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How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

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Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#21

Post by jdminhbg »

JoeCortopassi wrote: post #7

Isn't this just one step away from Amazon just being another brick-and-mortar? If this is the case, is not having an actual store that is accessible by customers (and coincidentally, the neccessary staff), that much of a operational advantage? Or is this just a case of the more efficient company (Amazon) beating out less efficient companies (Best Buy, Barnes and Nobles, etc...)?

It's not just the staff, I think -- it's the real estate. Amazon doesn't have to have conveniently located distributed locations and the inventory headaches associated with them; they can just have one gigantic warehouse in Jersey that provides goods to all their customers in Manhattan.

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#22

Post by themgt »

api wrote: post #3

More technology driven hyper-deflation on the way. The future: high inflation in food, energy, fuel, and consumables, hyper-deflation in everything else except to the extent that it depends on or consumes the former.

Except to the extent that stuff like this cannibalizes existing resource use (e.g. all the people driving an SUV to the shopping mall who instead buy with one-click), and to the extent technology & automation end food/energy/resource scarcity as well (which is underway, but hard to tell timeframes)

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#23

Post by kek »

craze3 wrote: post #14

(Disclosure: Slate participates in Amazon Associates, an "affiliate" advertising plan that rewards websites for sending customers to the online store. This means that if you click on an Amazon link from Slate—including a link in this story—and you end up buying something, Amazon will send Slate a percentage of your final purchase price.) Do they really think that they'll get more affiliate conversions by being the ho…

It has to do with journalistic ethics. By disclosing this now, they avoid a bad reputation when someone "discovers" that they participate in the affiliate program.

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#24

Post by PotatoEngineer »

tomfakes wrote: post #4

I bought 2 things on Amazon this week, both with free 2 day shipping with Prime Item 1 spent 13 hours on a UPS truck driving around my city and was delivered about 7pm in the evening 2 days after ordering. Item 2 was delivered 14 hours after purchasing by Amazon Fresh at 9am. For the same price of shipping, which service would you rather have? EDIT To Add: The delivery guy for the 14 hour item works for Amazon - the…

It depends on how well I know the item. If it's a commodity where I've bought exactly the same thing before (Charmin Extra-Strong Toilet Paper), then price rules all. If it's a new item that I'm not sure what I need about it (chef knife, bar stool, etc.), then seeing the item in person helps determine which item I need.

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#26

Post by wh-uws »

bennesvig wrote: post #19

The only advantage local retail stores have is immediacy. You can buy it as fast as you can drive there (and park/find it in the store/wait in line). Amazon has almost every other advantage. Ive come to find shopping local retail stores more and more frustrating. Shopping without reviews or videos, and having to flag down employees to help you locate items. It's really hard to beat online shopping with one day or two…

Forget the review and videos. What about service?

Stores as large as mighty Wal-mart itself are hardly staffed anymore.

When I want to ask where something is I find myself increasingly having to bother an already busy person at the cash register...

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#27

Post by tokenadult »

api wrote: post #3

More technology driven hyper-deflation on the way. The future: high inflation in food, energy, fuel, and consumables, hyper-deflation in everything else except to the extent that it depends on or consumes the former.

The future: high inflation in food, energy, fuel, and consumables, hyper-deflation in everything else except to the extent that it depends on or consumes the former.

The reply below your reply that says "The act of predicting the future alters the future" indeed expresses a truth about economics. But as a person who once predicted the future, by writing down my predictions and putting them (with classmates' predictions) in a time capsule that was opened thirty-one years later, I'd like to explore this process of predicting the future a bit more.

What exactly do you mean by "high inflation in food, energy, fuel, and consumables." Do you mean that in the developed world it will take more units of time at typical paid work to buy a meal or light up a room in 2050 than it does in 2012? That suggests a bet, a bet on which I would be willing to take the side contrary to your side. (I think so, as soon as I figure out if that is really what you are predicting.) What is included in the category "consumables," and what is not?

What is your definition of "hyperdeflation"? Does that basically mean that you or I or anyone else in the developed world will be able to obtain more and more of that "everything else" (WHAT everything else?) for fewer and fewer units of time spent in paid work? What kinds of goods or services do you have in mind here?

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#28

Post by [deleted] »

craze3 wrote: post #14

(Disclosure: Slate participates in Amazon Associates, an "affiliate" advertising plan that rewards websites for sending customers to the online store. This means that if you click on an Amazon link from Slate—including a link in this story—and you end up buying something, Amazon will send Slate a percentage of your final purchase price.) Do they really think that they'll get more affiliate conversions by being the ho…

[deleted]

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#29

Post by rflrob »

ddt wrote: post #11

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. Whil…

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.

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#30

Post by brigade »

bennesvig wrote: post #19

The only advantage local retail stores have is immediacy. You can buy it as fast as you can drive there (and park/find it in the store/wait in line). Amazon has almost every other advantage. Ive come to find shopping local retail stores more and more frustrating. Shopping without reviews or videos, and having to flag down employees to help you locate items. It's really hard to beat online shopping with one day or two…

Theoretically, being able to try the product before purchase is another advantage. Particularly for me where it seems no one complains about terrible user interfaces or noise anywhere near enough in reviews.

But in practice, outside of clothing and furniture, very few stores are set up to allow this almost at all. So screw them.

Returning stuff adds additional complexity for consumers (you have to repack it and drive to a drop-off point) and eats into profit margins, especially for non-clothing items that can no longer be sold as new.

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