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.

Comments

Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[AuMatar]

Best Buy is already the place you go to before you buy it cheaper on Amazon. This will kill nearby ones.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[Desler]

This just in: Retail stores like Best Buy do this thing called "price matching". Film at 11!

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[AuMatar]

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.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[Desler]

Sometimes.

Nope, all the time. I've never once had a price match not accepted from online stores like Amazon, Newegg, etc. by Best Buy, Frys, etc.

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.

Nope, you simply walk up to the cashier, show them the price on Amazon and they price match. Every time I've done it it takes less than a minute at Best Buy. And I've done this at multiple locations.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[amxcoder]

This only works with items that don't have retailer specific model numbers... (I'm looking at you TV's!!). The common ploy for a long time with the big retail chains is to make deals with the manufacturers to basically sell them the items under custom model #'s that are specific to their store. So you'll see the same exact TV at BestBuy will be a XYZ-65-01, and at WalMart it will be a XYZ-65-02, and at Amazon.com it will be an XYZ-65-03. Therefore, even though it's the same device, the model numbers don't match exactly, giving the retailer an excuse to not price match. This has been a standard ploy for a very long time, going all the way back to when GoodGuys and Circuit City were still in business. Not all electronics manufacturers participate in this practice, for instance a Sony PS4 is a Sony PS4 everywhere, but my point is, it doesn't always work.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[David_Hart]

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.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[dgatwood]

Talking to another human being for 5 minutes is such an onerous task that you'd rather wait two days for something to show up in the mail?

You left out a bit there. Compare:

• Drive ten or fifteen minutes to the store.
• Find the product you want.
• Check Amazon reviews to make sure it isn't crap using your cell phone clumsily while standing in the relative discomfort of a busy store.
• Notice that it is cheaper on Amazon.
• Spend 5 minutes talking to a salesperson.
• Spend ten or fifteen minutes driving back.

Versus:

• Find the product you want from the comfort of your home.
• Check the Amazon reviews using your laptop in the comfort of your home.
• Verify that it is cheaper at Amazon than local stores using Google.
• Decide whether to bother driving for half an hour, spend five minutes haggling, and still lose 2-4% in credit card rewards just to get it two days sooner.
• Say, "Screw it," and place the order online.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[TheRaven64]

Seriously? Do you live in the middle of nowhere? Amazon here gives free delivery on every purchase over about £20 (maybe £25?). Delivery on cheaper things is typically about £1. I've never had to pay anything like that for Amazon delivery, even when ordering from Amazon France for delivery to the UK. I don't think I've ever paid close to $75 for delivery of anything I've ever bought online from anywhere.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[Gilgaron]

Good to know! They didn't used to do it this way but I stopped dropping by there back when they wouldn't match so I'd no idea. The last thing we got there was a "buy online, pick up in store" deal which was surprisingly terrible: they couldn't find the item, and then found the last one out on the rack, having been opened and returned. So they discounted it, but I was still there far longer than I'd have expected.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[Oswald McWeany]

It's only $75 delivery fee if the electronic gadget comes with a giant cement block attached to it.

As a general rule, I ignore products that have superfluous cement blocks attached.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[Oswald McWeany]

I went into a Best Buy for the first time in about a year a few weeks ago. I was amazed. Not-exaggerating, over 25% of the store was devoted to Samsung Phones, Another 30% devoted to various other phones. I was dumbfounded that they've been reduced to just a cell-phone store with a few other items here and there.

It's the same kind of feeling I get when I walk into sports/athletics stores and realize that they don't actually sell much sports equipment anymore, they're all just clothing stores now.

Re: Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[Type44Q]

The worst walmart does is try to sell you an air filter or some kind of engine cleaning fluid when you don't need either,

Incorrect. The worst they will do is hire someone who either fails to make sure your oil drain plug is screwed-in all the way or else strips the threads.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[rossdee]

Prime

Its worth it if you are a regular Amazon customer

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[MooseTick]

"After they hear that enough times and units sold drops they will either listen or fold."

That sounds good in theory, but the "sales" people you tell that to have no decision making ability to make such changes.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[tripleevenfall]

Nothing I love more than escalating an argument through three managers. Sounds awesome.

And all for the privilege of lugging home on my own what I could have gotten delivered to my door.

Re:Biggest effect will be on nearby Best Buys

[Grishnakh]

Maybe, but most of it seems to be marketing and branding, plus riding on past successes. Make your product look fancy, price it high, and people perceive it to have high value. Add in some successful history (when the iPhone came out in 2006, it really was a huge improvement over the competition, but Android phones quickly became serious competitors), and don't screw up too bad and people will keep buying your crap like lemmings.

Apple isn't the only one. BMW is pretty similar, with overpriced cars with outrageous repair costs. There's a bunch of high-end brands for women's fashion stuff, such as Coach handbags, Gucci, etc. And of course there's Microsoft, that can't seem to do anything to get their enterprise customers to leave them.

Just as I predicted.

[Anonymous Coward]

I told you the internet was a fad.

Bad Idea, Really Bad Idea

[WindowsStar]

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".

Re:Bad Idea, Really Bad Idea

[93 Escort Wagon]

I buy my clothes online. Places like LL Bean have no hassle, free returns; clothes that last; and once you know the sizing you can pretty much depend on it. I've even been buying shoes, socks, and boxers on the web.

Shopping online is much more pleasant than going to the mall. I might still go if I needed a suit... But I work in IT, and didn't even wear a suit to my last few job interviews.

Re:Bad Idea, Really Bad Idea

[InkDancer]

One thing to note, LL Bean has had a similar business model for a very long time. My parents used to write down an order on a piece of paper pulled out of a catalog, send it away, wait a while and get clothes back. Returns were hassle-free. They are forward thinking so they've switched to ordering from the internet, but effectively the same process.

Re:Bad Idea, Really Bad Idea

[Registered Coward v2]

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".

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".

Gateway had a number of problems when it went into retail. First and foremost the were a low coat seller and retail stores added costs at a time when prices were starting to drop. They spent a lot of money making stores look like farms complete with silos but you couldn't actually buy and walk out with it. You had to wait for it to be shipped. In addition, they were selling a product that was no different from what you could het right seay at other stores nor did they offer anything uniguevso beyond the novelty there was no compelling reason to return after you went once to see what the noise was about. Amazon so far has used small popups limited to Amazon branded products so the cost is low and Can use them to drive sales of ebooks etc. it will be interesting to see how tey do.

So Amazon is turning into the thing

[Snufu]

I use Amazon to avoid?

Returns!

[crow]

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.

Re:Goodbye Tax Free Amazon

[crow]

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?)

AmazonBasics...

[Not-a-Neg]

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.

PLEASE do NOT open one here in My STATE...

[cayenne8]

still nice for getting same day at same prices and not worrying about delivery details if you live at inconvenient places for delivery.

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.