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We've reached the endgame: Bezos 'in talks' to turn shuttered department stores into Amazon warehouses
The Register ^ | 10 Aug 2020 | Shaun Nichols

Posted on 08/11/2020 7:37:01 AM PDT by Salman

Amazon is reportedly in talks with realtors to buy and remake the US locations of bankrupt Sears and JC Penney into Amazon fulfillment centers.

The Wall Street Journal cites sources familiar in reporting that Simon Property Group, a commercial retailer specializing in mall locations, was in talks with the Bezos' bunch to sell the now-vacant department store buildings. These will then be used as smaller, local versions warehouses for Amazon to store products before shipping out to customers.

Neither Amazon nor Simon Property Group responded to a request for comment on the report.

Those unfamiliar with the 1970s-1990s heyday of Sears and JC Penney will be forgiven for not understanding just what a seismic shift this deal reflects in American society. It is basically the equivalent of vanquishing your foe and turning his or her castle into horse stables.

...

(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amazon; antitrust; bezos; districtofcolumbia; jcpenney; jeffbezos; malls; monopoly; retail; sears; shaunnichols; simonpropertygroup; theregister; trustbusters; wallstreetjournal; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost
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To: HombreSecreto
"Sears could have been Amazon but they were short-sighted."

Yes. They were Amazon without the internet at one time.


21 posted on 08/11/2020 8:02:27 AM PDT by Tench_Coxe
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To: Salman

Imagine all the warehouse workers and local delivery drivers that will be required to make this work. It is good for the economy as it transforms.

Amazon is just the latest big boy. eBay was huge and is fading. Walmart is trying to keep pace with Amazon, but it is not easy.

The Chinese have Alibaba, already popular in other countries.

There will be competition....and competition is good.


22 posted on 08/11/2020 8:06:09 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (The Democratic Party is communism)
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To: Salman
Turning shuttered Buildings into productive Real Estate while creating Jobs where none exist is not a bad thing.

Blaming an innovative successful Business Plan executed against existing Business Models run by People who assume they have no competition is short sighted.

When an Anchor Store in a Shopping Center or Mall is shuttered, all the other Businesses in that location suffer. I've seen it happen multiple times where we used to live in S. Orange County, CA.

A Shopping Center close to our Home was on its last legs when the primary Anchor Tenant, a Grocery Store closed. Even before the closure it was not a popular shopping place.

Losing that major source of Rental Income, the owner of the property let it languish even further and we watched one small Business after another close up shop.

That is until Whole Foods took over the empty space and some of the adjacent units. Talk about a Renaissance. that same Shopping Center is going gangbusters. All the previous empty Units are rented out and those small Businesses are thriving.

23 posted on 08/11/2020 8:06:27 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Kill a Commie for your Mommy.)
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To: windsorknot
Dump the Washington Post first.

I doubt that would change Wapo much. Even if they fired the leftists working there, the replacements would be different leftists.

24 posted on 08/11/2020 8:07:28 AM PDT by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe.)
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To: Kickass Conservative

If Amazon wasn’t basically a store front for the CCP then I would be in favor of this.


25 posted on 08/11/2020 8:08:51 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: blackdog

And Walmart has become a retail behemoth in recent decades, which put many other businesses on the ropes or out of business. It’s part of the nature of capitalism that this happens.

Whatever happened to Montgomery Ward or Woolworth’s, for example? Whatever happened to Kinney Shoes or Robert Hall clothing stores? Whatever happened to Flying A gas stations? The nature of capitalism is that new companies can come along, and take so much business that the older established companies can’t compete anymore.


26 posted on 08/11/2020 8:10:23 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: HombreSecreto

Could not have said it better!


27 posted on 08/11/2020 8:11:17 AM PDT by neverbluffer
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To: Salman

Will these revamped stores be prime looting targets?


28 posted on 08/11/2020 8:15:29 AM PDT by umgud
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To: Tench_Coxe

“Sears could have been Amazon but they were short-sighted.”
Yes. They were Amazon without the internet at one time.

