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Madison Retailers Have Mixed Reactions To Amazon’s Brick And Mortar Plans

Online Giant Plans Pickup Location On UW Campus

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Amazon boxes stack up in office
Public.Resource.Org (CC-BY)

Madison business owners have mixed feelings about a new Amazon package pickup location near downtown that is expected to open next year.

Last week, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved an agreement between UW-Madison and the online retail giant to open an Amazon Pickup Point on campus. It allows students to send packages there instead of to their apartments.

Wasie Amiri, owner of the nearby Sacred Feather hat store, said he’s been losing business for the past five years because of online shopping. He thinks the pickup location would have the same effect on his shop.

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“When people go online and they get free deliveries and all that stuff, people are not coming downtown,” Amiri said. “This means there will be not that many walk-ins into the shops on State Street,” one of the city’s main commercial districts.

But Soap Opera soap store owner Sean Scannell said he doesn’t foresee the pickup point on campus affecting his business.

“I think if someone’s willing to travel to an Amazon pickup location, they’re probably willing to travel here and many of our prices, if they’re price matching, are not very different from Amazon,” Scannell said.

Amazon is planning a spring opening for the UW location.