[mabbo]

For what purpose? Amazon's goal is to kill off traditional retail, as far as I can tell. Big box stores like Target are failing because their business model can't compete.

Amazon already bought Whole Foods, which gives them a large enough physical presence to do whatever it is they're going to do with it. Integrating that business with the rest of Amazon will already take years- why complicate it further?

My guess? Gene Munster owns some stocks in Target and wants to offload them at a price slightly higher than what it's currently at.

[gmoore]

I disagree - their goal isn't to kill off traditional retail. Their goal is to get a cut of every transaction you make AND remove as much friction from the purchase as possible - wherever you make it...it makes perfect sense that Amazon would buy up a chain with lots of local presence.

[petra]

Sure, that's their ultimate goal, but currently, at this stage of this game, isnt it better to spend much less than $41B, on just curbside check out points(which is the future, probably), create a curbside war between retailers(already started), and in the process bankrupt traditional remailers and shift user behaviour to online, and later, buy some retailers for pennies on the dollar?

[m3kw9]

Amazon wouldn’t have brought Wholefoods if according to your logic. They can use Targets physical location to cover a lot of last mile delivery or more products to have those 2 hour deliveries.

[debt]

There are many products at Target that are simply inferior and more expensive than their alternatives on Amazon.

If target could more intelligently replace those inferior and pricier products with their cheaper, Amazon-based alternative, then Target would provide a more competitive buying experience.

But Target is locked in with old brands and not necessarily the best ones in the market for their given vertical.

Seems like an extremely simple fix, but maybe Target is mired in longer term contracts with big brands that they can't break.

As a quick example, is Bic still the best manufacturer of the best available pens?

[s0rce]

When I lived in a smaller suburban town Target was a great responsibly priced alternative to Amazon for many things, especially consumables like cleaning supplies. Now that I lie in a busy city its not worth the horribly busy parking, checkout lines and crowds to go to Target. If I could simply order everything from Amazon I would. If Target sold better quality I still wouldn't go. Prime Now seems to be improving but the selection is pretty spotty.

[khedoros1]

> There are many products at Target that are simply inferior and more expensive than their alternatives on Amazon.

And there are many products on Amazon that are fake. At least I know what I'm getting at Target, and returns don't involve negotiating for a shipping label and figuring out where there's a package drop-off nearby.

> As a quick example, is Bic still the best manufacturer of the best available pens?

Probably not, but luckily they're not the only brands that Target carries in-store: Paper Mate, Pilot, BIC, NPW, Pentel, Staedtler, Sugar Rush, Uniball, up&up, Write Dudes, and Yoobi are all advertised as pen brands sold by Target.

[debt]

I agree, I'm saying that Target and Amazon would be an amazing intersection of two great umbrella brands.

[cracell]

"Amazon's goal is to kill off traditional retail"

What makes you think that's their goal?

[rhombocombus]

I always thought their goal was to make piles of money, and that any collateral damage to traditional retail was incidental.

[samfisher83]

Everything is cyclical. You went from the Mainframes to PC era and not back to cloud computing (main frames). Amazon is kind of like sears.It started out as a catalog and then open retail store.

[mikestew]

There's a certain sense of irony in Amazon taking part of the old Sears distribution building in Seattle for their physical grocery store.

[nunez]

amazon is sears done right

sears should have been amazon

[BlackjackCF]

Seems like it. Because Target is an expensive and nonsensical acquisition for Amazon.

Also, even if it were a real possibility - I really hope not. We don't need more monopolies.

[djsumdog]

I stopped shopping at Wal-Mart back around 2009 and stopped buying from Amazon around 2012. I don't like support those models and I hate how so much in the tech world is dependent on Amazon. There should be more providers people are willing to use.

It saddened me when Amazon absorbed Whole Foods. I still shop there because I like the breakfast bar, and there's a limit on what we can actually do as consumers. I realize it's all symbolic as you can't actually "vote with your dollars" as the libertarians would have you believe.

But still, I hope this is all Munster vaporware blowing out his ass. I'm sure there'd be serious FTC issues with a merger that large. Then again, the FCC did just ditch network neutrality and both companies are large enough they can probably lobby whoever they want to make such a transaction go through.

[ancap]

> you can't actually "vote with your dollars"

Sure you can, and you did. You're gripe is that the majority of others don't share your concerns--so you have been, thus far, out voted.

[Goronmon]

I realize it's all symbolic as you can't actually "vote with your dollars" as the libertarians would have you believe.

"Voting" has never guaranteed that your desired outcome is the one chosen. If it was, it would have to be called something other than "voting".

[BlackjackCF]

I mean technically you can vote with your dollars. It's just the really rich people who outvoted us with their dollars because they have more of it. :|

[SubiculumCode]

Breakfast pizza. Genuine trigger food of the Gods. I'm glad the Whole Foods next door closed.

[baldfat]

That is the only thing people are hold on for this not happening. The politics of this merger is the only thing possibly stopping this.

[pasquinelli]

"Big box stores like Target are failing because their business model can't compete."

most retail sales are made at big box stores. amazon probably wants some of that, yeah?

[stcredzero]

Amazon already bought Whole Foods, which gives them a large enough physical presence to do whatever it is they're going to do with it.

Let me think about picking up consumer electronics from Whole Foods...Nah! Don't like it. Doesn't work for me as a consumer from a branding perspective. Picking those up from Target? Sure! The branding work there has already been done.

[mikey_p]

It seems ridiculous, but that is exactly what they are doing in some stores. Amazon electronics kiosk just before the checkouts:

https://twitter.com/alexhillman/status/947593851715424256

[stcredzero]

Okay. So look at the pictures and think about that vs. Target. Which do you prefer? (Not rhetorical. What are your impressions? 3rd party readers/lurkers please chime in!)

[fezz]

I noticed the kiosk was there one week and gone the next. It did feel totally out of place.

[fezz]

Amazon is following the path of Sears which started of as a delivery based store and then ended up with a physical store network.

[hexis]

If their goal is to kill traditional retail, why are they opening traditional retail book stores across America?

[nightski]

Target is failing? That is news to me.

[mabbo]

You should read about "Target Canada". What a fiasco money-fire that was.

[bhhaskin]

They are closing some stores. Retail in general has had a very bad few years.

[jccooper]

Target has some problems, but they're mostly debt management stemming from aggressive expansion. Closing a dozen stores out of 1,800 doesn't really say much. That's just churn.

[lotso]

> Amazon's goal is to kill off traditional retail, as far as I can tell.

Then why are they opening up bookstores?

[sjg007]

Walmart is Amazon's largest competitor in retail and they have a big footprint. I think buying Target makes sense because they get access to more products (and store branded products) as well as local distribution which may help reduce shipping costs.

[xbmcuser]

Amazon goal is to out compete other retail not to kill offline retail. If it will sell through physical stores if it needs to compete.