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Comment by HeyLaughingBoy | Hacker News Reader

Don't underestimate the benefit of physical presence. When I need something now, it is a huge benefit to be able to walk into Fastenal and buy it on the spot. Also, metal is heavy, again using Fastenal as an example, I can order online and pickup instore without paying shipping. Prices are higher than onlinemetals.com, or speedymetals.com but the convenience and no shipping cost often trumps that.

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The corollary of that is: Don't overestimate the benefit of physical presence. Sure sometimes you need to buy metal on the spot, but you could say the same thing about books and electronics.

Amazon's targeting the customer that can forcast his needs a few days in advance, and that's a very big slice of the market.

You realize you still pay for shipping, right?

Isn't the "last mile" shipping much more expensive?

Full truckload shipping is alot cheaper than LTL. Hell, my local Grainger gets delivery of some stuff via train.

In addition, isn't a big part of Amazon's appeal the excellent customer service (especially effective in mitigating the cost of no physical presence when competing against big box stores)? I'm by no means an expert, but I'd assume that factors like speed and price are higher up on the list of priorities for a firm buying industrial supplies vs. the average customer shopping for books or a new TV. I just don't know how much of what Amazon is known for would translate into growing a market share in raw materials.

Well, you are a single 'end user'. Perhaps Amazon is hoping to go for slightly larger operations that keep a buffer of stock on hand, like small fabrication companies?

Amazon can offer an option for rapid pickup at their warehouse in major cities, and it would be pretty easy to implement it(especially using warehouse robots).

But i guess that it's a small non-strategic business, so they won't bother.

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