4 ms·

It'll destroy larger B&M stores but I doubt it'll fully outdo local specialty shops. What you'll see is a stratification between hyper specialty B&M that sell l

by ddt 14y ago

It'll destroy larger B&M stores but I doubt it'll fully outdo local specialty shops. What you'll see is a stratification between hyper specialty B&M that sell luxury items only a tiny subset of people want, but are willing to pay out the nose for, and places like Amazon filling the role of Target and Walmart, being the catch-all for everything else that most people need on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis. While you might be able to buy a certain brand of organic mustache wax on Amazon, I don't see a day coming where they'll be able to do that same-day.

rflrob 14y ago
There's certain classes of non-luxury stores that should survive OK. If I need to find a screw for my (insert doohickey here), I'll go to Ace hardware, where I can try out the different screws in their bins, then pick the one that works. The same logic applies to lots of other hardware store type items.
- ddt 14y ago
  Absolutely, any product that you need to physically inspect before you buy seems like it'd survive.
  - GuiA 14y ago
    I wonder how that'll change with 3D printers. What if Amazon gives you a "preview" file of the object you want for your 3D printer?
  - ippisl 14y ago
    Like shoes ? and clothes ? those are starting to move online using some interesting technologies[1][2] and there's no reason to believe that we won't find a way to help with buying other physical items. [1] using the kinect to virtually measure clothes on your TV. [2] using a variable robot to show you how a specific garment would look on your specific measurements.
    - eshvk 14y ago
      The Zappos (owned by Amazon) model is kind of interesting too. They actively encourage you to return shoes that you don't like for any arbitrary reason, thereby making it easier at least from the consumer's perspective of avoiding the situation where he/she would be stuck with a purchase that doesn't fit them or something.
      - jpxxx 14y ago
        I have on good authority that their return rates reach 40%.
- brc 14y ago
  You're making the assumption that you won't be able to purchase a box of assorted screws cheaper than making the trip to the hardware shop. If you could purchase an assortment of screws that essentially spanned the entire range of the hardware shop, you might change your mind. That could easily change.
earl 14y ago
Also, amazon is kind of skeevy; I'm very leery of buying food, cosmetics, or toiletries from them because they make it really hard to tell from whom you're buying stuff. I'm happy to buy eg usb cables from the cheapest vendor, but I don't trust any of the chinese knockoff shit if it's going to regularly touch my skin or be eaten. Particularly since china appears to have no real food safety laws and poisoned 300k of their children [1] with the same well known techniques used to fake out protein readings on milk they used to kill thousands of american pets [2] the year before. China even went so far as to hurt more children by delaying a recall to avoid embarrassment during the summer olympics! If I'm going to buy food or cosmetics on amazon, they need to be much better about communicating from whom I'm purchasing and what was done to make sure it isn't a knockoff. And knockoffs are everywhere on amazon's site. I've wanted one of these cool suck.uk bottle opener keychains that looks like an old school key for a while [3] but their shipping charges to the US are too expensive. So I found it on amazon [4]. If you read the reviews, it's full of complaints about knockoffs or the steel snapping. And I've seen it sold for as little as $2.99 with shipping while amazon sells it for $9. Adding to the skeeviness, the cheapest vendor of that item changes all the time, and for quite a while amazon didn't sell it directly. I finally bought it from amazon proper and I'm hoping they got the actual item and not some knockoff themselves, but who knows. Shit like this makes it hard to be willing to buy food on amazon. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_pet_food_recalls http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_pet_food_recalls [3] http://www.suck.uk.com/products/keybottleopener/ http://www.suck.uk.com/products/keybottleopener/ [4] http://www.amazon.com/Suck-UK-Key-Bottle-Opener/dp/B0000B0DKM http://www.amazon.com/Suck-UK-Key-Bottle-Opener/dp/B0000B0DK...
- robterrell 14y ago
  I buy food (dry goods: cereal, granola bars, coffee, etc.) from Amazon all the time. It's always clear who the item comes from, usually a manufacturer you've seen at the grocery store, and I've never gotten a knockoff item. Well, that I know of. Hmmm. You know, the very idea of knockoff food items from Amazon is so deeply disturbing I'm going to entirely ignore the possibility.
- rdl 14y ago
aleyan 14y ago
As an Amazon Prime subscriber who bought mustache wax from their affiliates on two occasions, I have to report very disappointing shipping times. Living in NYC and ordering in the morning, I expect delivery the next day. Alas, my mustache wax came three days later. Part of blame has to be placed on Amazon's affiliates. If the merchandise is not in an Amazon warehouse, then what can Amazon do to speed up delivery? I foresee a future where Amazon has deals with local specialty retailers to ship items that are rarely sold that wouldn't make sense to warehouse for Amazon directly.
- ddt 14y ago
  As a fellow mustache-haver, I feel your pain.
dinkumthinkum 14y ago
For most people that think this is going to wipe out the B&M stores ... Have you guys been outside of Mountain View lately? I mean, this is just the most ridiculous thing; it's just nonsense. Has anyone here ever been to a Wal-mart? You think all those people are going to say "Nope, just buying next-day shipped products from Amazon now." It's just not serious.
- dr42 14y ago
  Never been to Walmart, no plans to either, why would I want to. I plan my purchases a few days in advance, know what I want and like that amazon makes it show up at my desk a couple of days later. Haven't shopped in a regular retailer for years. Except groceries, which I buy fresh every day.
  - brianleb 14y ago
    Congratulations, you are what's called an outlier. Seriously, this post only shows how different from most US consumers you are.
  - dinkumthinkum 14y ago
    OK, so what? I don't really understand this response. You're a perfect person. The height of physical fitness, nutrtious/organic eating habits, superior mental acuity, don't have any need for "The Man" or Big Box retailers, have ever seen a television, much less ever seen a "cable program," etc. Whatever. But billion dollar retail industries are not built on great folks like you. They are built on probably what you'd consider the "Great Un-washed." :) B-school 101 stuff. If we understand how the world really is, we can make more successful businesses because we will understand the market how customers think. We can't let our personal perfection cloud our judgement about the world as it is. :)
    - dr42 14y ago
      Yes, I'm grateful to Walmart for keeping the great unwashed from cluttering the isles of whole foods :)
- 14y ago
joe_the_user 14y ago
Yes, Another part of retail is that different kinds of stores support each other. Anyone "making a shopping run" usually visits a number of stores, especially in the suburbs/exurbs where they are a distance away. The few stores people have to visit, the fewer "runs" they make and the more pressure they have to make do with stuff online. Just as much, when some of the stores in a retail complex go out of business, the complex suffers. The total number of complexes has to shrink and by the time that happens, some portion of the remainder is further disrupted. Retail is in trouble. I'm in a major metropolitan area and it is very visible.

