Let's be blunt: Amazon is just another department store, except they have no physical storefront. But lack of a physical storefront doesn't mean they won't suff

Let's be blunt: Amazon is just another department store, except they have no physical storefront. But lack of a physical storefront doesn't mean they won't suffer the fate of all the unwieldy, poorly managed department store chains that have gone before. History has a way of dealing with do-too-much retailers (and now, e-tailers). The author treats the fact that they don't have a physical storefront as just a minor quibble. As if it wasn't the fact that Amazon didn't have a physical presence, was accessible from the comfort of your own home, and had incredibly reduced labor costs, that didn't end up being the disruptive change that put Amazon on the map. To survive in its present form, it badly needs to acquire an Airborne Express (except that AE has already been acquired by DHL), or maybe a railroad and a package delivery company. Ideally, it also needs to acquire a payment-processing system (a PayPal). Why not just admit the obvious? Amazon needs to acquire eBay. This is ridiculous - what business reasons does Amazon have for acquiring these companies, saddling themselves with physical infrastructure and additional labor costs, which may only earn them marginally more income? Why would Amazon rush to acquire a shipping company and more labor costs, when shipping companies like FedEX are trying to reduce their labor costs by shifting the burden of local delivery to the United States Postal Service? (http://www.fedex.com/us/smartpost/ http://www.fedex.com/us/smartpost/). There are so many differences between physical retail businesses and an online retailer, that the analogy cannot account for. There are many cases to be made for challenges that Amazon faces, but this is not one of them.