In a CNET Interview from a couple of days ago Marc Andreesson, famed netscape founder and partner Andreesson-Horrowitz, claims that 2012 is the year to start getting concerned about mainstream retail (He notes his mixed feelings towards the fall of tower records and borders “I thought it was a great consumer experience”).
Aaron Ross Sorkin talked about this phenomena here discussing how Best Buy has essentially become Amazon’s “showroom” with consumers finding what they want online and coming in the store to pick it up same day, or vice-versa using innovations like the Amazon Price Check app. With Sorkin in the above interview are the founders of Home Depot who argue that the ability to form a “one-to-one” long-term relationship with the customer from stores like Best Buy will prevail. In reality, Home Depot has always been essentially a warehouse space that you could also walk through and historically been the most competitive on price so the notion that a big box retailer has a comparative advantage of building relationships with customers is completely ludicrous.
Andreesson also mentioned “ If I own mall real estate or retail stores in cities, or if I own chains like electronics chains, I’d be concerned….” essentially pointing out the flagship retailers at malls owned by companies like SPG and GGP are in jeopardy. It is a tough sell to say that a retail experience like Apple‘s store, which serves as a customer service center, walk-in advertisement and point of sale location would want to trim down their retail footprint, although the Disney Store did close 98 locations in 2008.
Check out his Wall Street Journal Article