> > Why? I love my local baker, but for brand name items, I'm going to order online.
> really? even for things like bikes, sporting goods, clothes, running shoes, ... I could go on.
I have personally ordered all of these online, although there are some types of clothes that I don't like ordering online.
> And the thing is: you'd still be ordering online, just not from amazon. if you order directly from brands and the brand can inform you that there is a local shop that has it within miles, why not get it there?
Because I have to schedule a trip to the location. To me, this is like asking: "why not travel to the post office to pick up your mail?" Well, because instead the item can be delivered to my door step.
> why waste the resources of having to have it shipped (long distance) only to potentially have to ship it back?
In both cases, the item is traveling the same distance from manufacturer to my door step. It is more efficient to ship the item from the warehouse directly to my door step vs. first shipping it to some random location miles from my door step. The only difference is whose resources are used to ship the item the last few miles: my vehicle or a UPS truck. I guarantee the UPS truck is dozens of times more efficient.
With Amazon Prime (90 million US subscribers) shipping and most returns are free, so I'm paying twice if I use my vehicle to pick something up from a store. The current Amazon return process (explicitly to take this argument off the table): box arrives at door step, open box, try out item, take out preprinted return sticker, put return sticker on box, put box on door step, let Amazon know to pick it up. It is no effort. This is rare enough that the efficiency impact is minimal, although possibly less rare for clothes. The situation may change if returns become full fare.
> BOPIS ... is a solid option when there is limited stock
This is a super rare situation for me, but I agree that BOPIS is superior in this situation.
> best buy and home depot are killing with this right now
I'm quite surprised by this, is there a good article about this around?
