back to article Sh** just got real: Amazon to open actual shop in New York City

Proving the old adage that everything old is new again, Amazon is reportedly planning to open its first-ever bricks-and-mortar location in New York City, just in time for the holiday shopping season. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the e-commerce titan is beavering away at renovating a space at 7 West 34th …

  1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers_Distributing for an example of the pre-internet version of this exact model.

    1. channel extended

      Optimal Thinking.

      Read an article on slashdot that Amazon is offering a $20,000 prize to the team that can build a robot picker. (Cheap b**tards, no spending on R&D will design a robot for that price.) Obviously this is another way to avoid having pickers. Customers will pay to choose thier own stuff. Kind of like Sam's Warehouse.

      Wonder if the customer will have to go through security?

      1. phil dude
        FAIL

        Re: Optimal Thinking.

        it happens a lot more than you think. Amazing challenge to solve X, for $1,000,000 (list of conditions before we pay, we own everything).

        After the competition, "oh not good enough, but thanks for the ideas!!".

        It's easy to look good, if you only pick winners...

        P.

    2. Adrian Harvey

      or Argos

      Those in the UK will, of course, be far more familiar with Argos. Especially as it is still going.

      It was what came to my mind first when I saw the article. I fondly remember reading the catalogue and wishing I could afford various toys....

      1. wikkity

        Re: or Argos

        I found my five year old looking at the toy section in the argos catalog this weekend when she was supposed to be asleep.

  2. Mark 85
    Black Helicopters

    Drone base?

    see title. ----> delivery drone, not an NSA drone.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Argos!

    It's Argos 2.0!

    1. Ralph B

      Re: Argos!

      (Maybe we should explain who Argos are to any non-UK readers. (I'm amused to see they've now added an Amazon style "smile"-underline to their logo. Maybe they're hoping for a takeover.))

    2. Stretch

      Re: Argos!

      I've always said Amazon should buy Argos. Its the PERFECT eCommerce Real World Store. Whole business is set up for Click and Collect. Fantastic retail locations in and out of town.

      Argos is everything I want in a shop: online catalog, same day collection or delivery, free reservation with minimal signup, self service PoS terminals in every shop, no quibble returns policy and I can usually park right outside for free.

  4. Gene Cash Silver badge
    Coat

    "showcase for Amazon products"

    Isn't that Best Buy?

  5. jake Silver badge

    New York City?

    Get a rope ...

  6. Timo

    "Service Merchandise" catalog showrooms

    Everything that is old is new again - there were "catalog showrooms" all over the US, where you roamed through displays of goods, wrote down what you wanted, paid for it, and then waited.... while your "salesman" ran into the back to go pull it off a shelf and assemble your order. Never did understand the point of them. The last of them went tits-up about 20 years ago.

    I imagine that they were killed by the big-box retailers where you do all the work yourself and save them the money of having to pull your order.

    The other thing that is already back on the "reinvented" is the catalog pickup shelves. When I was a kid, a few of the major US department stores had storefronts locally that were nothing more than shelves of deliveries. You'd make a catalog order over the phone, then you could go locally to pick it up, almost like a department-store's own post-office-box solution. Haven't we seen those recently?

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like