The idea behind the Amazon.com locker test was pretty simple. Amazon would win by giving their customers an easy way to pick up orders they didn't want left at their doors. Staples and RadioShack would benefit by receiving a fee for the lockers and seeing more boots come through their door, hopefully, leading to more purchases. Now that the two chains have pulled out of the test, it seems clear that the benefits, whatever they may have been, seem more weighted to Amazon's side.
Demos Parneros, president of North American stores and online for Staples, told Bloomberg News that his company chose to end the test because it failed to meet the goals set up for the program. RadioShack made the change because it didn't fit with the chain's new, cleaner merchandising philosophy under CEO Joe Magnacca.
When RetailWire first covered the Amazon/Staples test last year, most were willing to give the idea the benefit of the doubt even as they acknowledged that the companies involved directly competed with one another. Sixty-three percent said they thought Staples' business would be helped somewhat by placing Amazon's lockers in its stores. Clearly, based on Staples' decision, it did not help enough.
Amazon did not offer a comment on the news.