"people like WalMart make a business out of logistics, they only carry stuff where they have a strong financial advantage. It’s not impossible, but it’s hard to beat their prices when you factor in shipping."
Exactly and true except for long tail items.
In theory if you take an item and stock, arbitrarily 500 of it in a Walmart you only have the cost to ship 500 in bulk to the Walmart. The customer costs zero to come and pick it up (and they don't factor their time into the equation either). Intuitively that has to be much cheaper than using UPS or Fedex to have a driver stop off at 500 different places. Just like it would be cheaper to have everyone pick up their mail at the post office. Walmart is in essence an efficient warehouse.
And it doesn't matter who pays either it's a cost that someone has to bear. One way or another someone is paying for the delivery to the end user if the item isn't being picked up.
Exactly and true except for long tail items.
In theory if you take an item and stock, arbitrarily 500 of it in a Walmart you only have the cost to ship 500 in bulk to the Walmart. The customer costs zero to come and pick it up (and they don't factor their time into the equation either). Intuitively that has to be much cheaper than using UPS or Fedex to have a driver stop off at 500 different places. Just like it would be cheaper to have everyone pick up their mail at the post office. Walmart is in essence an efficient warehouse.
And it doesn't matter who pays either it's a cost that someone has to bear. One way or another someone is paying for the delivery to the end user if the item isn't being picked up.