Amazon decides the future is corner stores
Amazon, a company famous for killing brick-and-mortar stores with ruthless pricing and drones, wants to build a series of brick-and-mortar stores. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is planning a series of small brick-and-mortar convenience stores to augment its existing Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service.
First, they came for your bookstores. Then, they came for your Radioshack. Now, they come for your corner stores.
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According to the WSJ's report, Amazon's stores will mostly just stock perishable items like milk, meat and produce. Those are difficult to deliver to homes in a small, cost-effective package, and perishable items are also an annoyance for Amazon's famed logistics chain. If you want a non-perishable food item -- say, peanut butter or candy -- you won't be able to buy that in store. Instead, you use an in-store touch screen (or, more likely, your smartphone) to order the item for same-day delivery.
In that way, corner stores will form just one of Amazon's delivery solutions. In the perfect Amazon future, it seems like you'll have corner stores and drones for immediate gratification of simple things; same-day delivery for most of life's essentials; and free two-day shipping for everything else, courtesy of Amazon Prime.
The stores are meant to make Amazon's existing Fresh grocery service more palatable. At the moment, users (who must already by Amazon Prime members) pay $15 per month for the grocery delivery service. At the moment, it's in seven US cities.
In addition to brick-and-mortar stores, Amazon is also considering curbside pickup locations, which would let you make an order online, drive to a location, and have it put into your car with you. According to the WSJ's sources, the first such location could be weeks away from opening in Seattle.
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