Amazon attempts to challenge the all mighty retail chain Wal-Mart this holiday season. This all started when Amazon went head to head with matching the low prices of Wal-Mart of new books and DVDs. This price war set a precedent for the dropping of prices of all types of things, ranging from Easy Bake Ovens, to Xboxes, to cell phones.
However, the war between them is more than about price alone. The future and new technology play a huge role in this battle. Though online retailing is onyl 4% of retail sales, it is rapid spreading, it did not suffer as much from the economy, and access to online shopping is faster and easier to access. There is still the factor of instant gratification that offline shopping provides. However, Amazon now has same day shipping.
Do you think Wal-Mart should be seriously concened? How wise is it that prices are already so low before Black Friday? How will it hurt the economy, or do you think it's a good thing? How has online shopping revolusionized the retailing industry? Do you think the easiness to compare for the best prices is going to help or hurt our economy at all? To read more, the link is embedded in the title.
-Sandy Chen
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