And now, with the internet, teenaged boys don’t even need the lingerie section of the Sears catalog anymore.


29 posted on 08/11/2020 8:17:54 AM PDT by Quality_Not_Quantity (This space vacant until further notice in compliance with social distancing 'guidelines')
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To: Tench_Coxe

“Sears could have been Amazon but they were short-sighted.”
Yes. They were Amazon without the internet at one time.

And now, with the internet, teenaged boys don’t even need the lingerie section of the Sears catalog anymore.


30 posted on 08/11/2020 8:17:54 AM PDT by Quality_Not_Quantity (This space vacant until further notice in compliance with social distancing 'guidelines')
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To: Dilbert San Diego
Think of this. A central state utopia becomes a merchant to each person based on their needs. At some point the state just assigns the products based on need. There will be no choices.

So we will re-live the days of the USSR with one peanut butter, one set of bed sheets, one pair of shoes, and two light bulbs.

Amazon is just the foreplay and dating stage in the relationship. Just wait until the honeymoon is over.

31 posted on 08/11/2020 8:18:54 AM PDT by blackdog (If you must cut a tree, plant two. It's just decency.)
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To: blackdog

Well I certainly don’t want to see things evolve into Soviet style retailing. The nature of capitalism is that companies tend to grow and mature. We’ll see. I appreciate having various sources of goods and services rather than a central state utopia.


32 posted on 08/11/2020 8:25:21 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Salman
But it may not work, because if you've seen a REAL Amazon Fulfillment Center warehouse, they are very large indeed (look at the ones in Reno, NV and Sacramento, CA for example).
33 posted on 08/11/2020 8:30:41 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's Economic Cure)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

“ His goal is to put everyone else out of business.”
*********

I remember when IBM had over 95% of the computer business.....
I remember when Sears had most of the mail order business .....
I remember when Bell Telephone had virtually all of the phone business....
I remember when GM had the majority of the auto business.....
I’m tired, calf rope....


34 posted on 08/11/2020 8:32:06 AM PDT by snoringbear (,W,E.oGovernment is the Pimp,)
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To: Bon of Babble

“Some lefty mayors, like DeBlasio are looking at putting Section 8 housing in vacant buildings...”

At the rate blowsitall is going Trump Tower will wind up section 8 lofts.


35 posted on 08/11/2020 8:36:23 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Erik Latranyi
Walmart is trying to keep pace with Amazon, but it is not easy.

My cheap Canon printer/scanner died a couple of months ago, and coincidentally (?) such printers disappeared from Walmart. Amazon had some at triple the price Walmart used to have, plus shipping. Last month those cheap printers suddenly appeared at the Walmart store at about the same price they were months ago ($35). Amazon now sells them for about $12 more with "free shipping" (not Amazon Prime). If you paid for shipping the Amazon cost would be about triple. In my experience, Amazon "free shipping" is painfuylly slow (2 weeks or more). Amazon socks are a better deal for me than Walmart though.

36 posted on 08/11/2020 8:37:45 AM PDT by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe.)
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To: Tench_Coxe
"Yes. They were Amazon without the internet at one time."

At least Sears sold guns.


37 posted on 08/11/2020 8:42:43 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

“A vacant Sears near me was turned into a Burlington Coat Factory location.”

If it goes from one retail store to another it is still a retail store building. By Amazon buying the locations. it creates a more expensive barrier to entry for other retail businesses in the future.


38 posted on 08/11/2020 8:42:49 AM PDT by alternatives? (If our borders are not secure, why fund an army?)
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To: RayChuang88
Amazon fulfillment centers are about to get a lesson on unions and collective bargaining. They are highly inefficient and have been sailing on winds of speculated stock value.

Stop it now or the "Too big to fail" game begins.

39 posted on 08/11/2020 8:42:59 AM PDT by blackdog (If you must cut a tree, plant two. It's just decency.)
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To: Salman

“I owe my soul to the company store....”


40 posted on 08/11/2020 8:45:04 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Joe Biden- "First thing I'd do is repeal those Trump tax cuts." (May 4th, 2019))
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