Walmart stores are no longer going to be showrooms for Amazon Kindle devices.
Walmart, the world's largest retail store chain, will stop selling Kindle tablets and electronic readers, echoing Target's decision earlier this year.
Amazon.com had outraged retailers last Christmas with its smartphone app called Price Check, which let in-store shoppers compare prices between the store and Amazon.com by scanning bar codes right in the aisles.
Physical retail stores, with their lease, payroll, taxes, insurance and inventory costs, were effectively reduced to free showrooms for Amazon.com sales, and retailers like Walmart have not forgotten it.
Physical retail stores have vowed to fight such "showrooming," though its effects should be lessened this holiday season in states like California, where Amazon.com must now collect sales taxes, making the online retailer's prices less "discounted."
Walmart denied that competition from Amazon.com was the sole reason behind its decision to divorce the Kindle, though the Arkansas-based retail giant will still sell Apple's iPad tablet and Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader.
No comment from Amazon, so disappointed consumers are left to assume the split from Walmart is simply due to "irreconcilable differences."
Competing retailers Best Buy, RadioShack and Staples will continue selling the Amazon Kindle, though most consumers purchase Kindle devices online directly from the Amazon.com website.
Walmart Drops Amazon Kindle
Source:
http://www.californiality.com/2012/09/walmart-divorces-amazon-kindle.html