I really haven't seen any evidence to back up your claims outside of fear-mongering news articles and general whining from the big box brick-and-mortars.

"Maybe Amazon's plan is to drive these stores out of business and then open its own display stores where people can go to inspect merchandise before ordering it online."

This cannot be a serious conjecture. Opening up quasi-retail locations with all the expenses of retail but no ability to actually making a sale? Didn't Gateway do this in the late 90s?