Amazon goes bricks-and-mortar

Well, sort of.

They're allegedly looking for retail spaces in London that would serve more as online order pickup centers than traditional bookstores.

It's a good idea to test, at least, but it won't happen here. Pickup centers might work in London for the same reason public transportation does: extremely high population density. We don't have that here, other than New York City and possibly a few other large cities. I wouldn't go to a pickup center unless I got a substantial discount to the delivered price, and I certainly wouldn't go all the way to downtown San Diego to pick something up. They'd have to maintain pickup centers all over the county to serve everyone.

Add to that the possibility that London's delivery services may not be as cheap, efficient, and convenient as our UPS. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

And if they set up any pickup centers in California, they'd have to start charging California's outrageous 8.75% sales tax (9.5% in Frisco!) on all California orders, picked up or delivered.

Full disclosure: I'm still holding that AMZN that I bought in 2006. I don't intend to ever sell it, though I won't try to justify the current valuation.