Has Amazon lost the plot? It’s all very well selling discount books, CDs and films online but now it has started selling groceries online in the UK and Germany. Those of us long enough in the tooth to recall the heady days of the first dot.com boom were witness to the spectacular fall of US online retailers like Webvan, Homegrocer.com and Kozo.com. Web-to-doorstep grocer delivery ventures just didn’t work, until the likes of Tesco.com came along. And while Tesco’s online retail service is a success, this is largely due to the fact it has stores in most UK urban environments. The logistical infrastructure is already in place. What Amazon plans to do is compete with Tesco by delivering from its own warehouses. The groceries will be delivered by post the day after they are ordered. To guarantee next-day-delivery customers must pay £49 a year. There will be no offer of time delivery slots.
To say that this is one of the most stupid ideas an online retailer has come up with in recent years is an insult to most stupid ideas. The fact that many of the branded goods on the Amazon site are more expensive than the same goods offered by Tesco is mind boggling. Perhaps if Amazon considered a wholesale grocery business, selling bulk items into restaurants, hotels and guesthouses they may carve a niche for themselves in the fiercely competitive British FMCG market? As it stands the company is doomed to failure with this crackpot idea.

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