A few months ago I was having a conversation with my girlfriend’s brother-in-law about retail supply chains, we ended up coming up with a few ideas that I think would make my online shopping experience with amazon.com more sustainable and fun.
A Buy Local Option – When I am shopping for something, lets say film for my camera, I encounter a number of third-party sellers on amazon.com. What I would really love to see is an option that filters these sellers by location. If I can get the film from a store in my city or a neighboring state, I would feel a lot better about my carbon footprint, then blindly ordering something that ends up coming from across the country. I promise film for my camera is not worth the fuel carrying it to me. This would be a great way to support local businesses and it would be great ‘green’ PR for amazon.com. I envision an atlanta.amazon.com (á la craigslist) where I can shop from specific cities or states too.
A Brick & Mortar Store Where You Could Try Everything – Too much of what I buy online either doesn’t fit correctly or isn’t what I thought it was going to be. I need a store where I can try on things, and play around with the items. I understand that this pretty much exists in the form of all stores out there / is the exact opposite point of Amazon. I still think there is a niche for a mega-location that doesn’t sell a thing. It just stocks one of everything, sent by manufacturers as display items. I see lots of people going to hang out and just playing around with items. There are computer bays where you can purchase the items online. There is probably a cafe in the store too. I would call it The Himalayas. It’s the perfect compliment to Amazon.
What do you think?
