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Businesses United States

Amazon Eyes Its Own Convenience Stores In Addition To Drive-Up Grocery Sites (geekwire.com) 68

Posted by msmash from the convenient-expansion dept.
Amazon's next push into the grocery business could be convenience stores as well as curbside pickup locations, reports WSJ. The Seattle-based company aims to build small brick and mortar stores that would sell things like milk, meat and other perishable items (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternate source). GeekWire adds: But the convenience stores are a new twist. The WSJ says Amazon "aims to build small brick-and-mortar stores that would sell produce, milk, meats and other perishable items that customers can take home," according to its sources. "Primarily using their mobile phones or, possibly, touch screens around the store, customers could also order peanut butter, cereal and other goods with longer shelf lives for same-day delivery." However, the report cautions, the convenience stores "may take a year or more to open while Amazon scouts locations, and may be shelved because of financial or operational concerns, the people said."Interesting move from Amazon, a company that has run many convenience stores out of business with its online business.
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Amazon Eyes Its Own Convenience Stores In Addition To Drive-Up Grocery Sites More

Amazon Eyes Its Own Convenience Stores In Addition To Drive-Up Grocery Sites

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  • they won't be C-stores (Score:5, Funny)

    by turkeydance ( 1266624 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @12:14PM (#53055785)
    without lottery tickets
    • Better add 3.2 beer, coffee, and smokes to that list as well. Those were by far the largest share of inside sales when I worked at a gas station.

      • don't forget the charbroil's, roller food, fountain drinks, energy beverages and donuts!

        • My impression of the roller food was it was there because someone might want to buy it and it was the hot food available but it was so low volume that they basically broke even. I never worked the day shift so maybe they sell better then and I just didn't know. As far as the rest of the "food" it always seemed best to avoid it as Doritos were about as healthy as you would get. I will admit that I had forgotten about fountain drinks and the 90+% margin but are energy drinks really big sellers? Seriously I di

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Jawnn ( 445279 )

          don't forget the charbroil's, roller food, fountain drinks, energy beverages and donuts!

          Indeed, sir. And let us not be forgetting the Squishy, it being the signature drink of any convenience store that is at all respecting itself.

    • If amazon puts in local brick and mortar stores in my state, that means they have to start charging sales tax online.....which virtually relieves me of any reason to buy from them any longer.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cdrudge ( 68377 )

        If Amazon operated it's c-stores as a separate corporation but still wholly owned by Amazon, would that still count as a nexus for sales tax purposes for Amazon the online retailer?

      • Amazon is rarely the cheapest anymore. I really only them for stuff I can not find locally.

        • Amazon is rarely the cheapest anymore. I really only them for stuff I can not find locally.

          It really depends on what you're buying, I *do* find them often to be the cheapest....ESPECIALLY if said item is a big ticket item.

          Saving almost 10% in sales tax by purchasing online with Amazon makes it a bargain I find....and I'm Prime, so free 2x day shipping, etc.

  • This is a bad idea. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sims 2 ( 994794 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @12:20PM (#53055827)

    The brick and mortar market is already at saturation.

    Walmart is already starting to offer in-store pickup and drive up pickup.

    Amazon would be better off investing in drone delivery as it has a much better chance of being profitable.

    Oh and little stores that sell milk and stuff? Walmart already tried that with "walmart express" it didn't work.

    • Re:This is a bad idea. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @12:34PM (#53055929)

      It is already saturated and looks to be little profit for a large risk. Nonetheless, they will have advantages over other convenience stores:

      1) People will be going there anyway to pick up packages. (same idea as petrol stations, only most people avoid going inside at those places now you can pay at the pump).

      2) Amazon name recognition which many people correlate with "cheap prices" (regardless of whether that is true anymore).

      If you're going to have pick-up locations you might as well sell something there too to help cover the costs.

    • It seems like it'd be a good way to reduce some of the delivery hurdles. If you live in a city where delivery companies aren't comfortable leaving packages on your door step then it'd give you another location where you could pick up your Amazon stuff - presumably less inconvenient than driving out to the UPS depot.

      It also would give them a chance to offer cheaper next day delivery since they could just nextday a giant box of small things to the convenience store and split them out for all their customers.

      • They have basically already implemented this in Canada. When you ship something in Canada, Amazon offers you the option of delivering the item to the post office. The post office uses various convenience stores and pharmacies as package pickup places. So, most of the time, the package is held at a convenience store about 3 km or less from your house. You go pick it up when it's convenient for you instead of having the package dropped at your doorstep.

        It's a little easier here because the stores are already

    • The brick and mortar market is already at saturation.

      Back in 1994, most people thought the book market was saturated.

      • Back in 1994, the *brick-and-mortar* book market WAS pretty saturated. Even small towns had a Barnes & Noble and Borders store within 50 miles unless they were totally out in godforsaken rural BFE, and every halfway-decent mall in America had a B. Dalton's and a Waldenbooks store. And that's not even counting stores like Books-a-Million, independent bookstores, etc.

        Arguably, Amazon didn't GROW the book market so much as CANNIBALIZE a huge chunk of it (ultimately, putting Borders out of business & le

    • Amazon vs Wal-Mart: who would win?
      • Eventually, Amazon. People may love the pictures, but no one wants to actually be near the "people of walmart" in person.

        • but no one wants to actually be near the "people of walmart" in person.

          They're not so bad. It's the judgmental classist hipsters that most people are afraid of running into.

    • The brick and mortar market is already at saturation.

      And yet new ones open up all the time, many of which manage to turn a profit. Curious definition of saturation you have there.

