Amazon may be one of the world’s largest online retailers. But the company doesn’t have bricks and mortar stores that you can actually walk into.
So when Amazon got into the hardware business it partnered with retail stores such as Walmart and Target to sell Kindle eReaders and Kindle Fire tablets. That way potential customers could actually try out the devices before deciding whether to spend money on them.
But earlier this year Target decided it would no longer offer Kindle products. Now Reuters reports Walmart is following suit.
Since Walmart compete pretty directly with Amazon, selling many of the same products, it’s actually kind of surprising that the company ever did sell Kindle devices in-stores.
Walmart will continue to sell tablets including the Apple iPad and a variety of Android tablets. But once any remaining inventory of Kindle hardware is sold, it looks like that will be it.
When you search for “Kindle” now at Walmart.com, you get product listings for other tablets from Pandigital, Velocity Micro, Samsung, Asus, and others.
Walmart has pulled all Amazon products from their stores. They even made coinstar stop selling Amazon gift cards at the coinstar machines in Walmart.