A recent article in the LA Times reports that Target has stopped selling Amazon kindles, apparently as punishment for Amazon’s push to get people to us other stores as a showroom for their own products, even going as far as to offer a 5% discount for ship-jumpers.

This is typical corporate thinking – penny wise and pound foolish. They are depriving themselves of a revenue stream, hoping to dissuade consumers from comparison shopping, and simply stated, it won’t work.

I do this all the time, and I don’t have a Kindle. I have an HTC Incredible 2, with a great little barcode scanner app, and if I see something in a store I will always do the online comparison unless I’m just out for something I need right at the moment. This is the new reality, and rather than respond with knee-jerk actions like Target (or the TSA, when it comes to that), stores will simply need to adjust.

It may mean carrying a smaller inventory at the storefront, and offering Amaz0n-comparable discounts for items purchased online. It may mean stores become more showroom than retail outlet, with merchandise that customers can inspect and then order on the spot by scanning a QR code. It may mean something else altogether. But whatever it means, stores need to come to grips with the phenomenon, rather than assume that some chuckleheaded response will make the problem go away.

The Old Wolf has Spoken