      Walmart is already starting to offer in-store pickup and drive up pickup.

      So what? It doesn't follow that Amazon couldn't do some physical store fronts in a profitable manner just because Walmart has stores too. I don't think Amazon is dumb enough to try to model their business after Walmart. Furthermore Walmart isn't in a lot of places, particularly dense urban areas and Walmart's business model doesn't work well there. Amazon on the other hand has a

    • Walmart has offered free in store pickup on items they don't even carry in the local store for a long time... If their web services where better amazon might have some competition.

    • >> brick and mortar market is already at saturation

      Brick and mortar has ALWAYS been oversaturated. That's why you see stores close - they lose their customers to other stores for (reason).

    • I think Amazon's general idea is that they can pack a small 2 or 3 story building with the footprint of a typical suburban 7-Eleven from floor to ceiling with almost as many items as a regular grocery store, without having to waste money on things like shelf appeal, in-store advertising, room for people to walk around and push carts, having carts at all, cashiers, and checkout lines. All they'll need is a website & apps for Android, IOS, and Windows, and anywhere between 1-4 employees per site whose onl

  • Let me guess... Prime (Score:3)

    by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @12:30PM (#53055903)

    Let me guess, if you don't subscribe to Prime or spend $49 in one purchase you can't have a free plastic bag to carry your groceries to your car in; instead you have to buy one for $15.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sims 2 ( 994794 )

      I'd be concerned that they might expand their add on item program so if I wanted to buy a tube of toothpaste id have to buy enough stuff to hit the $25 order minimum even after paying for prime.

    • Nonono. Amazon is channeling William Gibson [wikipedia.org]'s "Lucky Dragon stores.

      They aim to have matter transmission nailed down just a soon as they get the fusion reactors a bit smaller.

  • I love my neighborhood convenience store. Forget the fact that I can get a bag of Funyums, a lotto ticket and a 40 oz King Cobra there at 3am. The owner is a great guy whose family of immigrants (and now citizens) has been an essential part of the neighborhood. They work their asses off, keep that part of the street clean and are their own neighborhood watch program. The oldest son is in med school now.

    When I walk past the place, I'll go in just to say hello and talk sports with the owner, who can tell

  • Bodegazon?

    Amadega?

    Amazega?

    Quicky-Zon?

    Mart-A-Zon?

    Am-A-mart?

    "The scene of last night's robbery"?

    Strat

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • H.E.B. in Texas already does an order online and pickup later thing. You order online and pick a time slot, they send a confirmation email. When your time comes you have a designated parking area, text a number that you are in parking spot #n, they bring out and load up your food, you sign and you're on your way. It's $5 well spent for anyone that has to deal with kids and shopping... or those that just don't have the time to hunt through the aisles.

  • How are they going to compete with the 100's of convenience stores around each city and usually several with in a block of each other.

    • not about the stores (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      How are they going to compete with the 100's of convenience stores around each city and usually several with in a block of each other.

      All of those convenience stores are getting their groceries from a very small number of distributors. This is why all convenience stores sell the same stuff. Amazon is really competing with the distributors, they are short-circuiting them out of the system. This way amazon can establish a presence without "playing nice" or "making deals" with the existing players.

    • They wouldn't. From the description this is more like a grocery store that only has fruits/vegetables and refrigerated items. You would grab those items that you need, electronically order everything else for delivery to your house. I would guess they are aiming for the people who like to select their own fruit/vegetables/meat cuts and are worried that the items if selected by the store employee would be bruised, rotting, bad cuts of meat, etc.
      The standard convenience store would go on as it is with gas/

    • How are they going to compete with the 100's of convenience stores around each city and usually several with in a block of each other.

      Presumably by offering something those stores cannot. I don't think they would be looking to open up a store identical to your local quickie-mart. There would be little point or profit in doing that.

      • Perfect example: if you've ever seen a "Farm Stores" site (they're all over Florida, probably nationwide), it's a tiny building staffed by a single employee with drive-through lanes on both sides. The catch is, you have to either know what they have, ask for it and hope for the best, or catch a glimpse of it through the window. Imagine if Farm Stores had IOS and Android apps where you could browse your neighborhood store's realtime inventory, order whatever you want to get from them, pay, then drive through

  • Finally! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Finally I'll have somewhere to get fresh milk, instead of waiting two days for it to get delivered on prime.

  • If they do this, I'm going to go into one every day, ask tons of questions of the few staff available, then say "that's OK, i'm going to order from Walmart Online" .

  • The Amazon Locker program (where packages get delivered to a secure drop off point) depends on good relationships with c-stores. Personally, I'd rather have a nearby Locker than an Amazon c-store.

  • Drive up grocery stores are an innovative solution to a modern problem: that one cannot legally open a regular grocery store without building a formula-derived number of parking spaces, even when it isn't cost effective to build them. Where land is cheap, this isn't a problem, but in expensive areas, established grocery stores will have trouble competing with Amazon. We've all but over-regulated bookstores out of business, and it looks like the grocery store will be next to be crushed under the boot of our

  • Tesco has a superior deployment and delivery mechanism allowing direct use of QR-codes from ads posted in subway stations mimicking grocery aisles. Check here [youtube.com] and here [geek.com]. Amazon is behind the times worse than Slashdot running copied stories from ArsTechnica.
  • The GeekWire article says that these stores will be exclusively available to Amazon Fresh subscribers. This makes the use for them look to me like a place to keep Amazon Fresh deliveries when the recipient can't be home to accept them during delivery hours.

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