[tuppy]

I really haven't seen any evidence to back up your claims outside of fear-mongering news articles and general whining from the big box brick-and-mortars.

"Maybe Amazon's plan is to drive these stores out of business and then open its own display stores where people can go to inspect merchandise before ordering it online."

This cannot be a serious conjecture. Opening up quasi-retail locations with all the expenses of retail but no ability to actually making a sale? Didn't Gateway do this in the late 90s?

[jaredsohn]

If it ever got to the point where brick-and-mortar stores for certain things ceased to exist since everyone was buying online, you could have a store that actually charged admission to browse (and to convince people to still come, you could make that admission count toward an online order or toward food at a store restaurant.)

Pretty unlikely, although maybe it would make sense in a less-developed community (third world countries, outer space) that does not already have modern brick and mortar stores.