Popping out to Amazon......

Amazon is rumoured to be looking at opening real bricks and mortar shops in the UK:

Property landlords said that the American company, which has a market value of $59.1 billion (£35.6 billion), had launched a secret search for bricks-and-mortar stores to support its rapidly growing website. It is understood to be scouring the country for high-profile sites just as the Borders book chain is shutting up shop.

Heck, if they'd been a bit quicker off the mark they could've bought Woolworths. Question is, why would an internet retailer, with all those lovely online economics, go for the cut throat world of high street retail, especially as the sector is having a tough time right now? Apparently:

Amazon wants to cash in on rising customer demand for click and collect services where shoppers buy online and then pick up their goods from a nearby store. Consumers who are fed up with waiting at home for deliveries are increasingly choosing to buy online and collecting goods at a time that suits them

.....

One source familiar with Amazon’s proposals said:"When Amazon was just selling books and CDs that fitted easily through the letterbox it was fine to be a web-only business, but now it has branched out into everything from children’s bikes to electricals it believes it could boost sales by having stores that offer a collection point for shoppers. It will probably be an Argos-style operation.”

I hate Argos's system! Besides, getting a whole bricks-and-mortar retail network is a heck of a price to pay when all you may need is someone who can run a decent delivery service to step in, or the Royal Mail to sort itself out from its civil war. Maybe they should get into distribution instead?