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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.
Best Buy is already the place you go to before you buy it cheaper on Amazon. This will kill nearby ones.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I told you the internet was a fad.
It's the Ciiircle of Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiife
And it mooooooves us aaaaaallllll...
Anyone Remember CompuAdd?? or Gateway??, not many do, but after being giants in computer sales on line they opened retail stores and it crippled them and cost them going out of business. Amazon needs to be extremely careful, what is that quote, "those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it".
It would be a good front for a drone delivery base. Secure the retail space and have them be hop stops for drones to recharge midway through their delivery. They should be buying old sears locations.
Please come to Australia, there are shitloads of Masters stores about to be vacated...
I really don't see this as working out too well for them as a strategy unless they went the full on Walmart Super Center Approach as most people don't go to the Amazon website for Kindle and such.
If they want to succeed, they will need to go to a huge store that carries a lot of everything including groceries and the major stuff that the local people buy from the website and allow people to purchase online and then go directly to the store to pick up same day without needing a prime membership. THAT, would take off in busy areas as they could purchase online and then pickup same day without having to worry about anything and get groceries and such while they were there. And if they paid extra, they could the Amazon store to deliver to them same day if they are close enough.
That, I think, would directly compete and possibly win against a Walmart in the same area. Leveraging your online store to help your local business and give your online customers another way to shop.
Anyone notice how similar this is to the pre-brick-and-mortor Sears-Roebuck and Company? Back when they had a few stores in the big cities but mostly people ordered from their catalog ("wishbook") and had it delivered out to a local affiliate or dropped at the closest rail siding to them? ... yeah. I've been noticing that for a while.
The online store scene from 40 year old virgin is still relevant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxRg5I7r5s
Sounds to me like Radio Shack in reverse.
for the millennial generation?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Indeed! I've frequently found that Amazon is no longer reliably the cheapest source of goods. I think that changed some time around when they were forced to pay VAT. So, it turns out that for all the fancy talk about logistics and economies of scale, robotic warehouses and service architectures, their real secret sauce was tax avoidance. It seems that with that gone, they're about the same as everyone else now.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I use Amazon to avoid?
Now make your father bankrupt and take your place on the darkside.
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.
Amazon has charged tax in most states for quite a while. If they have any physical presence, they have to collect tax, including warehouses. Around here, they're now using their own vans for deliveries instead of UPS or USPS. They reached a deal with a number of states to start collecting tax a few years ago.
Are there still any states where Amazon doesn't collect sales tax? (Well, other than states like Oregon and New Hampshire that don't have a sales tax?)
It seems to me that Amazon's business model is based on the economies of NOT having the overheads associated with retail stores. I would guess that their growth is declining, or is projected to do so within two or three years. The last place for them to grow their market in North America is to start converting those customers who still shop at bricks 'n' mortar stores. Once Amazon manages to put a few of the traditional players out of business, I expect that they'll dramatically shrink the number of their own stores in the hopes of diverting that business into their more profitable mail-order model. (Unless they plan for the stores to also be 'drone terminals' - in that case they'll probably just take over the lion's share of B+M retail and hold on to it for a good long time). In either case, look for them to keep the stores open 24-7, in order to put more pressure on the incumbents.
One 'outlier' possibility just occurred to me: I'm sure Amazon would love to be in the ISP business as well. Stores would establish a physical presence that might be leveraged to provide Internet service. I bet that service would be really cheap for Prime members. In that case, look for a 'Prime Plus' membership that comes with free Internet service.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
The thing that would make these stores successful would be if they accepted returns of all Amazon-purchased merchandise there. That would instantly turn them into a clicks-and-mortar store.
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Gee, let's go back to old tech, where the printed catalog was "the web" and the big catalogs opened stores to drive sales to their catalog - their names? Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Wards (extra credit for those who remember 'Monkey Wards")
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Why just use peapod then and skip the drive?
Also it will add a lot overhead to the site to keep track of what is fresh at your local store and for fruit / other items that you need to look at and pick out?
If they want to actually make any money from these pop-up stores they should sell some of the most popular AmazonBasics items which will also help increase exposure of that line of products. Things like: batteries, keyboards, mice, mouse pads, various cables, coffee mugs, and so on. Things that go along with other things a shopper might have already purchased in the mall and that will remind them of Amazon when they use them with other company's products.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
https://www.amazon.com/Tuscan-...
Sometimes if you have a 'fulfilled by Amazon' purchase it doesn't get taxed, because the Mom & Pop vendor doesn't have a state presence but keeps their inventory at Amazon's warehouse somewhere.
I hope they do NOT open an Amazon store in my state.
If they do, then I'll have to pay fucking 9%+ sales tax on my amazon orders, and well......why would I really wanna buy from them as much then?
That savings and free shipping is what makes them so desirable right now, but add in that 9%-10% sales tax, and well, I don't see that much a reason to get everything from amazon anymore.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
DISCLAIMER: I'm Canadian, Best Buy bought up Futureshop so I don't know how much of "Canadian Style" Best Buy is actually Futureshop and vice versa
I went into Best Buy on Saturday with my mom (she wanted a composite extension cable, spoiler alert they suggested Amazon much to my amusement) anyway, I saw that they have a HUGE sections devoted to appliances, phones (and phone accessories yikes), laptops and LCD TVs but that was about it. They did have a shriveled, vestigial section for "movies" and "games" (and "cables" apparently) but I'm guessing that most people go directly to Amazon for that stuff
So is the plan for these stores to be some kind of brick and mortar AV shops, like the ones they systematically decimated? Or are they distributed warehouses for faster delivery / drone mustering points with front doors (like those old SEARS catalogue shops)
crazy dynamite monkey
I see Amazon opening stores, but with competition to deal with and local/land-based tax rates on realty/etc; it's gonna cost a lot to become Wal*Mart v2.01a.
I'll watch for online prices to climb to compensate.
No, that was their secret sauce for building themselves up into a juggernaut, along with logistics and economies of scale.
Now that they're so big, and so many other companies sell through them too, they can afford to jack up their prices because so many people just buy from them by default. It's just like Walmart: lots of people buy from them by default, even though they're not always the best deal.
Have you never lived outside of Connecticut? Almost every state is exactly like that. The only exceptions are the states that just don't have sales tax (Oregon and New Hampshire I think). You're supposed to either pay sales tax to the vendor, or you're supposed to voluntarily submit use tax if the vendor didn't collect any. And due to federal law, states are not able to force out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax for out-of-state purchases.
This move won't affect taxes much: Amazon already charges sales tax for most people, because it has warehouses or some kind of physical presence in so many states. There might be a few people negatively affected, as I'm sure there's still a few states that don't have an Amazon physical presence (Wyoming maybe? Alaska? Maine? Just guessing.) If you don't currently pay sales tax on Amazon, but they're opening one of these new B&M stores in your state, then you can expect to pay tax when that happens.
Brick and mortar business? Whoa! Old school. My butt "everything online".
Yes, I have saved a shitload but eventually it is suppose to go away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...