"I ain't gonna be fattening no more frogs for snakes." Sonny Boy Williamson
Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest retailer, will no longer sell the Amazon’s line of Kindle e-book readers after the current supply in stores has been sold. While Wal-Mart did not provide any reasons for dropping Amazon’s readers while continuing to sell e-readers from Apple, Barnes & Noble, and others, most analysts believe the decision was made because Wal-Mart, like Target, which dropped the Kindles from its stores back in May , sees Amazon as a major competitor for both its online and brick-and-mortar operations.
In addition Amazon’s encouraging of "showrooming" (browsing in stores and then buying online) during the last holiday season certainly didn’t endear it to Wal-Mart, and the new Kindle Fire with its greater Internet capability is a far more potent online shopping tool than the limited earlier models of the Kindle. Kindles are also low-margin items because Amazon sells them so cheaply, whereas the iPad provides retailers with a much better profit margin.
Still, according to The New York Times, other mass market retailers including Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, and Radio Shack will continue to sell Kindles.
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