If WalMart is still thriving, it means that having brick and mortar stores is not the entire part of the equation...
"Over the last couple of years, the company's retail arm has pursued a relentless expansion and it has kept prices low...Analysts say it can do so for one big reason: It owns and operates zero stores. While other retailers had to order their holiday inventory weeks in advance—and, therefore, guess at consumer demand, risking getting stuck with a lot of extra stock—Amazon could wait until late in the season to buy from producers. Indeed, Amazon isn't always the cheapest place to shop—real bargain hunters can almost always find better deals at Wal-Mart (which may explain why that company is the other bright spot in retail this season)...As times get tough, you'd expect that people would turn to eBay both to sell their stuff and to buy other people's used items. But while you can occasionally get some amazing deals on eBay, shopping on an auction site requires a lot of work."
Shop Till Everyone Else Drops
by Farhad Manjoo
http://www.slate.com/id/2210620/
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