I think itās a good news for Amazon investors and customers. What do you think?
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No one has an opinion on this? Amazon is changing the way we shop in a physical store. This is a beneficial process from the point of view of consumption, as it reduces the purchasing process, but it can also have a consequence on the economy, as it reduces some retail jobs. I know Itās too early to say anything about it, but when your competitor has an unparalleled competitive advantage for customers and the cost of the company, it tends to be copied. So as an investor and client Iād be happy, but how much will all this process automation cost to the economy?
I canāt see them building out a network of shops. Theyāll use it to sell the underlying tech. I canāt see staffing being reduced massively as you need staff to stock the store, clean it, tidy it, check IDs, check dates, waste stock, etc
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I was reading about Nike, and the direction they want to go is to stop all supplies to Amazon and to shift direct to customers online only. And scale down their high street presence. Amazon shifting in to the high street and Nike shifting out,
They have a huge competitive advantage and I donāt believe they would sell that to the competition. Amazonās physical stores are a reality. But Iām not against it. I like evolutions, but nothing comes without a price.
If it works others may follow, the piece I read had Nike stating that they now had the tech to make it work and match the amazon experience . Interesting, a fight back.
Everyone follows what is proven to be possible and better.
They donāt check your ID. You walk into the store, you take the product and leave. Payment occurs automatically when you leave the store. The store has no employees.
Happy to concede point on ID if youāre correct - my understanding in the UK is you need a staff member to check the ID at point of sale.
How does the food get into the store? Does it grow there and magically get itself onto the shelves?
What happens to the waste products which arenāt bought? Do they take themselves to the food bank or the bin?
Does the store clean and tidy itself too?
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Iām not sure they do tbh.
Sell was probably the wrong word on my part. I can see them following a similar model to AWS where they licence it out to others and/or run it for other shops e.g. Tesco, Sainsburyās etc.
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I understand what youāre talking about and it looks like Iām overreacting, but think of several stores using a similar system. I thought about the solution and I think this technology is really fantastic, but what does an empty store mean? Maybe nothing. But letās imagine several. Iāll repeat, I love the technology, but changes will occur.
The UK would be an ideal country to run experiments for Amazon that it could learn from and apply the learnings elsewhere. Relatively small, good infrastructure, high tech literacy.
I donāt really understand this reply in the context of my comment.
Possibly. But cultures are so different even intra-country, let alone internationally that I donāt necessarily think learnings in this area can be applied to other countries seamlessly.
Sorry, when you wrote this: āThe store cleans and tidy itself too?ā I thought maybe I was overreacting for you.
Ah ok. Iām just saying they arenāt staffless. They still have staff working there.
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If Amazon are seen as the poster child for destroying bricks and mortar retail, I canāt imagine an aggressive rollout plan of their own stores will go down well with politicians wanting to portray them as having monopolistic practices.
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I think Iām missing something here. Nobody said anything about destruction.
Traditional retail i.e. goods being sold through bricks and mortar shops has been suffering at the hands of retail moving online. Many retail business that havenāt been able to adapt have failed. Amazon are often portrayed as the exemplar of online retail, and therefore represent for some people (notably politicians wanting to get some slice of a popular vote) a negative and destructive force.
The recent congressional hearing in the US focused on the large tech businesses dominating the stock market there, including Amazon. One of the concerns of the hearing was that these companies are so powerful that they are now monopolies. There is also an attempt to introduce a digital tax in France and there have been similar suggestions here in the UK, under the guise of āprotectingā traditional retail.
My point is simply that by replacing some of the bricks and mortar retail business that has failed over recent years, Amazon may end up reinforcing the view (rightly or wrongly) that they have some degree of monopolistic power in retail.
I understand your point of view, but I donāt see Amazon as politicians. Of course this is dominating space now, especially by virtue of the pandemic, but often the dominance occurs of you taking the right path anticipating the future. And once again Amazon is taking the lead in retail automation. Anyway, Iām just thinking (rightly or wrongly) on the consequences of automating the retail sales process for the economy. Imagining something bigger with many big stores going this way.