Imagine three large warehouse stores situated up and down the California coast. I mean big suckers, like the structures where they assemble airplanes.
Now, imagine t-shirts for 50-cents, jeans for $10.00. MP3 players for $25.00 and complete dining room sets for a $150.00. Those kinds of prices.
How far would people drive to get to such a store?
But those aren't internet stores, those are brick and mortar, which entails a lot of costs. And those kind of super discount warehouses exist everywhere, they're often called "dirtmalls" and people do drive from all over for them, of course most of the stuff is complete junk that will break when you toss it in your trunk for the drive home, but the people come anyway.