Brick and mortar retailing giant Wal-Mart has given online retailing giant Amazon' and its Kindle tablet platform the boot. Wal-Mart announced on Thursday that it would stop selling Amazon's Kindle, Kindle Fire, and Kindle Fire HD, and focus on other tablets and e-readers, including Apple's iPad.
"We have recently made the business decision to not carry Amazon tablets and e-readers beyond our existing inventory and purchase commitments," Wal-Mart said in a memo sent to store managers on Wednesday, according to Reuters. "This includes all Amazon Kindle models current and recently announced."
Wal-Mart didn't specify why, but it is being seen as a competitive issue. Amazon has designed the Kindle Fire and new Kindle Fire HD as a conduit for customers to shop for other products, which is a direct threat to Wal-Mart's own retail empire. The company apparently decided that helping Amazon deliver its retailing weapon into the hands of more people was a bad idea.
Another issue is margins. Amazon is selling all of its Kindle products at razor-thin margins, leaving little in the way of extra money for retailing partners like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or Target...Did we say Target? That chain stopped carrying the Kindle earlier in 2012.
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5 Comments Leave Your Own
Loved the “Spin” section; couldn’t have said it better myself.
I predict Amazon’s stock will go up on this news.
I wish that Walmart had a web site that was comparable to Amazon’s. We shop at Walmart when we go to the larger cities but their web site does not work. We buy lots of things from Amazon. I would prefer to buy from Walmart.
Over 90 percent of the US gross domestic earnings went to 1 percent of the US population in 2011. Of that over 90 percent, 33 percent went to the Walmart family. Sad if you ask me. We will all be serfs soon.
I also like the spin. I also hate shopping at Walmart. Come to think of it; I don’t much like shopping anywhere. But I do object to the Walmart way on most points.
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