How much of that pricing power would remain if Costco carried as many items as Amazon? Amazon is predicted to eclipse Costco (and Target) in terms of sales thi

How much of that pricing power would remain if Costco carried as many items as Amazon? Amazon is predicted to eclipse Costco (and Target) in terms of sales this year (http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=34532428-58cf-4dfd-acfb-0870492862f7 http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=34532428-58cf...), so given an equal catalog, Amazon would be able to sell more of each item and command a lower price, no? Amazon's catalog is so much bigger than Costco's along two axes; more kinds of products, and more varieties of a given kind of product. The latter axis can be good for Amazon, since people have different utility functions, brand loyalties, etc. But one thing I like about Costco is that their catalog seems to be curated; whatever brand/model of a given thing they happen to carry, it's usually pretty decent. Amazon, by comparison, carries good and crap versions of pretty much everything, but you can use the customer reviews to separate the wheat from the chaff). By removing the paradox of choice, Costco not only reaps the usual benefit on the buyer's psychology, but is also able to negotiate better wholesale prices on the items they buy due to higher volume. Maybe that's a way for them to compete?