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I would think that Walmart probably has a competitive advantage in most logistical areas. They've been moving goods across the country (and world) for longer th
by manyxcxi 10y ago
I would think that Walmart probably has a competitive advantage in most logistical areas. They've been moving goods across the country (and world) for longer than Amazon has been a company. They even have their own airline for moving freight (and employees) so they've already solved the 'UPS problem' that Amazon is working on now.
With all that, it would be completely unsurprising to find out that Amazon runs their warehouse and goods movement more efficiently than Walmart does, but they still don't own the entire stack like Walmart does.
On top of that, Walmart gets companies to produce entire product lines at prices that they themselves pretty much set. Amazon is just going to take a cut of a lot of sales while Walmart is getting the margin they want.
Technology wise I'd say it's a safe bet that Amazon is light years ahead, but don't sleep on Walmart Labs and their ability to innovate. Just don't expect it to be as useful to us as AWS.
I know everyone likes to bag on Walmart for being 'cheap' and/or 'shit' but at least if I buy a brand from Walmart I can be extremely confident in it being the real thing. Which has been getting to be (at least personally) a huge issue with me for Amazon and has started moving me to buy more things at other stores (including Walmart).
There are tradeoffs between the two, but I think they both run tight ships and are in the best position to be each other's biggest competitor.
- Fricken 10y agoIf Amazon had the physical real estate that Wal-Mart does it wouldn't be long before they could service most of north America with sub-1 hour delivery for most products. In that regard, it seems that if Wal-mart was committed, they could totally steal Amazon's thunder. I must be overlooking something fundamental.
- sjg007 10y agoAmaTargetazon.
- quicklime 10y agoI think the fundamental thing you're overlooking is Amazon's wide selection. There's a long tail of relatively low-demand items that a company like Walmart would just remove from their shelves. Looking over my recent Amazon orders, I'd guess that around half of it is made up of this sort of item.
- petra 10y agoWalmart uses centralized fullfilment centers for the long tail.
- swozey 10y agoWalmart Labs just laid off their entire remote staff. What they had in "Well, it's not Walmart, it's Walmart Labs!" is basically gone now. I don't foresee any talented engineers heading that direction.
- geodel 10y agoDid you mean that 200 ppl layoff last week or so?
- swozey 10y agoYeah, was it 200? Wow. I thought 50 or so.
- manyxcxi 10y agoI somehow missed that one. I now have some reading to do.
- pandeiro 10y agoSource?
- doingmyting 10y agoGoogle is your friend: https://www.google.com/search?q=walmart+lays+off+200&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS678US678&oq=walmart+lays+off+200&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.8428j0j8&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=walmart+lays+off+200&rlz=1CD...
- banku_brougham 10y ago>I would think that Walmart probably has a competitive advantage in most logistical areas. They've been moving goods across the country (and world) for longer than Amazon has been a company. Walmart does not have a competitive advantage in logistical areas. Have a look at a youtube video of what happens in an Amazon FC. Amazon does not simply box packages and ship them. I would say Amazon is implementing the physical manifestation of algorithms onto physical goods, but that only scratches the surface of the complexity required to optimize the entire chain from customer desire to fulfillment.