[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?