Who Can Compete Against Amazon?

As the price of Amazon stock climbs close to $1,000 per share, with a $464 billion market capitalization – more than twice that of Wal-Mart – a retail apocalypse is starting to become evident. Retail sales and mall traffic is declining and mainstream retailers such Macy’s badly miss their earnings estimates ( while JC Penney and Sears are seen as almost done by many). In a world where Wall Street affords Amazon a price / earnings multiple of 179 against Wal-Mart’s 17, who can possibly compete against Amazon? At Cowen's third annual "Future of the Consumer" conference, successful retailers weighed in.

It's an Amazon world, we just live in it

Retail traffic declined -5.58% year over year in the...