31 MAY 2017WHAT DO YOU THINK? Can Amazon Do What Walmart Couldn't, Stop the 'Wheel of Retailing'? by James Heskett SUMMING UP Is Amazon's growing retail power capable of breaking the "wheel of retailing" theory? James Heskett's readers weigh in. 22 In 1997, a young entrepreneur visited a class at Harvard Business School taught by my colleague, Len Schlesinger. The class discussed a case based on the visitor's fledgling online retailing company that had rapidly expanded sales to $100 million. The main issue of the case had to do with avenues for growth for the company, what would consumers want to purchase online that would fit into a rapid response distribution model? Students rejected numerous options involving lower-value items such as dog food, which would require expensive storage and transport costs. At the end of the discussion, the visitor commended class members for the depth of their analysisthen chided them for their limited vision. Of course, the company was Amazon and the visitor was Jeff Bezos. And his own view for the company was nothing less than "sell everything to everyone everywhere." Including dog food. (Twenty years later another colleague relies on Amazon for delivery of dog food to a remote location in Maine at a price comparable to the local supermarket.) There is no question that Bezos has built a retailing PASAWanthetic.contring the latest share of 31 MAY 2017WHAT DO YOU THINK? Can Amazon Do What Walmart Couldn't, Stop the 'Wheel of Retailing'? by James Heskett SUMMING UP Is Amazon's growing retail power capable of breaking the "wheel of retailing" theory? James Heskett's readers weigh in. 22 In 1997, a young entrepreneur visited a class at Harvard Business School taught by my colleague, Len Schlesinger. The class discussed a case based on the visitor's fledgling online retailing company that had rapidly expanded sales to $100 million. The main issue of the case had to do with avenues for growth for the company, what would consumers want to purchase online that would fit into a rapid response distribution model? Students rejected numerous options involving lower-value items such as dog food, which would require expensive storage and transport costs. At the end of the discussion, the visitor commended class members for the depth of their analysisthen chided them for their limited vision. Of course, the company was Amazon and the visitor was Jeff Bezos. And his own view for the company was nothing less than "sell everything to everyone everywhere." Including dog food. (Twenty years later another colleague relies on Amazon for delivery of dog food to a remote location in Maine at a price comparable to the local supermarket.) There is no question that Bezos has built a retailing INICIAR Ane that is contine the largest cbara of