After the exciting launch of the first ever Amazon grocery store reports started mentioning that Amazon had intentions of opening 2000 stores world wide. It would be a pretty logical step for someone guessing Amazon's intentions to think they may immediately jump into such a huge growth plan. The idea is excellent in my opinion. Obviously Amazon can not figure out a way to do groceries at a reasonable price over the web. I mean heck a 2 Liter bottle of diet coke will set you back $11! Having a bunch of brick and mortar grocery stores solves that problem. They don't have to worry about the logistics of shipping smaller products. Currently you would need to purchase many grocery products through Amazon's Prime Pantry in order to get a decent price on shipping.
In many ways it would also seem like a bad idea to open thousands of brick and mortar stores. If you think about it Amazon pioneered online shopping for everything. These days you are more likely to visit a brick and mortar store to touch and see a product and then order the same product on your phone before walking out of the store. Amazon's entire business model is to provide an alternative to in person purchases. For now you are required to own a smartphone in order to make a purchase at an Amazon Store. This eliminates a good bit of would be shoppers although it seems you could put together some sort of shopping token that would allow you to walk in and track your purchases. I see this as being more of a case study. This seems to be a proof of concept that could potentially be rolled out as a retrofit kit for stores that already exist and Amazon could provide the systems for a percentage of every sale. Amazon says they won't be opening 2000 of anything, and that they have much to learn still. I guess only time will tell.
via Cnet
