this passage?