I like the idea that one of the shipping options could be:
"2 day shipping (free with Prime)"
"1 day shipping $3.99"
"Get off your butt and go get it yourself (closest 2 miles)"
Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
51–60 of 142 posts
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#52I wonder if this is their in for B&M stores. I can also see this as part of their plan to start shipping items before you even buy them. I click checkout and it tells me to just go pick up the item from Radio Shack on 6th and Weidler.
That sounds new like a miserable experience. Does anyone actually like online ordering with instore pickup?
When shipping costs add 50% to the price of a cheaper item, and the store is convenient, free instore pickup is a killer feature. I've bought lots of stuff that way from Walmart.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
You sure about the 2nd tier part? The ones around here are in prime locations.
The one closest to me is in a strip mall next to a Mexican restaurant.
Is that supposed to be good or bad? It describes practically every store in the town where I grew up.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#54I'm pretty sure that Amazon will use the best positioned stores as forward stocking locations. They experimented with a similar concept at WebVan i believe. I also think they now realize that what Postmates and Instacart are doing today (using the city as a warehouse) is actually working and can be attractive to customers.
My initial impression is that Radio Shack stores are too small to be used primarily for stocking.
They're small but if you took Amazon's warehouse layout and Kiva robots, you'd get an incredible storage density. Coupled with lockers, pre-stocked with Amazon's top products, and staffed by one or two people, you'd have a pretty good system.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#55I like the idea that one of the shipping options could be: "2 day shipping (free with Prime)" "1 day shipping $3.99" "Get off your butt and go get it yourself (closest 2 miles)"
Also by Amazon:
* Delivery by bicycle
* Drone-based delivery
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#56Please, please, Amazon, leave 1/16 of the shelf space for electronic components! Pack them densely, don't offer customer support, and charge high prices. We need brick and mortar places to buy components. It might be worth a lot of goodwill from electronics tinkerers. Although I guess that's not a big enough group to matter, but who knows...
You know where I can buy a lot of common electronic components these days? Home Depot. Buildings are increasingly wired with various digital sensors, so electricians are increasingly in need of electronic this-and-that to couple them together.
Sure, you can't build whole from-scratch circuits purely from hardware-store parts, but if you run out of resistors/pots/whatever, you can restock pretty cheaply in any town big enough to have professional electricians operating out of it.
Also, I should probably point out that a lot of places (e.g. Best Buy) still do sell electronic components—they just sell combinations of them in lots and call the result a "hobbyist kit." It's much easier on their shelf space, and their employees, to just carry one SKU that you can point anyone looking for components at, which will give them most of what they might need.
For all the other stuff (what you might think of as a "booster pack" to a hobbyist kit's "base pack"), there's no more economical way to get exactly what you want than ordering online anyway. Expecting there to be a store in every rural town carrying every random IC one might need for a project is just insane, when you can order a pull-sheet of them for $2 no matter where you are.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#57Perhaps Amazon Local could expand and extend as a storefront hub that connects with the city's businesses. Or maybe I just wish I could get local goods in Amazon's purchase model
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#58Oh no I sure hope not, the tax will be back and that is enough to move me to other sites in several cases.
Edit: To clarify, no sales tax was one of the first things Amazon and other online retailers had on their side. They could sell things cheaper, even by a little, and the rest would be made up by not having to pay sales tax. If they have a presence in a state though they have to collect sales tax. If you buy a lot from Amazon it is kind of like taking a 8.5% pay cut in buying power. If you remember back in 1997-8 there were several bills popping up around it. My Google-fu is failing me, but this is a real issue. Amazon even discontinued the associates programs in some states to avoid taxes.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#59Scott Galloway talked about this at last week's DLD. You can hear his points and arguments at 6:50 -very insightful video on why Amazon has reached a point where they must make a brick and mortar acquisition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCvwCcEP74Q
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#60Please, please, Amazon, leave 1/16 of the shelf space for electronic components! Pack them densely, don't offer customer support, and charge high prices. We need brick and mortar places to buy components. It might be worth a lot of goodwill from electronics tinkerers. Although I guess that's not a big enough group to matter, but who knows...
You might already have Amazon's same-day delivery available:
http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8729023011