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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

#281

Post by jonhendry »

dubya wrote: post #159
fsckin wrote: post #98

Amazon failed to collect/remit ~270M in sales tax in Texas and has owed millions for years. So what did the state of Texas do about it? They struck a deal to erase the 270M owed, as long as Amazon starts collecting sales tax starting 7/1, create 2000 jobs and invest 200M in Texas. They were likely already planning more infrastructure in Texas, but threatened to reverse course and pull out of the state entirely. The w…

I recently got an email from Amazon stating the amount I owed sales tax on in my home state of Tennessee, with a link to a tn.gov site where I could pay. Amazon actually seems to ship a lot of things to Memphis, so I'm not sure why they don't collect it directly.

Memphis is probably the FedEx central hub.

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

#282

Post by Kadin »

rdl wrote: post #107
robterrell wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to love the 993, but now I've switched to the Pearl Izumi for running, which I discovered through Zappos and their awesome return policy. Watching my wife goes through the Zappos process, and being an overall internet hermit, made me want to try it out. I bought four pairs of shoes in what seemed like the best size and width for me (there is good information about brand size trends on their site), got them the n…

I really prefer the NB 856. I've never found Zappos to have particularly good selection of the shoes I buy (men's dress shoes, boots of various kinds, etc). They're particularly bad for boots. Their main focus seems low to mid range female shoes.

Makes a certain amount of sense; boots are heavy and thus expensive to ship. Since they offer free shipping both outbound and return, that would eat directly into their bottom line. Particularly if the average customer buys and returns multiple pairs before finally settling on one.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are certain types or models of footwear that are completely off-limits due to their business model.

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

#283

Post by stretchwithme »

ianb wrote: post #275
stretchwithme wrote: post #271

Because the last mile is always so expensive and subject to theft, I think we'll eventually have a centralized local pickup location for all sorts of small deliveries. We'll just stop there on the way home if something has arrived. That will even include your postal mail if the postal service ever wakes up. There's no need to physically deliver mail every day if people could see what mail they've received remotely an…

We've built a little nook for packages on our front porch, I wonder if more people will do that sort of thing as well.

In the old days, they had milk boxes. One house I lived in as a kid had one. There's usually a door on the outside and a locked door on the inside. Here's one:

http://www.wellsphere.com/allergies-article/built-in-milk-bo...

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

#284

Post by greedo »

rabidsnail wrote: post #255
JackC wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be saying that as a defense of Amazon's treatment of warehouse workers. It's not. Read the Mother Jones article linked above. When people are working in terrible conditions, and they believe those conditions are better than the alternative, that is not a good thing. It's heartrending. I say this as someone who hates shopping in retail stores and can't wait to buy everything on Amazon. But the unseen and u…

My point isn't that conditions are good, just that the alternative must be worse. By not shopping at Amazon you're taking the warehouse jobs away from those people and pushing them to whatever that worse alternative is. "Chemotherapy makes me sick, so I'll die of cancer instead".

Perhaps the alternative is worse because businesses are routinely given tax breaks/benefits in the hopes that they'll create jobs? This corporate welfare rarely works, but is incredibly popular with some municipalities. You never see a mayor or City Council offering tax breaks to mom and pop businesses. The end result is megastores that have unbeatable advantages.

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

#285

Post by Kadin »

rachelbythebay wrote: post #129
MBCook wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone here remember catalog stores? That may not be the right name, I've only been in one once, and it has to have been over 15 years. You'd go in the store and look at the merchandise, all of it in glass cases. You'd use a little golf pencil to mark the order sheet they gave you at the door for what you wanted. When you were done shopping, you'd give your form to the guy at the register. They'd ring you up and…

Service Merchandise and BEST, right? I never figured out why they both went out of business. They should have been able to offer a huge inventory with hardly any overhead.

I think Lechmere (regional electronics and homewares store in New England) was similar, at least for some products. You could play with a display model, but to buy one you'd take a ticket to the counter and pay, then go to a pickup counter to get the actual item.

It left the store shelves looking a lot less cluttered than they would have otherwise been, and I suspect also protected against shoplifting.

