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Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Location

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Re: Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Location

#41

Post by anigbrowl »

badmadrad wrote: post #4

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/amazon-store-manhattan/ Seems unnecessary. I guess Amazon is getting so bored making money in sane ways that they want to lose money in insane ways.

I'm not so sure. I think the future of consumer durables is showrooms with very little inventory but a huge number of things on display. If you want it right now, you pay full price, but if you want it delivered tomorrow (from your local amazon warehouse) then it's 10% off.

In other words you no longer 'go to the store' because it's economically inefficient to store many units of the same thing on expensive prime real estate. Instead almost all the warehouse space of existing stores is turned into floor space and they only have 1 of each item, although they keep a small stock of consumables.

Re: Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Location

#42

Post by anigbrowl »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #20
badmadrad wrote: post #4

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/amazon-store-manhattan/ Seems unnecessary. I guess Amazon is getting so bored making money in sane ways that they want to lose money in insane ways.

In many urban areas it can be challenging to receive packages, so having a pickup spot in the middle of several million people could well make sense. Apple's flagship Manhattan store famously does quite well as a showcase for their products and helps to sell millions for them. Amazon could be doing that math that for every user we get into the ecosystem we can extract X in lifetime value from book, video and app purc…

No it doesn't, you're not going to use some of the world's most expensive real estate for a pickup counter. That's the point of Amazon lockers in 7-11 stores and so on, you don't want to make people go outside of their neighborhood just to pick up a delivery. In a dense urban area that means within a few blocks.

Re: Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Location

#43

Post by praxeologist »

timjahn wrote: post #39
minimax wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know as much about NYC geography, but if they put one of these somewhere in the loop in Chicago I would definitely use it. I would much rather spend my lunch break walking down to the Amazon pickup depot than let a package sit on my front door all day.

Doesn't having to pick up a package defeat the purpose of delivery? If I wanted to pick up packages, I'd go to stores and buy things. I don't want to go to the store though, so I pay Amazon to deliver it to me.

Many of the things I buy on Amazon I buy because I can't find them at all in local stores. Sometimes they are just cheaper too, but that really is why I would use a local Amazon store. I wonder if this will also make some things like pet food which aren't really suited to ecommerce more viable for them. Maybe they wouldn't offer vastly cheaper shipping if you want any brand but would stock some staples like that too.

Re: Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Location

#45

Post by bentcorner »

DannyBee wrote: post #34
chk wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though I agree, it does sound insane. What would they stock? They can't supply everything obviously. I think it will be a good outreach to put a face to the company you're buying from, and make it more personal. I'm sure the employees will have little Kindles so you can quickly order things in stock. And gain the confidence from buyers that are hesitant buying things from online retailers. Potentially this could hurt…

"Though I agree, it does sound insane. What would they stock?" ???? I would expect they are only going to stock amazon stuff. Maybe amazon branded + amazonbasics. Why would they stock anything else? To me, this seems like a fairly obvious play: They have had trouble getting playing with fire branded stuff in their internet and tv-only campaigns. People actually want to play with the devices. Given the choice between…

It makes sense to me too. I've never owned an Amazon device, or (I think) even touched one. I've heard middling things about them, but holding one in the hand could be enough to persuade me to pick one up.

Re: Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Location

#46

Post by chk »

DannyBee wrote: post #34
chk wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though I agree, it does sound insane. What would they stock? They can't supply everything obviously. I think it will be a good outreach to put a face to the company you're buying from, and make it more personal. I'm sure the employees will have little Kindles so you can quickly order things in stock. And gain the confidence from buyers that are hesitant buying things from online retailers. Potentially this could hurt…

"Though I agree, it does sound insane. What would they stock?" ???? I would expect they are only going to stock amazon stuff. Maybe amazon branded + amazonbasics. Why would they stock anything else? To me, this seems like a fairly obvious play: They have had trouble getting playing with fire branded stuff in their internet and tv-only campaigns. People actually want to play with the devices. Given the choice between…

While I agree with you that it would definitely help their sales by selling it themselves vs. the blue shirts. I can't seem to think they will only sell Amazon products. Not to say they will sell substitutes of their products as well, I think it would be a missed opportunity to stock it only with Kindles, and Fire Phones. It would be surprising to me at least, if their main objective with this store front was to increase sales of their products alone. I could envision them being a big box in the future with stores around the US. They've already got a lot of warehouses to back something of that caliber up.

