Walmart is saying goodbye to Amazon products

Seeing the online retailer as a threat to profits, Walmart has decided to follow Target in removing the Amazon Kindle lineup from its offerings of tablets and e-readers in stores.

With Amazon tablets selling at reduced prices to increase online digital sales, Walmart will phase out Kindle Fire tablets and Kindle e-books until current inventory is gone. Target did the same last May, citing a “conflict of interest.”

Walmart will continue to sell other tablets and e-book readers like Apple’s iPad and products from Samsung and Sony.

Walmart, among other retailers, also wants to limit the amount of “showrooming” that goes on in its physical stores. It’s a term for consumers who shop around in brick-and-mortar stores, then go home and find a better deal online at a place like Amazon.

Both Walmart and Amazon have been going head-to-head in in the e-commerce world for a few years now and the rivalry has been hot since before the 2000s. With the popularity of tablets on the rise, the competition doesn’t appear to be cooling down anytime soon.

Perhaps Amazon will respond with its own retail stores full of Kindles to physically test and then purchase. Do you think that’s a good idea?

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