Always liked that store, actually. They sold all sorts of stuff.

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

#286

Post by Kadin »

fsckin wrote: post #170
tsotha wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies are only required to pay state sales tax if they have a physical presence in that state. Amazon wasn't bluffing, Texas was. We went through the same thing in California. Amazon agreed to pay the sales tax, but only after it had decided to open distribution centers in the state.

Amazon has had a continuous presence in Texas from 2005 onward. Distribution center operated in Irving, TX from 2005 through 2011. Woot, in Carrollton, TX was acquired in 2010.

I think the distribution center was owned indirectly, through some sort of holding company; that was the linchpin of their whole argument.

Woot was probably just one of the things they were threatening to close down and move out of state if Texas didn't give them a break. And I'm sure they had an argument ready as to why Woot wasn't a tax nexus for Amazon as a whole; there's a lot of really arcane rules that go into determining nexus.

The real losers at the end of all this are going to be the tax-free states, who ended up getting a lot of Amazon (and other mail-order retail) business because putting a warehouse there wouldn't risk triggering taxation. But if the tax loopholes are closed, there's not a lot of reason to set up shop there. They are going to be the losers in the end, I think.

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

#287

Post by anateus »

cglee wrote: post #94
wheels wrote: post #54

Amazon has been doing this in parts of Germany since 2009. The results haven't been nearly as dramatic as the article predicts. As others have indicated, the limiting factor isn't so much speed of delivery as the inclination to physically inspect items before buying them. That said, Zappos, now a part of Amazon, has succeeded in doing that in one of the markets that tends the most towards such. Even so, there are sti…

When Zappos first came out I thought they'd tank. I purchase new basketball/running shoes every 6months, and never ever make a new purchase without trying it on. Playing basketball or running with an even slightly uncomfortable shoe can lead to blistering, back problems, ankle sprains, etc. But my gf at the time thought it was brilliant. What I learned was that a lot of women's shoes are purchased based on anything e…

I scanned the thread and surprised no one mentioned the reason I use Zappos so much:

Free returns.

When buying a new model of shoe, I order at least 2, sometimes up to 4 different sizes. Try them all on, then sent back the ones that didn't fit. This has a few downsides: slight hassle of printing shipping labels and dropping off at UPS, as well as the capital outlay of paying for all those shoes. But to me, this is so vastly preferable to dragging myself to a mall or a department store that it's not even a contest.

I wouldn't recommend this for higher end shoes however, anything above $150. Both because then the capital requirements start getting onerous, and because fitting (at least for men's shoes) becomes such a crucial component you may go through more pairs before you decide than a single credit card can likely afford on Zappos :>

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

#288

Post by greedo »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #160
sebastianavina wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so, this means we are heading to a walmart vs amazon war? shit just got real.

False dichotomy. In the big box race to the bottom of prices, perhaps, but that's not the whole market (for amazon or for retail).

How is it a false dichotomy? Look at the retail marketplace and it's a wasteland. You have Walmart at the low end, aggressively disrupting entire manufacturing industries in their quest for low priced goods. At the "high" end you have Amazon squeezing out B&M bookstores, electronic stores, etc. Amazon has demonstrated a willingness to tolerate extremely low margins (1-2% if not negative) to achieve marketshare. How can a small business compete?

The only outlier I see in retail is Apple, generating huge amounts of revenue from their physical stores.

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

#290

Post by jdboyd »

gaius wrote: post #204
cglee wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Zappos first came out I thought they'd tank. I purchase new basketball/running shoes every 6months, and never ever make a new purchase without trying it on. Playing basketball or running with an even slightly uncomfortable shoe can lead to blistering, back problems, ankle sprains, etc. But my gf at the time thought it was brilliant. What I learned was that a lot of women's shoes are purchased based on anything e…

The best running shoes are the ones that suit your gait, it is definitely worth going to a reputable store (e.g. Runner's Need here in the UK) and having gait analysis done. It's free, but because I'm a decent bloke I would never get their recommendation then buy it online, I buy it in the store.

I would buy the shoes in the store then. But if I liked the shoes, a year later I might buy an identical replacement pair off Zappos instead of returning to the store.
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