Amazon promises 30-minute delivery with its new Amazon Now service. We put it to the test — live on the GeekWire Podcast — with help from Michael Levin and Josh Lowitz, co-founders of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners and two of the sharpest Amazon watchers we know.
While we wait for our order of yogurt, blueberries, and flossers (long story), Levin and Lowitz explain why Amazon closed its grocery stores, what its massive future 225,000-square-foot superstore in suburban Chicago could mean, and why Amazon’s real play is becoming the ultimate convenience store.
“They’ve totally rewritten so much of retail, and I don’t think they’re done,” Levin said. Amazon has essentially substituted its logistics operation for its physical retail presence, with well over half of orders now arriving same day or next day, up from a small fraction five years ago.
In other words, don’t take the store closures as capitulation.
“Their investments in logistics are working, and I wouldn’t expect them to take their foot off the gas at all,” Lowitz said. “They’re not scared of making mistakes.”
Plus: Test your Amazon knowledge in our trivia segment. Will Josh and Mike get it right?
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Audio editing and production by Curt Milton.
