This is the trojan horse. Once Amazon has a large presence in each major centre, the next logical step for them is use some of their massive space as a showroom (think Ikea but on a much larger scale).
[Edit: To clarify, the showroom and warehouse would be in the same complex but separated. Shoppers + heavy merchandise + fast moving robots is a recipe for disaster.]
Then they can satisfy both the "I want to see it before I buy it" crowd as well as the "I know what I want - just give me the best price" crowd.
Mark my words. Amazon has the Costco's, Walmart's and Best Buy's of the world squarely in their crosshairs.
*Of course there will of course always be specialty categories that are too niche to fit in this model, thus many specialized retailers will still exist.
Interesting idea, but I seriously doubt Amazon would do this with their normal warehouses -- maybe paying sales tax and thus being able to have presence in major cities would let them set up dedicated showrooms for certain kinds of high-lifetime-margin products, like Kindles and maybe a Kindle Phone, though.
Big warehouses are highly automated (especially Amazon's), essentially unsafe for untrained people (forklifts, robots), and potentially at risk for theft. Not the kind of place you'd want customers milling around. Amazon is more likely to promote their existing easy return policy -- buy 3 pairs of shoes and send back the two you don't like -- vs. letting people into their warehouses.
Small, Apple-store style showrooms, or partnerships with someplace like Starbucks, would make a lot more sense. The lifetime value of a Kindle user far exceeds the cost of a Kindle (I probably have 200 x $10 books on mine at least), and it's the kind of product where try before you buy could be important. I'd rather have a bunch of Kindles and Kindle Fires in a cafe setting where you could check one out for a few hours, buy or get free drinks, and comfortably use the devices in an ideal environment, though. This could work for all the Amazon first-party products.
Maybe there are third-party products which would benefit from this, so Apple store sized showrooms with rotating third party stock (and fixed first party stock) could work, but they are really unlikely to be the existing warehouses.
To clarify: the warehouse and the showroom would be separate but contained in the same complex (much like Ikea). Each person has an app on their phone to record their purchases while browsing the showroom. When the shopper is done some items are retrieved robotically for them to pickup while some items (or all items - it's up to the buyer) are delivered later in the day.
I don't believe the robot technology is quite yet up to this. But in 5-10 years it should be.
This setup would feature primarily first party products but it would also be possible for third party products to be on display in the showroom (to be delivered later from a different location).
I agree that Apple-sized showrooms with mid to high-end first party items would be the logical first step.
If Amazon can deliver in one-day, why even worry about stock at these showrooms. Find something you like, order it, and it's delivered to your door the next day.
Certain huge items are obnoxious to purchase, evaluate, and then return if unsatisfied -- like 80" LCD TVs. Not sure what percentage of Amazon that is.
Also, many people feel "bad" about buying and returning. The "buy 3 pair of shoes, return 2" where you know you'll only keep 1 from the start feels dishonest in a way, although I'm more than happy to return something which isn't as described or is otherwise unpredictably unsatisfying.
I actually do a mental calculation before buying something which I might return, trying to figure out if Amazon is better off by me buying it (given my odds of returning it, and the costs/residual resale value if returned), and if the return is due to a bad description (Amazon's fault, and thus ok to return if the product turns out to match the wrong part of the description, like when it is internally inconsistent with the photo or whatever).
"Which of these two should I buy" is sometimes addressed by buying both, but buying 10 items and returning 9 is probably going to get your Amazon account flagged at some point.
[Edit: To clarify, the showroom and warehouse would be in the same complex but separated. Shoppers + heavy merchandise + fast moving robots is a recipe for disaster.]
Then they can satisfy both the "I want to see it before I buy it" crowd as well as the "I know what I want - just give me the best price" crowd.
Mark my words. Amazon has the Costco's, Walmart's and Best Buy's of the world squarely in their crosshairs.
*Of course there will of course always be specialty categories that are too niche to fit in this model, thus many specialized retailers will still exist.