Wouldn't it make it better? It seems far more efficient to have 1 car drive an optimal route to 500 houses delivering items than have 500 cars all drive to 1 store to pick up their items.
The only question is whether people buy so much more due to convenience that the maybe 50x efficiency gain gets offset by 50x more items ordered. But I don't think that's the case.
I don't think I buy significantly more stuff than I otherwise would just because it's convenient from Amazon, but perhaps I do.
Small items easily available via Amazon are much easier to hoard.
For a brick a mortar store (and this is a little oversimplified), it goes manufacturer>warehouse/distribution center>store>customer drives to store. Note too, that the last step is usually store(s) plural unless you're doing all your shopping at a place like Walmart.
For Amazon, they cut out that entire last step and replace it with a model where a multitude of people can have their needs fulfilled with efficient routes.
Apartment complex with loads of items delivered each day? Makes sense, though packaging is still environmental overhead. Lots of single family homes ordering individual items distributed across suburbia? Less efficient than customer driving to the store once a week to get everything they need.
Implement a carbon tax and watch the market reconfigure itself.
Also: let's re-legalize corner stores!
Electric vehicles might complicate things some (they still present some other negative externalities despite using less carbon); perhaps at that time we can look at other incentives or taxes.
Amazon would deliver to the trunk of their cars.
USPS has failed at taking advantage of its network effect.
Sending a few letters from Manhattan to Nome for 50 cents snuffs out the profits from a lot of Amazon packages.
induced demand, and somehow they didn't make it up in volume.
Amazon operates two fulfillment centers in my city. Target has something like 30 stores.
If I get in my car and drive 3 miles to buy some aftershave, how is that more efficient than a truck with 500 individual items, distributing them from house to house, sometimes driving no more than a few hundred feet between drops?
Maybe we should make it illegal to drive to the store for anything, and have people use delivery services because of the reduced environmental impact.