Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 123 posts

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#61

Post by 1stcity3rdcoast »

Judgmentality wrote: post #50
k_sh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Follow-through. Google is infamous for this sequence of events, time and time again: 1. We made this great new thing that's gonna change the way you verb! Hope you enjoy it! 2. (1-5 years of product stagnation) 3. Hey, thanks for the all the good times. We're closing the thing at the end of the year. Amazon (for all their warts) is much more adept at keeping customer experience in their crosshairs.

> Amazon (for all their warts) is much more adept at keeping customer experience in their crosshairs. Except when it comes to selling counterfeit merchandise. This is more than just a nitpick, they are cannibalizing their core business. What I don't know, and I assume they do know, is how bad is the problem. Is it impacting 1% of customers who ultimately leave their platform (which could easily be offset by other fac…

There’s been a lot of heated discussion about this on HN previously, but it would be interesting to know 1) how big of a problem it is, and 2) what people are buying that seem to have this problem.

My household buys on average 10-20 items from amazon each week for many years (combined personal, my business, my wife’s business) and have yet to receive a counterfeit item. Am I doing something different?

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#62

Post by neilv »

Judgmentality wrote: post #50
k_sh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Follow-through. Google is infamous for this sequence of events, time and time again: 1. We made this great new thing that's gonna change the way you verb! Hope you enjoy it! 2. (1-5 years of product stagnation) 3. Hey, thanks for the all the good times. We're closing the thing at the end of the year. Amazon (for all their warts) is much more adept at keeping customer experience in their crosshairs.

> Amazon (for all their warts) is much more adept at keeping customer experience in their crosshairs. Except when it comes to selling counterfeit merchandise. This is more than just a nitpick, they are cannibalizing their core business. What I don't know, and I assume they do know, is how bad is the problem. Is it impacting 1% of customers who ultimately leave their platform (which could easily be offset by other fac…

I've been wondering for a while why Amazon has been letting (my impression of) trust in the listings on its retail site be eroded so much.

My best naive wild guess (as a techie, not an MBA) is that a solution is Amazon private brands. Amazon could exercise control over the supply chain, could keep other sellers from piggybacking on a listing, could keep the reviews generally positive (in various ways, including aggressive investigation of suspected fake negative reviews), and could even have customer service treat private brands more favorably than many others. Plus preferential listing and smarter targeting.

Meanwhile, most other brands would still have to be on Amazon, but suffer the current awful environment of counterfeits, reuse of listings for different products, fake reviews on their and competitor's listings, etc.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#64

Post by setpatchaddress »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #52
kristianc wrote: post #27

This is more or less what Amazon is known for - experimentation, A/B testing and dumping ideas quickly. I'm pretty in awe that Amazon seems to have (at least) three bricks and mortar retail concepts on the go at the same time : Go, pop up stores and Whole Foods, and is only now deciding to cut one of them. Amazon's commitment to going with the data goes so so deep.

Can't speak for anyone else, but hopefully they will not mess with Whole Foods much. They picked up some baggage with that one, and if they drastically changed things ... to put it in their language this would not be a Type 2 decision.

They have ruined Whole Foods. Anecdata: the local store is now filthy, filled with unhappy employees, and no longer carries a broad selection of items. But hey, bananas are cheaper. The "customers" are mostly local delivery services now.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#65

Post by Lorenzo45 »

cbeley wrote: post #30
async_dev wrote: post #6

Note that they are only shutting down pop-up stores that feature (it sounds like) all Amazon products like Kindle, etc. NOT their cashierless "Go" stores. It sounds like they figured out that dedicated physical locations for Amazon products don't make sense like it does for Apple, etc.

I was scared for a second. I'm really loving the amazon go store (though, it also happens to be downstairs from where I work).

Same here! Super jealous though because the closest one is a 20 min drive. I wish I had one closer because they're such a great shopping experience.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#66

Post by shagie »

kristianc wrote: post #27

This is more or less what Amazon is known for - experimentation, A/B testing and dumping ideas quickly. I'm pretty in awe that Amazon seems to have (at least) three bricks and mortar retail concepts on the go at the same time : Go, pop up stores and Whole Foods, and is only now deciding to cut one of them. Amazon's commitment to going with the data goes so so deep.

> Amazon also assured landlords that its decision to close pop-up stores wasn’t a sign that it is pulling back from its expansion into bricks-and-mortar retail, one landlord said.

> “The pop-up stores were designed to ascertain demand, and Amazon can leverage that data for prototypes of other stores,” said Mr. Charles Lanier, director of real estate at Plaza Associates Inc., a private commercial-property landlord that operates Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, N.C., which contains an Amazon pop-up.

> Amazon is innovating at a fast pace, he said, adding, “We’re big fans of the brand.”

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#67

Post by stephenhuey »

plumeria wrote: post #53
turtlebits wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the 365 grocery stores.

Those have been discontinued.

I was about to correct you since one opened near my house, but it sounds like all 9 of the 365 stores will be converted to a regular Whole Foods by the end of the year:

https://www.eater.com/2019/2/27/18243123/whole-foods-365-sto...

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#69

Post by cloakandswagger »

1stcity3rdcoast wrote: post #61
Judgmentality wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon (for all their warts) is much more adept at keeping customer experience in their crosshairs. Except when it comes to selling counterfeit merchandise. This is more than just a nitpick, they are cannibalizing their core business. What I don't know, and I assume they do know, is how bad is the problem. Is it impacting 1% of customers who ultimately leave their platform (which could easily be offset by other fac…

There’s been a lot of heated discussion about this on HN previously, but it would be interesting to know 1) how big of a problem it is, and 2) what people are buying that seem to have this problem. My household buys on average 10-20 items from amazon each week for many years (combined personal, my business, my wife’s business) and have yet to receive a counterfeit item. Am I doing something different?

The problem seems to exclusively affect HN commenters, who have the remarkable misfortune of having every single item they buy off Amazon turn out to be counterfeit. It's a total scourge on the community of HN but miraculously doesn't seem to affect anyone else.

Occasionally I'll see a broken-English listing from a third-party seller advertising a $800 camera for $200, but when that happens I just...don't purchase the obvious counterfeit product.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#70

Post by tha_nose »

Kye wrote: post #38
ihuman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That article uses OP's as the main source. > The move was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

I think it was offered as an alternative for people who felt weird about breaking the paywall but don't mind reporting that uses the paywalled article as a source.

Or it's just cnbc social media team spamming social media. Anything is possible in this brave new world.
Post reply on HN