Amazon needs a Competitor and WalMart ain't it

Amazon's FMA is so massive here. And given their insane customer-obsessive focus that manifests itself in price, convenience, selection, innovation, etc...well, all I can say is "good luck" to the challenger(s). The company basically reads The Innovator's Dilemma on an ongoing basis and keeps strategizing on avoiding a traditional fate. I would not be surprised to see them create a useful version of ST:TNG's replicator within the next 50 years.

In a future society, local Walmart stores will be the local distribution partner of Amazon.<p>Oh sure, you might not see that in our lifetime, but think about it, each company is lacking in what the other possesses...<p>Amazon has every product under the sun, but those products must be shipped to people.<p>Walmart has less products in its local stores, but those products in those local stores are the most popular ones, and those stores are usually a short drive away, just a hop, skip and a jump -- away from the houses of most Americans.<p>It would make sense, for a future society, having the resources to do so, to consolidate these two ideas, these two infrastructures, into one...<p>While at it, why not put regional post offices and other delivery service hubs near the local Walmarts?<p>Oh sure, we can&#x27;t do this in this day and age because separate corporations are the owners of those resources, and because there would be a whole bunch of government red tape and legal considerations, and that&#x27;s if someone had the money to do it, etc., etc.<p>But, a future society -- could consolidate all of that infrastructure...<p>Make it clean, make it neat (architectural buildings) and consolidate these functions into the center of future pre-planned cities built around them...<p>A future society could do it...

Competition will fall to the last mile. The last mile means so much, probably will require some implementation from the competition. The real competition is challenging and making it cheap for amazon to rely on them so they can rise the price. I say that because majority of Amazon&#x27;s fulfilment is fraudulent in either or actual delivery.<p>Lasership is the Smaug&#x27;s missing scale for Amazon. They FAIL and FRAUD on every single shipment they have made to my apartment. When I see something is being shipped by them I by default do a return.<p>The competition will need to be able to affirm that every single shipment is made without widespread fraudulence.

Amazon is so bad for the environment. Half the items I return they just stick the return label right on the product box. I am pretty sure that is going back to the bin for recycling or wholesale<p>With local stores, I can go pick up, see the product, and when I return it goes to the shelf for someone else to use

What amazon needs is some sort of regulation blocking AWS revenues from fuelling the e-commerce business. Without that, other e-commerce players will never have a level playing field

Why isn&#x27;t there an Amazon but with local fulfillment? Local merchants can flag that they&#x27;re selling certain items on said marketplace, but to users they&#x27;re transparently browsing a single cohesive marketplace a la Amazon.<p>I think that a fully localized Amazon would keep much of the convenience that customers love, but would remove the capitalist bottleneck in Seattle.