When your stomach is grumbling for some grub, odds are that the last place you're thinking of to fill your craving is Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). Well, that may change now that Amazon is beta-testing its gourmet foods store.
Before you start picturing CEO Jeff Bezos in a chef's hat, slaving away in a Seattle kitchen, realize that Amazon isn't really getting into the food business. It is simply serving as a marketplace intermediary for companies that specialize in the home delivery of everything from live lobsters to goat cheese.
Obviously, the concept will need a little fine-tuning. For example, the graphic on the Amazon storefront features a sumptuous-looking dessert, a niche that is completely missing from the area's featured categories.
For now, the store's bestsellers are trending towards a dry, boring lot. Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) coffee and some peppermint sugar twists from Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE:BRK.A) See's Candies dominate the list. More exotic items like Chilean sea bass and smoked pheasant will live to chart another day.
Common shelf-steady fare like boxed chocolates and festive occasion specialties like gift baskets will probably fare well for Amazon. The perishable foodstuff that sounds so cool in ad copy and media reports? That will be a harder sell for folks who are accustomed to instant gratification at the corner grocery store.
But like the sporting goods and jewelry storefronts that the company is also in the process of rolling out in beta form, these are just more ways for Amazon to capture online mindshare and extend its lead as the Internet's merchant of choice. Smartly singled out in our The Motley Fool Stock Advisor, the stock has been one of the better performers over the past two years. That's simple enough to digest.
Anyone for some Cranberry Fool?
So, what did you think about the Amazon Gourmet Food store? Impressed by Amazon's third-quarter showing or are you still a skeptic? What will it take to slow Amazon down? Can the bricks-and-mortar chains compete? All this and more -- in the Amazon discussion board. Only on Fool.com.
