Why Online Superstores Are Incomparable to Brick-and-Mortar Stores

b. Online superstores are not reasonably interchangeable with brick-and-mortar stores

140. Online superstores are distinct from, and not reasonably interchangeable with, brick-and-mortar stores. From start to finish, online superstores provide a vastly different shopping experience from physical stores.

141. Unlike online superstores, brick-and-mo1tar stores require shoppers to travel to a specific location. As Mr. Bezos noted in his 2020 letter to Amazon shareholders, "[r]esearch suggests the typical physical store trip takes about an hour" and requires "driving, parking, searching store aisles, waiting in the checkout line, finding your car, and driving home." Mr. Bezos contrasted this experience with shopping on Amazon, where more than a quarter of all purchases are completed "in three minutes or less," and half of all pm-chases take less than fifteen minutes.

142. Brick-and-mortar stores can display only items that fit on the store's limited physical shelf space, while online superstores can offer a practically unlimited number of items for sale. As Amazon's then-Vice President of Physical Stores explained in 2018, "whenever you are working offline, you can't have the endless aisle that you have online, and so when you're working offline you really have to curate."

143. Amazon recognizes that its unlimited shelf space appeals to shoppers and distinguishes its online store from brick-and-mortar stores. As Amazon has reminded its shareholders eve1y year since 1998, "[w]e brought [shoppers] much more selection than was possible in a physical store ... and presented it in a useful, easy-to-search, and easy-to-browse format in a store open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day."

144. Amazon internally contrasts the benefits of the depth of selection available in its online superstore with the "clear gaps" in selection at physical stores. As shown in Figure 12 below, an Amazon presentation (redacted)

(This info is Redacted)

Figure 12. Amazon Slide (Redacted)

Source: Amazon Internal Documents.

145. Brick-and-mortar stores also cannot tailor or personalize a consumer's shopping experience in the same way an online superstore can. Physical stores have the same layout for any shopper browsing their selection at any given time.

146. The process of searching and shopping for items at brick-and-mortar stores is much different than the process of searching and shopping on an online superstore. Shoppers on online superstores can use sophisticated digital filtering and search tools to browse and select items, instead of physically traveling up and down aisles or asking a store employee for help. Online superstore shoppers can make purchases without waiting in physical checkout lanes. And online superstore purchases typically ship to the shopper's address. On the other hand, shoppers can see products in person before buying at brick-and-mortar stores and can typically take purchased items home immediately. As Amazon's then-Vice President of Physical Stores explained in a 2018 interview, "another thing you can do in offline retail that you can't do online is customers can come in and touch the products themselves... try those products first person, get a feel for them, [and] talk to an associate."

147. Online and brick-and-mortar stores also involve distinct operations. Because different expertise is required to manage an online store, companies that operate both typically run them through separate divisions. For example, (redacted). Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, has publicly emphasized that “[t]he things you think about in physical retail” from an operational perspective, like “lighting,“ “parking,“ and “physical merchandising,“ are “radically different things than you think about in an online retail environment where technology is really driving the entire experience: