I've discussed the idea of amazon having retail stores to supplement there online store and most people seem to think it is a step in the wrong direction.
Why invest in an industry which is arguably slowing down. If in store sales are on the decline for the past couple of years, why invest?
Amazons has many rivals but one hunting them down is Walmart. Walmart has been acquiring companies related to online distribution, inventory and software silently for a while now. The issue here is that Walmart is funding these projects and purchases to improve their online services with "offline" Money.
Amazon would be doing the opposite, funding their "offline retail" with "online" Money. They already dominate the space Walmart wants to be in. If they attack Walmarts reliable resource of cash flow by opening Amazon Stores, this slows down Walmarts plan of invading online retail space.
Amazon would have an easier time acquiring the space Walmart holds on the ground compared to Walmart acquiring Amazons online space.
Picture a king of the hill scenario where Amazon is at the top and has set up a line of weak defence which can slow down the Walmart army but not defeat. In the mean time Amazon's army moved on to the next and higher hill.
Opening amazon stores won't put Walmart out of business but its an annoying hurdle allowing Amazon to run away with a bigger lead, possibly even get on to the next trend while Walmart ( or the rest) is still playing catchup.
And yes amazon has some retail but really not much...