Opinion: Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods shows the power of the store

With the job title ‘stores editor’ bestowed upon your correspondent by Retail Week, it will come as little surprise to find that the next 400 words or so are in support of physical stores – if they didn’t exist, there really wouldn’t be much to write about.

In the past week, the decision by Amazon to shell out and acquire Whole Foods Market is, if nothing else, a ringing endorsement of the power of the physical store.

However, the rise in Amazon’s share price following the acquisition announcement has almost taken care of the purchase price, even if $13.2bn (£10.4bn) is small change for the Seattle giant.

“Physical retail, far from being dead, is alive, and is seen by some as a good way of delivering a competitive kicking to rivals”

The retailer that more or less exemplifies ecommerce, good and bad, has opted to take a shiny slice of the terrestrial retail action, although what happens next remains pretty much anybody’s guess.

Which rather indicates that physical retail, far from being dead, is alive, and is seen by some as a good way of delivering a competitive kicking to rivals.

Life in bricks and mortar

And this week we are waiting to hear how things are panning out at Dixons, now that Carphone Warehouse has been reasonably widely incorporated across its estate as part of the ‘three-in-one’ formula, that sees the brand being sold alongside Currys and PC World.

Once more this is about the enduring power of the store. Dixons may be one of the high street’s best examples of a physical retailer that has straddled the digital divide, but this does not mean that its stores are short-changed.

Indeed, walk into one of the three-in-ones and many reasons are presented for lingering. ‘Try before you buy’ experiences are to the fore.

Dixons shoppers are, of course, able to buy online, but the in-store experience is sufficiently robust for there to be reasons to come back time after time.

The store is at the heart of all retail and its continuing ability to attract shoppers when logic might say that the web will consume all, is the reason why online operators are choosing to open stores, albeit in a selective fashion.

Longer term, it seems probable that the most successful retailers will be those with physical shops.

While these may, to an extent, morph into high-tech web portals, they will still be shops – places in which to look at merchandise, touch it, feel it and make a considered judgement about buying.

So who’s minding the shop? Shoppers and they probably wouldn’t have it any other way.