Amazon's Ambitious Plan to Take Over Grocery

Total Retail's Take: Brick-and-mortar stores are becoming increasingly important to Amazon’s growth strategy, and grocery is a massive $800 billion market. The company is looking to expand beyond its online retailing stronghold, reaching new customers, for example, in bookstores and pop-up shops. Amazon believes that some of its stores will offer enough of a draw to become "destination stores" that consumers are willing to drive across town or even out of town to shop at. However, the physical store strategy is an expensive one, and will put Amazon in unfamiliar territory. The online retailer will now have to compete with the more experienced Wal-Mart and its more than 5,000 U.S. stores.