by ddt 14y ago

rflrob 14y ago

There's certain classes of non-luxury stores that should survive OK. If I need to find a screw for my (insert doohickey here), I'll go to Ace hardware, where I can try out the different screws in their bins, then pick the one that works. The same logic applies to lots of other hardware store type items.

ddt 14y ago
Absolutely, any product that you need to physically inspect before you buy seems like it'd survive.
- GuiA 14y ago
  I wonder how that'll change with 3D printers. What if Amazon gives you a "preview" file of the object you want for your 3D printer?
- ippisl 14y ago
  Like shoes ? and clothes ? those are starting to move online using some interesting technologies[1][2] and there's no reason to believe that we won't find a way to help with buying other physical items. [1] using the kinect to virtually measure clothes on your TV. [2] using a variable robot to show you how a specific garment would look on your specific measurements.
  - eshvk 14y ago
    The Zappos (owned by Amazon) model is kind of interesting too. They actively encourage you to return shoes that you don't like for any arbitrary reason, thereby making it easier at least from the consumer's perspective of avoiding the situation where he/she would be stuck with a purchase that doesn't fit them or something.
    - jpxxx 14y ago
      I have on good authority that their return rates reach 40%.
brc 14y ago
You're making the assumption that you won't be able to purchase a box of assorted screws cheaper than making the trip to the hardware shop. If you could purchase an assortment of screws that essentially spanned the entire range of the hardware shop, you might change your mind. That could easily change.