Re: Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Location

#47

Post by pinkyand »

timjahn wrote: post #39
minimax wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know as much about NYC geography, but if they put one of these somewhere in the loop in Chicago I would definitely use it. I would much rather spend my lunch break walking down to the Amazon pickup depot than let a package sit on my front door all day.

Doesn't having to pick up a package defeat the purpose of delivery? If I wanted to pick up packages, I'd go to stores and buy things. I don't want to go to the store though, so I pay Amazon to deliver it to me.

But what if you've got a parcel machine on your regular route ?

And don't forget, the costs can be much lower when using parcel machines. For example in latvia ,it costs 2 euro to send a package from a postal machine to a postal machine, versus 3.6 euro from a postal machine to someone via courier.

And e-commerce users really hate to pay for shipping.

Re: Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Location

#49

Post by adventured »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #20
badmadrad wrote: post #4

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/amazon-store-manhattan/ Seems unnecessary. I guess Amazon is getting so bored making money in sane ways that they want to lose money in insane ways.

In many urban areas it can be challenging to receive packages, so having a pickup spot in the middle of several million people could well make sense. Apple's flagship Manhattan store famously does quite well as a showcase for their products and helps to sell millions for them. Amazon could be doing that math that for every user we get into the ecosystem we can extract X in lifetime value from book, video and app purc…

Cost to become Wal-Mart: $62,655,000,000

Based on store counts times conservative numbers on the total cost of a new Wal-Mart. They might try building a bunch of small stores, but they're definitely not going to try to become Wal-Mart.

Re: Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Location

#50

Post by DannyBee »

chk wrote: post #46
DannyBee wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Though I agree, it does sound insane. What would they stock?" ???? I would expect they are only going to stock amazon stuff. Maybe amazon branded + amazonbasics. Why would they stock anything else? To me, this seems like a fairly obvious play: They have had trouble getting playing with fire branded stuff in their internet and tv-only campaigns. People actually want to play with the devices. Given the choice between…

While I agree with you that it would definitely help their sales by selling it themselves vs. the blue shirts. I can't seem to think they will only sell Amazon products. Not to say they will sell substitutes of their products as well, I think it would be a missed opportunity to stock it only with Kindles, and Fire Phones. It would be surprising to me at least, if their main objective with this store front was to incr…

If they get into selling other people's stuff in person, they then have to compete with other people in the area on those prices, deal with support for those devices when they break. They also have to deal with all the attendant supply chain issues, etc.

Supply chain for a warehouse is different than supply chain for the store. If too many people in alabama want something tomorrow that isn't in alabama warehouse, they overnight it from vegas and pay the price. If too many people show up to buy something in the store in alabama, they are simply out of stock. In one case, they make a sale and pay a little more overhead. In the other case, they probably don't make the sale.

Additionally, right now their support is limited to "we click buttons, you repack stuff, and we ask UPS to take stuff back to us". The average brick and mortar store provides a lot more support than that.

They already deal with a lot of this for kindle products, but not other peoples.

For other people's products, I can't see them wanting to get into this business, it's a rathole, and only serves to help others more than them :)

I don't think they will get into the business of selling tvs in a big box, for example, right up until best buy dies. I think they are perfectly happy with "people try stuff, then buy it on amazon", and i don't see why they wouldn't be.

In short, i have trouble seeing why they would want to be a big box in the future. Their entire business model is based around the idea that being a big box is inefficient.

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