Amazon and Walmart’s rivalry is reshaping how we’ll buy everything in the future

The Verge ^ | Aug 3, 2018, 12:45pm EDT | Nick Statt

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Walmart’s ongoing battle with Amazon for the retail crown is expanding well beyond retail, and it’s forcing one of the largest companies in the world to reexamine its DNA. In the last six months alone, Walmart has partnered with scores of tech firms to better compete with Amazon and make progress in markets that may become pivotal years down the line. It’s also begun rethinking how it views itself: a traditional big-box retail giant that now hopes it can be nimble enough to compete with one of technology’s most powerful players.

Following its purchase of Jet.com to advance its e-commerce efforts in 2016, Walmart has starting accelerating its shift from retail giant to tech-focused partner. Those deals now include a partnership with Alphabet’s Waymo for rides to and from stores; Japan’s Rakuten for Kobo e-readers; and Uber, Lyft, and Postmates for grocery delivery.

In July, Walmart announced that it’s switched its entire cloud operation to Microsoft Azure and Office 365, in addition to working with the company on artificial intelligence projects in a new five-year deal. (Microsoft is Amazon’s primary competitor in the cloud computing industry.) That Microsoft partnership might include helping open a cashier-less, brick-and-mortar retail store to compete with Amazon Go, which the Windows maker is said to be working on as of June of this year, and it’s something Walmart reportedly started working on as earlier as last year.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Can Walmart do what Sears had the opportunity to do but could not overcome opposition from within?

Walmart practically invented computer-controlled inventory and JIT deliveries. They aren't the same kind of company as Sears and Monkey-Ward.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"As well as counter-top food replicators using Soylent Green protein."

Yeech! The future isn't what it used to be.

[daniel1212]

We purchase quite a bit from both Amazon and Walmart. If we can find something at our local Walmart stores we do not purchase it from Amazon unless it is considerably less expensive. This is because we would prefer to add to Walmart’s profits rather than Jeff Bezo’s profits

Both contribute to liberal causes, Amazon more, yet with Amazon Smile a % can be donated to a charity you choose.

Walmart often is cheaper, such as for basics in food, appliances, etc. but is very often out of stock, or lacks items or much of a variety. Plus its 3rd party seeker can be very high, and its web site could be much improved. Amazon can be also.

Thank God though for such options and funds to make use of them, after charity.

[spintreebob]

Sears real problem was not technology. Sears owned the first cloud (in partnership with IBM). But middle management sabotaged it. Sears (with IBM) owned the 2d biggest and rapidly growing internet phenom, Prodigy. But middle management sabotaged it. Sears techies had the vision and the code to put Sears catalog on the internet 4 years before Amazon existed. But middle management sabotaged it.

Every bureaucracy (not just the gov) runs the danger of becoming controlled by a bureaucracy, a parasite that controls the host and does what is best for the parasite in the short run, even if that means death to the host in the long run.

[bert]

-—might include helping open a cashier-less, brick-and-mortar retail store ——

My walmart as self checkout requiring a credit card. I almost lways use this checkout method if there are few items.

Thesame store recently experimented with an I phne aap that allowed you to scan the bar code and then on completion go to a screen where you scanned a code and the transaction was billed to your credit card and the receipt was saved to your account’s memory

I used that service as well and it worked good when there were few items.

The service was cancelled aand all the bugges equipped with phone holders had them removed.

I suspect that the service was a teest and will be resumed when the bugs found are eliminated.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

That’s exactly what socialism does. It cannot exist except as a parasite of a capitalist host, and grows like a cancer until it kills its host.

[fireman15]

Walmart often is cheaper, such as for basics in food, appliances, etc. but is very often out of stock, or lacks items or much of a variety.

The Walmarts in our area have a good selection and most of the time the items we want are in stock. They are considerably cheaper than the other grocery stores unless you are good at shopping the sales. It is surprising that things like dog food and dog treats are often much cheaper at Amazon than any of the grocery stores.

Walmart's webpage is nowhere near as good as Amazons, but once you figure out how to navigate and search it is not that bad. I much prefer getting "black Friday" specials through their webpage than by going to their store.

The thing that I appreciate about the Walmarts in our area is that they all hire older folks and many others who in the past at least, would have had a difficult time finding a job at other places.

Our daughter worked at Walmart for a couple of years and she liked it. They were extremely flexible with her. She was going to school working on her masters degree in accounting and raising two of our grandchildren. Her husband was working full time. Her supervisors at Walmart bent over backwards to accommodate her needs. She also had the option to transfer to any other Walmart if she chose to go to a different school, not to mention that Walmart helped with some of her educational expenses.

Amazon has great selection, competitive prices and unbelievably fast shipping. Usually they are a little more expensive than Walmart on non-electronic items. I appreciate that they give people the opportunity to deliver goods in our area using their own vehicles and completely picking their own schedule. I signed up to do that to earn a little extra money, but never actually did deliver any items because I have been too busy fixing up two different houses. The pay was approximately $20 an hour minus the expense of using your own vehicle.

One of my cousins is in his 80s and has been working seasonally for Amazon for years when he and his wife go to Arizona in the winter. He does not really like the work, but they hire him back every year and he likes the money.

Despite lapses by their current CEO, in the past the Walton family has contributed more money to conservative causes. Walmart has been the big unions’ biggest boogie man for decades so you have to give them credit for taking all of that heat. Amazon is every bit as anti-union as Walmart and I suspect that at least a part of Jeff Bezos’s liberal political stances are designed to keep the unions off of his back. Any corporation based in Seattle or silicon valley is going to pander to liberal causes. Even Boeing, one of the largest defense contractors in history panders to liberal causes and politicians.