Off the bat, I can think of two reasons for this: 1. Even Amazon's own bricks-and-mortar stores find it impossible to compete against Amazon's online store. O

Off the bat, I can think of two reasons for this: 1. Even Amazon's own bricks-and-mortar stores find it impossible to compete against Amazon's online store. Or: 2. The physical stores were just a "front" necessary for developing and testing new technology (as suggested by mabbo elsewhere on this page https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30533453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30533453). My money is on #2.