So What, Who Cares (vol 2, issue 55) Who is in this summer's remake of 'The Clash of the Titans'

Hello! So ... that took longer than I expected.

The unplanned-for hiatus was not unproductive. I had a chance to work out some pressing questions I've had about So What, Who Cares? and because I appreciate your readership and respect your time, I will skip the boring stuff "whither the future?" nattering and just get to the part that affects you:

From this point on, SW,WC is a thrice-weekly newsletter, and it will drop on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. I am curious to see if sending this sucker out at the beginning of the day (rather than the night before) is more useful to you readers; I hope this is the case. And I hope you will not be shy about feedback (Twitter or email) regarding when you get and read the newsletter.

I've missed writing to you all, and I've missed hearing from you too. I hope some of you let me know what you've been up to for the past month. (Twitter or email)

*
Get ready for a clash of the titans: Amazon is mulling a move into branded groceries right as Wal-Mart launches its own version of Amazon Prime.

Based on trademark filings under the Amazon Elements brand and discussions with private-label food manufacturers, all the indications are there that Amazon's going to be introducing Amazon-branded pasta, coffee, soup, dog food and cleaning products. They already sell private-label diapers and wipes to Amazon Prime members.

While Amazon does its best to colonize your quotidian shopping, Wal-Mart's going to try and launch an Amazon Prime-killer, one priced at $50/year and promising access to a million of Wal-Mart's bestsellers.

So what? Let's look at what everybody wants here.

Wal-Mart wants a way to grow their online traffic (vol 1, issue 20; vol 1, issue 31;). They also want a customer base that is making more money than, say, the average Wal-Mart employee (vol 1, issue 56), but they also want to keep their core customer base hooked with affordable services. The lower subscription fee could be a way to effectively reach price-sensitive consumers.

But more importantly to Wal-Mart, an online subscription service is a way to get people to spend more money. Amazon Prime customers are well-known for spending twice as much annually as non-Prime customers, and Wal-Mart wants in on that sweet, sweet "subscribers spend more" action.

Amazon wants a way to get its shoppers to spend money in places other than a website (vol 1, issue 31; vol 1, issue 41). Why? I'm spitballing, but one reason springs immediately to mind: It's easier to sell luxury in person (vol 2, issue 44). And you may want to do that for two reasons: the margins on luxury goods tend to be hi

gh (certainly much, much higher than groceries) and the opportunity to amass a dataset on elite consumers would give Amazon's data-brokering business a new product to flog.

Who cares? I am not sure how many of you have ever read the seminal article "The Wal-Mart You Don't Know," which ran in the December 2003 issue of Fast Company, but there's a haunting story about pickles in there which concludes with the money quote:

"The real story of Wal-Mart, the story that never gets told, is the story of the pressure the biggest retailer relentlessly applies to its suppliers in the name of bringing us 'every day low prices.'"

Now, twelve years on, we've got Amazon, a company explicitly compared to Wal-Mart in George Packer's recent New Yorker story with:

In its drive for profitability, Amazon did not raise retail prices; it simply squeezed its suppliers harder, much as Walmart had done with manufacturers. Amazon demanded ever-larger co-op fees and better shipping terms; publishers knew that they would stop being favored by the site’s recommendation algorithms if they didn’t comply. Eventually, they all did. (Few customers realize that the results generated by Amazon’s search engine are partly determined by promotional fees.)

So what we have here are two very big companies about to duke it out in an amorphously-defined "multichannel" retail space. The big story here is not going to be who "wins" the heart and mind of the multichannel shopper. The big story here is which companies and industries are going to profit and perish by the pressures put on them by these multibillion-dollar multichannel behemoths.

Follow-up Note One: Way back in October 2014, I predicted that we all needed to watch out for Amazon to launch an Etsy-killer (vol 1, issue 41). This past week, Amazon began rolling out Handmade, and by "rolling out," I mean "inviting Etsy sellers to come to Handmade instead." As Geekwire notes:

Amazon has targeted other online retailers that have gotten in its way, most famously putting a stranglehold on Quidsi (operator of Diapers.com). Prior to its acquisition of the company, Amazon aggressively dropped the prices of its diapers in order to gain market share with parents.

(Slate has more on that chapter in Amazon's history, which took place right as I enrolled in Amazon Mom and began ordering diapers via Amazon Prime.)

Follow-up Note Two: Also, remember how at the beginning of March, I wrote, "Expect to see Target upping its digital game" (vol 2, issue 32)? Guess who saw a 38% growth in digital sales for Q1 2015? Here's how they did it: They lowered the minimum order for free shipping to $25; they boosted online subscription sales; they boosted in-store pickup sales. The quarterly earnings call didn't lay out the strategy for customer education here, but someone's doing something right at Target to direct that digital sales growth.

*

Your pop culture note of the day: There are many, many cultural commentaries and riffs around the whole Mad Max: Fury Road movie, but I really feel it's important for us to remember the pioneering "terrifying woman of Mad Max," i.e. Aunty Entity as played by Tina Turner. I really think we need some sort of mash-up between the current movie and "We Don't Need Another Hero." Until then, enjoy:

A. The original "We Don't Need Another Hero," which is about as mid-1980s movie soundtrack and video as it gets
B. The delightful, delightful mashup between Max Mad: Fury Road and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

*

Are there typos? I apologize in advance. The only editing class I did not get an A in was copyediting.

Did you miss an issue of So What, Who Cares? The archive is here.

Would you like a run-down of all the books and other pop culture picks ever mentioned in this newsletter? Then check out the Pinterest board. (Note: None of the links are affiliate links; I do not make money off anything I link to.)

If you really like So What, Who Cares?, tell a friend to subscribe.