All of the advantages of buying from Amazon don't come into play when I walk into a brick and mortar store. Meanwhile none of Amazon's advantages are enhanced.
Right now, I can shop in my PJs, 24/7. I can easily compare prices, buy used books and music, and buy from Amazon affilliate stores.
I think Amazon will find their stores to be slightly less empty then a Microsoft store. In the meantime Amazon will find out how hard it is to get employees who are genuinely polite and know what products they have to sell.
I wouldn't be surprised if they operate much the same way that Argos does in the UK... A (vast) catalogue operation with high street / strip mall / shopping mall outlets which are, essentially, warehouses with a very limited display section out front. You walk up to the counter or self service till, supply the / punch in the catalogue number of the item you want, check it's in stock and pay... then walk to the counter at the back of the store and wait for your number to be called and a gopher to hand you your box. It's space efficient and simple, albeit Argos only sells the smaller items this way, the sort of stuff that'll fit in the back of a car - bulky or very expensive stuff is home delivery only normally.
Yeah I'd be interested to see how much stock Amazon can actually carry at this NYC store.
The appeal of the Amazon website is that it has almost every item you can imagine... and they can be delivered to your door in 2 days.
The article says this Amazon store will have "limited inventory" so I'm wondering what exactly that entails.
You might be better off waiting at home for the "full" Amazon inventory.
Will my Prime Membership let me cut the line; or will there be a special line? If there is a special line will i have to get a special ID that say I am a Prime member? Do i put all my purchase in a drone so it will be at my house before i get home with the possibility that everything on the lawn will be stolen?
If it doesn't work out and it starts to affect Amazon's bottom line, then they can just raise the prices on Prime membership again until they're profitable. It's their way of saying "thank you for being a Prime member."
I wouldn't be surprised if they operate much the same way that Argos does in the UK... A (vast) catalogue operation with high street / strip mall / shopping mall outlets which are, essentially, warehouses with a very limited display section out front. You walk up to the counter or self service till, supply the / punch in the catalogue number of the item you want, check it's in stock and pay... then walk to the counter at the back of the store and wait for your number to be called and a gopher to hand you your box. It's space efficient and simple, albeit Argos only sells the smaller items this way, the sort of stuff that'll fit in the back of a car - bulky or very expensive stuff is home delivery only normally.
There was a retailer in in the US that used a similar model. It was called Service Merchandise. I haven't seem them around since the 1990's, but they were in various parts of the country in the 1980's. That's what this article/plan reminded me of.
The advantage that Amazon has is that they are a very sophisticated data mining and logisitics company. So I would expect them to do a great job at predicting what items to stock in what quantities and to react quickly to buying behavior changes.
Comments
All of the advantages of buying from Amazon don't come into play when I walk into a brick and mortar store. Meanwhile none of Amazon's advantages are enhanced.
Right now, I can shop in my PJs, 24/7. I can easily compare prices, buy used books and music, and buy from Amazon affilliate stores.
I think Amazon will find their stores to be slightly less empty then a Microsoft store. In the meantime Amazon will find out how hard it is to get employees who are genuinely polite and know what products they have to sell.
Yeah I'd be interested to see how much stock Amazon can actually carry at this NYC store.
The appeal of the Amazon website is that it has almost every item you can imagine... and they can be delivered to your door in 2 days.
The article says this Amazon store will have "limited inventory" so I'm wondering what exactly that entails.
You might be better off waiting at home for the "full" Amazon inventory.
Will my Prime Membership let me cut the line; or will there be a special line? If there is a special line will i have to get a special ID that say I am a Prime member? Do i put all my purchase in a drone so it will be at my house before i get home with the possibility that everything on the lawn will be stolen?
If it doesn't work out and it starts to affect Amazon's bottom line, then they can just raise the prices on Prime membership again until they're profitable. It's their way of saying "thank you for being a Prime member."
I wouldn't be surprised if they operate much the same way that Argos does in the UK... A (vast) catalogue operation with high street / strip mall / shopping mall outlets which are, essentially, warehouses with a very limited display section out front. You walk up to the counter or self service till, supply the / punch in the catalogue number of the item you want, check it's in stock and pay... then walk to the counter at the back of the store and wait for your number to be called and a gopher to hand you your box. It's space efficient and simple, albeit Argos only sells the smaller items this way, the sort of stuff that'll fit in the back of a car - bulky or very expensive stuff is home delivery only normally.
There was a retailer in in the US that used a similar model. It was called Service Merchandise. I haven't seem them around since the 1990's, but they were in various parts of the country in the 1980's. That's what this article/plan reminded me of.
The advantage that Amazon has is that they are a very sophisticated data mining and logisitics company. So I would expect them to do a great job at predicting what items to stock in what quantities and to react quickly to buying behavior changes.