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It's interesting that this happened soon after Amazon closed its physical stores. If online retailers struggle to get distribution with non-targeted ads, then p

by dzink 4y ago

It's interesting that this happened soon after Amazon closed its physical stores. If online retailers struggle to get distribution with non-targeted ads, then physical retail is an expensive answer. Maybe the right format (Obvious mall kiosks for digital shopping, etc) might help.

mjevans 4y ago
All of the Amazon 4 stars that I'm aware of were in expensive locations like larger malls. Amazon also owns Whole Foods, which is already a B&M operation. The natural thing for them to do is to have an extremely thin warehouse and return presence in these stores and put some of the smaller and frequently purchased impulse buys out on part of an isle.
- mumblemumble 4y ago
  I'm not so sure about that. I'd have to travel past approximately 15 CVS and Walgreens locations that are already full of the same kinds of goods in order to pick them up at Whole Foods, and I'm rarely thinking about Bluetooth headphones when I'm shopping for tins of beans. And whatever they'd be removing from the shelves in order to make room is probably generating more revenue and/or doing a better service to the Whole Foods brand than Amazon Basics cell phone cases would.
  - mjevans 4y ago
    You might have missed the point I was making. If the 4 star locations were worth keeping open Amazon likely would have. My suggestion is to mingle a logistical operations nexus they already have and an extremely small cache of things they might be moving through it anyway. Adding anything extra revisits dis-economies of scale, just like the old B&M chains might not even have locations in smaller suburb cities. Plus there's already lean-end competition from highly experienced cost cutters that I'm sure come to mind as the places you'd already go to buy an item you need an hour ago.
    - mumblemumble 4y ago
      Whole Foods locations are not a general purpose logistical operations nexus, though. They're already jammed full of food and bougie household goods, and highly optimized as a retail outlet for food and bougie household goods. Even moving cheap Amazon consumer products into that space might risk destabilizing a very well-tuned cash cow that already enjoys the some of the highest profit per square foot that can be seen outside of a Trader Joe's. I doubt that nobody thought of this when Amazon first acquired Whole Foods. That they haven't done it so far implies that someone with much better access than we have to real information on the subject has already done the math, and decided not to.

by dzink 4y ago

mjevans 4y ago

All of the Amazon 4 stars that I'm aware of were in expensive locations like larger malls. Amazon also owns Whole Foods, which is already a B&M operation. The natural thing for them to do is to have an extremely thin warehouse and return presence in these stores and put some of the smaller and frequently purchased impulse buys out on part of an isle.

mumblemumble 4y ago
I'm not so sure about that. I'd have to travel past approximately 15 CVS and Walgreens locations that are already full of the same kinds of goods in order to pick them up at Whole Foods, and I'm rarely thinking about Bluetooth headphones when I'm shopping for tins of beans. And whatever they'd be removing from the shelves in order to make room is probably generating more revenue and/or doing a better service to the Whole Foods brand than Amazon Basics cell phone cases would.
- mjevans 4y ago
  You might have missed the point I was making. If the 4 star locations were worth keeping open Amazon likely would have. My suggestion is to mingle a logistical operations nexus they already have and an extremely small cache of things they might be moving through it anyway. Adding anything extra revisits dis-economies of scale, just like the old B&M chains might not even have locations in smaller suburb cities. Plus there's already lean-end competition from highly experienced cost cutters that I'm sure come to mind as the places you'd already go to buy an item you need an hour ago.
  - mumblemumble 4y ago
    Whole Foods locations are not a general purpose logistical operations nexus, though. They're already jammed full of food and bougie household goods, and highly optimized as a retail outlet for food and bougie household goods. Even moving cheap Amazon consumer products into that space might risk destabilizing a very well-tuned cash cow that already enjoys the some of the highest profit per square foot that can be seen outside of a Trader Joe's. I doubt that nobody thought of this when Amazon first acquired Whole Foods. That they haven't done it so far implies that someone with much better access than we have to real information on the subject has already done the math, and decided not to.