The retailer plans to phase out Kindle sales this month, says Target rep Molly Snyder.
The plan comes as Target, like other brick-and-mortar retail chains, has grown weary of the practice of "showrooming," in which consumers visit stores to check out products and then buy them online at Amazon. Amazon fueled such discontent by introducing its Price Check app last holiday season, which offered a price comparison to in-store merchandise and sweetened the deal with a 5% discount (up to $15.)
Target didn't give a reason for its decision, but wrote a letter to vendors in January stating, “What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices,” according to a note that Deborah Weinswig, a Citi analyst, sent to clients.
The Minneapolis-based retailer is one of the largest sellers of Kindles, but doesn't move as many as Amazon, which announced last week that Kindle is its best-selling product. Amazon didn't provide figures for Kindle sales, but comScore estimated last week that Kindle Fire now has 54% of the Android tablet market.