The logistics, inventory management, and customer service operations at the scale of Amazon are something that become possible with truly immense scale. They're

The logistics, inventory management, and customer service operations at the scale of Amazon are something that become possible with truly immense scale. They're crushingly expensive at small scale - call center, warehouses, pre-positioning goods, etc. There are definitely ways to outsource any or all of these things, but at a cost in quality. I know I've often had unpleasant experiences with outsourced customer support call centers. Tools like Square or Shopify help, but only to a point. So I think my conclusion might be different from yours - small, local businesses need a viable way to compete with Amazon in ways where Amazon doesn't have a vast advantage.