Eric and Susan Benson didn't come to Amazon alone every day - they brought their dog Rufus, a Welsh corgi.

Ultimately, Amazon is a weather pattern that disturbs everything around it.

Amazon is famously run by studying and responding to its own data; yet when it comes to promotions, decisions are often subjective and guided by human emotions and petty political dynamics.

I don't think we yet know - because it's probably not big enough - what exactly Amazon does to our cities, but whatever it is, I don't anticipate retail wastelands. If anything, it's maybe a wake-up call to retailers that they just have to offer something meaningful to customers.