Many of the things I buy on Amazon I buy because I can't find them at all in local stores. Sometimes they are just cheaper too, but that really is why I would use a local Amazon store. I wonder if this will also make some things like pet food which aren't really suited to ecommerce more viable for them. Maybe they wouldn't offer vastly cheaper shipping if you want any brand but would stock some staples like that too.

Well sure...if you can find a store that stocks every item that Amazon has, has no lines, doesn't require searching for the physical product on their shelves (this is of course replaced by Amazon.com's search fxn at time of purchase). You surely can't be serious in saying that there's no advantages to conveniently located Amazon package pickup over a conveniently located store...

I make use of in-store pickup options from time to time - sometimes it's nice to get your hands on your order the same day - order it at 7pm, have it by 8pm.

What it comes down to for me is, I don't hate going to the store, I hate shopping at the store. Typing "16GB USB Drive" into the search box is much easier than wandering down multiple aisles trying to figure out whether that particular store put the USB sticks with the laptop accessories, the camera storage, the office supplies, on some unrelated endcap, or behind the guy standing inconveniently in front of the display I'm trying to look at.

But what if you've got a parcel machine on your regular route ?

And don't forget, the costs can be much lower when using parcel machines. For example in latvia ,it costs 2 euro to send a package from a postal machine to a postal machine, versus 3.6 euro from a postal machine to someone via courier.

And e-commerce users really hate to pay for shipping.