Target has announce plans to pull the Amazon Kindle line of devices from its store shelves, a move that showcases the increasing tension between brick and mortar stores and the online retailer.
The move to pull Amazon products was confirmed on Thursday by Target representative Molly Snyer who said the company would immediately begin “phasing out Kindles and Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012.”
While Target is declining to give an exact reason for its decision it likely comes down to the fact that Amazon has been using traditional retailers as a “showroom” for its own products which are typically priced lower because of the company’s smaller overhead costs. Customers simply enter a Target store, check out a product and then buy it online.
In 2011 Amazon went so far as to offer an automatic 5% discount on all products customers scanned at traditional brick and mortar stores.
The move comes only a short period of time after the Amazon Kindle Fire became Target’s best selling tablet device on Black Friday. However the company isn’t getting out of the tablet business, promising to continue sales of the Barnes and Noble Nook and Apple iPad devices.
In fact Target will soon begin rolling out “mini-stores” for Apple in 25 locations with plans to expand that program as needed if it becomes a success.
In the meantime Target is working quick to severe its partnership with Amazon, emptying the Amazon Kindle page on its website by Wednesday morning, although customers were never able to buy the Amazon Kindle on Targets website, instead the device had only been available for online viewing purposes.
Do you think other retailers will follow suit in dropping Amazon products from their store shelves?
