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Amazon Will Open 100 Retail Stores (businessinsider.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes:
Amazon plans to open "as many as 100" retail stores in shopping malls by the end of next year, according to Business Insider. The 300- to 500-square-foot stores will sell familiar Amazon hardware products like Kindles and Fire TV, "but the broader goal is to drive more traffic to Amazon's online store, as these devices make it easier to purchase items there" -- and to promote Amazon's Echo personal assistant.
Amazon stores have already quietly opened in 12 states, including six stores in California and more stores in New York, Texas, Virginia, and Massachusetts. But now the brick-and-mortar stores "have emerged from the test phase with a goal to expand and grow," according to one Amazon job posting, and Business Insider reports that new Amazon stores "are popping up almost every week in shopping malls across the country."
The article has pictures of the new Amazon stores, and points out that the company also experienced disappointing results from an earlier experiment with Amazon trucks.
Amazon stores have already quietly opened in 12 states, including six stores in California and more stores in New York, Texas, Virginia, and Massachusetts. But now the brick-and-mortar stores "have emerged from the test phase with a goal to expand and grow," according to one Amazon job posting, and Business Insider reports that new Amazon stores "are popping up almost every week in shopping malls across the country."
The article has pictures of the new Amazon stores, and points out that the company also experienced disappointing results from an earlier experiment with Amazon trucks.
Sometimes. And then I have to find a salesman, show them the price, argue them into it (as they try to claim they only price match brick and mortar), and deal with their hard sales and trying to talk me into buying a warranty. I'd rather just buy it on Amazon and not deal with their salesmen. Unless I absolutely want it today I'm not even going to ask them to match.
In regards to Best Buy, I've had no problem price matching to major online stores (i.e. Amazon, Newegg, etc.) and I've had no problems with someone trying to talk me into a warranty (They ask at the register if I want the warranty, I say No, they complete my transaction). Of course, when I buy from Best Buy, I usually buy it online from BestBuy.com for pickup and then just go and pick it up. Why spend time in the store "browsing" if you don't have to?
The one reason why I still buy some electronics from the Best Buy retail store is for returns. It's a lot easier to return a 65" TV or an A/V AMP to a retail outlet than it is to ship it back to Amazon, etc. Yes, the online outlets have services that do pickup/delivery but I prefer to deal with retail outlet for these items.
What I really hope this means is that if I need to return something that I bought on Amazon (if it was fulfilled by Amazon), and I need to return it, that I can do so by driving it to the Amazon store instead of dealing with packing it back up and shipping it back to them. That's the one part of online shopping that I hate dealing with, and this would give me another option.