[chk]

Though I agree, it does sound insane. What would they stock? They can't supply everything obviously. I think it will be a good outreach to put a face to the company you're buying from, and make it more personal. I'm sure the employees will have little Kindles so you can quickly order things in stock. And gain the confidence from buyers that are hesitant buying things from online retailers. Potentially this could hurt stores like Best Buy, or the like. If Amazon can provide a better customer service in person, than people will choose them over the other. I'll be curious to see how this plays out for them.

[DannyBee]

"Though I agree, it does sound insane. What would they stock?"

???? I would expect they are only going to stock amazon stuff. Maybe amazon branded + amazonbasics.

Why would they stock anything else?

To me, this seems like a fairly obvious play: They have had trouble getting playing with fire branded stuff in their internet and tv-only campaigns. People actually want to play with the devices.

Given the choice between buying space in best buy among tons of other companies, and leaving it to the whims of blue shirted people to sell their stuff, or doing it themselves, they chose "doing it themselves".

That seems sane to me.

[chk]

While I agree with you that it would definitely help their sales by selling it themselves vs. the blue shirts. I can't seem to think they will only sell Amazon products. Not to say they will sell substitutes of their products as well, I think it would be a missed opportunity to stock it only with Kindles, and Fire Phones. It would be surprising to me at least, if their main objective with this store front was to increase sales of their products alone. I could envision them being a big box in the future with stores around the US. They've already got a lot of warehouses to back something of that caliber up.

[DannyBee]

If they get into selling other people's stuff in person, they then have to compete with other people in the area on those prices, deal with support for those devices when they break. They also have to deal with all the attendant supply chain issues, etc.

Supply chain for a warehouse is different than supply chain for the store. If too many people in alabama want something tomorrow that isn't in alabama warehouse, they overnight it from vegas and pay the price. If too many people show up to buy something in the store in alabama, they are simply out of stock. In one case, they make a sale and pay a little more overhead. In the other case, they probably don't make the sale.

Additionally, right now their support is limited to "we click buttons, you repack stuff, and we ask UPS to take stuff back to us". The average brick and mortar store provides a lot more support than that.

They already deal with a lot of this for kindle products, but not other peoples.

For other people's products, I can't see them wanting to get into this business, it's a rathole, and only serves to help others more than them :)

I don't think they will get into the business of selling tvs in a big box, for example, right up until best buy dies. I think they are perfectly happy with "people try stuff, then buy it on amazon", and i don't see why they wouldn't be.

In short, i have trouble seeing why they would want to be a big box in the future. Their entire business model is based around the idea that being a big box is inefficient.

[chk]

I guess I am being too optimistic. I really enjoyed reading that response, and you brought to mind a lot of things I just didn't really consider. Supporting other peoples devices would be a hassle, and a huge undertaking who does zero of that currently. Since you've debunked my theories :), rethinking it maybe it's just a great way to advertise, and get people touch, and feel the phone in person with a great salesperson next to them. The article I think said it is suppose to be up before the holiday season. And why run a test store in New York, New York? I wouldn't ever suggest doing a test run in an extremely high end area like that. Maybe it's up for Nov, Dec, Jan.. and than disappears.

[bentcorner]

It makes sense to me too. I've never owned an Amazon device, or (I think) even touched one. I've heard middling things about them, but holding one in the hand could be enough to persuade me to pick one up.

[vlunkr]

I don't think they would have too much trouble knowing what to stock, they would just look at their sales. Stock the most popular items, new releases of movies/books/games, and phones, tablets and PC's.

On the other hand, that would make them nearly equivalent to any of the other "brick and mortar" businesses. I wonder if they want to focus on showcasing their own products, like an apple store. They have been pushing the advertising on amazon fire TV and phone a lot.

[Kalium]

Why not have the stock respond to people? Amazon can probably have their stock be adaptive.