Amazon is doing its real job: Squeezing retail chains

Dan Frommer points out any possible battle between the Kindle Fire and iPad is small potatoes in the short term compared to the retail business.

Recall that e-commerce is still less than 5% of U.S. retail sales. So driving brick-and-mortar competitors into the ground and directing more spending toward Amazon is absolutely what Amazon should be putting most of its effort into.

After referencing a few well-known retail chains and their dimishing forecasts, here's the gold nugget:

Meanwhile, Wall Street expects Amazon to report 40% year-over-year sales growth for last quarter, and a profit.

I’d love to see some contrarian evidence — signs that offline chain spending is picking up in categories where Amazon is a serious competitor. Or that any of these companies stand a chance to survive as digital-only companies. (Hey, at least Walmart just bought an iPhone app agency.)

But from my own habits, I can’t imagine why that would happen.