Could RadioShack provide a same day delivery launchpad for Amazon?

It seems that the potential demise of RadioShack could in turn help to see same day delivery service objectives realized for Amazon.com. There's no doubt that Amazon are jockeying for position to corner much of the retail same day delivery market, currently offered to Amazon Prime members only for a flat fee of $5.99 per shipment, providing that the customer lives in select markets. What Amazon has truly needed are traditional brick and mortar locations to enable them to have many hundreds of 'mini-warehouses' close to customers across the country.

All of which is somewhat ironic for a company that has a purely online heritage but the rumours that Amazon might be interested in RadioShack do at least make sense. I don't think I've ever spent much time in an american city that doesn't have a local RadioShack somewhere nearby and that impression is supported by the fact that the company operates more than 4,000 locations and even that number is down from a previous high of well over 5,000 locations.

You may have read that the company is in severe financial trouble and analysts suggest that RadioShack are soon likely to declare bankruptcy. Bloomberg have reported that Amazon are in talks to acquire an unspecified number of the RadioShack locations. Even if Amazon were to acquire 10% of the locations that would allow the company to operate from more than 400 US sites almost overnight to sell their own products and become individual same day delivery hubs in hundreds of locations across the country.

Such a strategic acquisition of hundreds or even thousands of small inventory warehouses makes perfect sense for Amazon if they are aiming to launch their same day delivery services on a far wider scale than at present. Let's assume that the speculation is correct from Bloomberg and if so it offers a very clear indication of what the company are hoping to achieve in the near future.

It's not hard to imagine a local 'Amazon store' operating out of strip malls, downtowns and shopping malls across the country. Based on brand awareness alone the idea could work and if it helps the company in their quest to extend same day delivery coverage it puts a check mark in all the right boxes for the (*currently) online giant.