amazon branches offline
Amazon’s Expands Offline
Vocabulary
| grave | corporate | plateau (2) |
| brick | struggle | brick-and-mortar store |
| mortar | recently | slay/slew/slain |
| declare | presence | declare bankruptcy |
| give up | match (3) | bankruptcy |
| retail | physical | far from it (2) |
| afford | in person | in terms of |
| shelf | represent | nationwide |
| expand | worldwide | hit a plateau |
| allow | graveyard | cash is king |
| habit | showcase | out of business |
| irony | after all | off the shelf |
| map | personal | put it on the map (2) |
| giant | figure (3) | experiment |
| empire | common | widespread |
Video: Amazon’s Expands Offline
Transcript
The corporate graveyard includes more than a few brick-and-mortar businesses, slain by Amazon, most recently, Toys-R-Us, which declared bankruptcy this year.
And yet while traditional businesses have struggled to match Amazon’s online presence, customers haven’t given up on physical stores.
Far from it in fact: close to ninety percent of all retail shopping worldwide is done in person, a figure that also applies to the US.
Blair Schlecter, Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce: “E-commerce represents about twelve percent of sales nationwide. But there’s evidence that it’s hitting a plateau in terms of the amount of sales it will produce.”
Shopping in person is even more common in Europe, where cash is still king, and online buying not quite as widespread.
Amazon may hope a physical presence can help win those store going customers. Experts says its American bookstores allow the company to show a personal face and showcase its own products, while learning new lessons about customer shopping habits that could help online.
There’s some irony about Amazon selling books off the shelf, as it was selling books online that first put it on the map and help put some brick-and-mortar bookstores out of business.
But the retail giant can afford to experiment — it’s online empire after all is only expanding.
Questions
1. “The corporate graveyard includes more than a few brick-and-mortar businesses, slain by Amazon.” What does this mean (these are examples of metaphors)?
2. Everyone wants to and is shopping online now. True or false?
3. Approximately what percent of shopping are done on and offline?
4. In the near future, will massive amounts of brick-and-mortar store will go bankrupt.
5. Are shopping habits in Europe identical to that of the United States?
6. Amazon is only focused on e-commerce. Is this right or wrong? Why is it branching into offline, physical stores?
7. Is there a paradox in this venture?
A. Is online shopping popular in your city? What are some popular sites or companies? Has the situation been changing?
B. What do people typically buy online? What do they buy offline?
C. Is there a demographic profile of online and brick-and-mortar shoppers?
D. How do businesses feel about e-commerce? Are they doing anything about it? Are they changing?
E. What will happen in the future?
F. Are there historical, cultural and touristic places to shop?
