The Importance Of Local Business

Amazon understood firsthand that the competitive advantage of a company originates immediately from how distinctive the organization's resources and competencies are. Amazon is able to both engage in production at a lower cost and generate a superior product at a standard cost. This is accomplished mostly via Amazon's strategy of having a wide variety of goods and competitive pricing. Customers know they can find basic products at slashed prices or high quality goods at standard prices and this is all achieved via the enormous range of products and product brands and types available on their massive marketplace. For example, the depiction displayed in the case study which shows how growth was related directly to: lower cost structure- lower prices customer experience traffic sellers -selection and convenience. While this is a grave oversimplification of the Amazon business model, it demonstrates how many aspects of the strategy reinforced one another.

Stores are cause and affect, if they offer more chain stores it will draw in more jobs; and bring more

According to UNI report (2012) the presence of Walmart stores in local communities has a devastating impact. Large retailers like Walmart force smaller businesses to close up as they

With these stores removed from both neighborhoods, where are the residents of those neighborhoods supposed to shop? And with the removal of the stores, what impetus do the few other grocers have to keep prices reasonable for people of that socio-economic level?

We need to be aware that by people leaving the rural areas the shops we love the most may not be there the next time we come back to that town. Comparing Buffalo’s downtown to where it is now to 10 years ago, its looks completely different. Due to the small business being foreclosed, we are not turning into very healthy downtown. But the stores that we still have we need to take advantage of them because you never know how long they will be there for.

or shop at large chain retailers. If we don’t support local businesses, our future will look like the

In the 1950s and 1960s shops selling high-order goods, like furniture and jewellery, were in the town and city centres, which attracted customers from a wide catchment area. Shops selling low-order goods, like food, were located in the local neighbourhoods. However, this traditional shopping pattern began to change in the 1970s, when shops like supermarkets and DIY stores began to move to the outskirts of towns by decentralisation. Although it is obvious that the decentralisation of retailing and other services has had a major impact on urban areas, the impacts have been negative, positive or neutral.

Online stores are growing in popularity and drawing attention. Because of this, other retail stores are losing that attention and business. Some major stores include Sears, Radio Shack, JCPenney, Macy’s, Payless ShoeSource, Dillards and more. These are called brick-and-mortar stores. According to www.merriam-webster.com the definition of a brick-and-mortar store is, “a traditional business serving customers in a building as contrasted to an online business” (Brick-and-mortar, n.d.). “It’s possible more than 8,600 brick-and-mortar stores will close their doors in 2017 (…) JCPenney announced plans to shutter 138 stores by July, Payless ShoeSource is closing hundreds of stores, and Macy's said it's shutting down 68 locations” (Wattles, 2017). What a shame to lose these resources and businesses, especially for those who support and appreciate the local retail option.

The industry is therefore highly competitive right now. With fewer people making their way to department stores, the industry is filled with players all struggling to maintain market share through innovative strategies. The retail industry however is unusually hard to penetrate. Despite the high level of competition among the players in the industry, new players are finding it hard to stay in the industry because of the size of the players. One of the strategies of retailers right now is expansion in almost all cities across all states. This would enable them to capture as much market as they can. The industry players ' size is one of the important barriers to entry that should be considered. With the size of the main competitors and the increase in the number of their stores, new players are finding it hard to enter the industry.

The more stores open, the more investments are required, the more management and regulation are needed, and all of which do not necessarily get the proportional returns. As mentioned above, most of the new stores belong to franchisees and they were called Area Developers who were responsible for developing new sites and building in markets with high potential. Such method is very risky for no one could guarantee that all the franchisees are qualified enough to decide how where and when to run the business.

The threat of substitutes for Amazon is high. With the exception of its patented technology, there are quite a lot of alternatives to Amazon’s products and services. In addition to physical presence, most companies have an online store as well. Amazon’s products can be purchased all over the internet and they are just spread out among different web sites. The companies operate in brick-and-click mode providing the similar product categories and competitive prices have become the biggest threat for Amazon. However it is extremely difficult for Amazon to establish physical stores or launch price

Amazon’s core competencies are in its ability to effectively use and develop technology to drive site traffic and enhance the customer experience. Their distinctive use of website real estate coupled with their ability to leverage their brand and effectively use that leverage to deliver low prices and high quality products, makes them a leader in online retailing. Their partner brands and their ability to adapt and recognize deficiencies enable them to effectively cut out the middle man, or at the very least, partner with them.

Large corporations such as Wal-Mart or Home Depot often come under criticism for putting mom-and-pop shops out of business. While this may be a valid criticism, the consumers neglect to realize that they play the biggest part in shutting these businesses down. Consumers across the country are always looking for the best deals or the lowest prices, and in most cases the larger corporations are where products can be found at the lowest price. Many small business owners and the populations of small towns dislike large corporations moving into the area because they believe it negatively effects the local

As we can see they have poor employees and service, which takes away from the business because people rather not go to a place like that. This becomes a major threat because when you have other stores like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Costco, where there are all the same products sold and maybe even at better prices, people are going to want to go to there. These other major stores definitely attract people because they have low prices and keep up with people’s demands. Wal-Mart is even known to match competitors prices and Amazon usually always offers free shipping and low prices. When you see other stores that do better you go to them. You choose places where you are most

Amazon strives in a rapidly evolving and intensely competitive industry. Amazon competitors include publishers, vendors, distributors, manufacturers, physical world retailers and producers. Other competitors include media companies, web portals, shopping websites, online and mobile e-commerce sites, web search engines, and social networks, either directly or in collaboration with other retailers. Any company that provides e-commerce services, including website development, fulfillment, customer service, and payment processing is considered as a competitor by Amazon. Even Yahoo Inc. is also part of these services now with its new framework for providing easy e-commerce website development and payment processing services. Additional competitors include companies that provide information storage or computing services or products, services related to Cloud Computing, including infrastructure and other web services, companies that design, develop, market, or sell consumer electronics, telecommunication, and electronic devices. The competitive factors in retail businesses include selection, price, convenience, fast and reliable fulfillment. Additional competitive factors for Amazon seller and enterprise services include the quality, speed, and reliability of our services and tools. Many of the current