Google has some of the world's smartest software engineers. Whether or not they have world-class supply chain, fulfillment, and retailing people is far from su

Google has some of the world's smartest software engineers. Whether or not they have world-class supply chain, fulfillment, and retailing people is far from sure - in fact evidence suggests they do not. Heck, up until not so long ago, Google didn't even have a very good design team. Google's competencies are surprisingly narrow. Having worked at Amazon before I'll say this: retailing is really, really hard, and it takes a lot more than being smart. It takes years of experience. People who try to go toe to toe with Amazon don't often realize this.