earl 14y ago

Also, amazon is kind of skeevy; I'm very leery of buying food, cosmetics, or toiletries from them because they make it really hard to tell from whom you're buying stuff. I'm happy to buy eg usb cables from the cheapest vendor, but I don't trust any of the chinese knockoff shit if it's going to regularly touch my skin or be eaten. Particularly since china appears to have no real food safety laws and poisoned 300k of their children [1] with the same well known techniques used to fake out protein readings on milk they used to kill thousands of american pets [2] the year before. China even went so far as to hurt more children by delaying a recall to avoid embarrassment during the summer olympics! If I'm going to buy food or cosmetics on amazon, they need to be much better about communicating from whom I'm purchasing and what was done to make sure it isn't a knockoff. And knockoffs are everywhere on amazon's site. I've wanted one of these cool suck.uk bottle opener keychains that looks like an old school key for a while [3] but their shipping charges to the US are too expensive. So I found it on amazon [4]. If you read the reviews, it's full of complaints about knockoffs or the steel snapping. And I've seen it sold for as little as $2.99 with shipping while amazon sells it for $9. Adding to the skeeviness, the cheapest vendor of that item changes all the time, and for quite a while amazon didn't sell it directly. I finally bought it from amazon proper and I'm hoping they got the actual item and not some knockoff themselves, but who knows. Shit like this makes it hard to be willing to buy food on amazon. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_pet_food_recalls http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_pet_food_recalls [3] http://www.suck.uk.com/products/keybottleopener/ http://www.suck.uk.com/products/keybottleopener/ [4] http://www.amazon.com/Suck-UK-Key-Bottle-Opener/dp/B0000B0DKM http://www.amazon.com/Suck-UK-Key-Bottle-Opener/dp/B0000B0DK...

robterrell 14y ago
I buy food (dry goods: cereal, granola bars, coffee, etc.) from Amazon all the time. It's always clear who the item comes from, usually a manufacturer you've seen at the grocery store, and I've never gotten a knockoff item. Well, that I know of. Hmmm. You know, the very idea of knockoff food items from Amazon is so deeply disturbing I'm going to entirely ignore the possibility.
rdl 14y ago

aleyan 14y ago

As an Amazon Prime subscriber who bought mustache wax from their affiliates on two occasions, I have to report very disappointing shipping times. Living in NYC and ordering in the morning, I expect delivery the next day. Alas, my mustache wax came three days later. Part of blame has to be placed on Amazon's affiliates. If the merchandise is not in an Amazon warehouse, then what can Amazon do to speed up delivery? I foresee a future where Amazon has deals with local specialty retailers to ship items that are rarely sold that wouldn't make sense to warehouse for Amazon directly.

ddt 14y ago
As a fellow mustache-haver, I feel your pain.

dinkumthinkum 14y ago

For most people that think this is going to wipe out the B&M stores ... Have you guys been outside of Mountain View lately? I mean, this is just the most ridiculous thing; it's just nonsense. Has anyone here ever been to a Wal-mart? You think all those people are going to say "Nope, just buying next-day shipped products from Amazon now." It's just not serious.

dr42 14y ago
Never been to Walmart, no plans to either, why would I want to. I plan my purchases a few days in advance, know what I want and like that amazon makes it show up at my desk a couple of days later. Haven't shopped in a regular retailer for years. Except groceries, which I buy fresh every day.
- brianleb 14y ago
  Congratulations, you are what's called an outlier. Seriously, this post only shows how different from most US consumers you are.
- dinkumthinkum 14y ago
  OK, so what? I don't really understand this response. You're a perfect person. The height of physical fitness, nutrtious/organic eating habits, superior mental acuity, don't have any need for "The Man" or Big Box retailers, have ever seen a television, much less ever seen a "cable program," etc. Whatever. But billion dollar retail industries are not built on great folks like you. They are built on probably what you'd consider the "Great Un-washed." :) B-school 101 stuff. If we understand how the world really is, we can make more successful businesses because we will understand the market how customers think. We can't let our personal perfection cloud our judgement about the world as it is. :)
  - dr42 14y ago
    Yes, I'm grateful to Walmart for keeping the great unwashed from cluttering the isles of whole foods :)
14y ago

joe_the_user 14y ago

Yes, Another part of retail is that different kinds of stores support each other. Anyone "making a shopping run" usually visits a number of stores, especially in the suburbs/exurbs where they are a distance away. The few stores people have to visit, the fewer "runs" they make and the more pressure they have to make do with stuff online. Just as much, when some of the stores in a retail complex go out of business, the complex suffers. The total number of complexes has to shrink and by the time that happens, some portion of the remainder is further disrupted. Retail is in trouble. I'm in a major metropolitan area and it is very visible.