Here's the kind of epic battle in which there are no innocent bystanders, just lucky ones:
Target has Amazon in its crosshairs. Fed up that customers scan the store’s aisles with one eye on their smartphones, and often end up making purchases online for less — a practice known as showrooming — the big-box retailer Tuesday promised to match Amazon’s prices year round.
[. . .]
Other retailers may follow Target’s lead. “This might ultimately spur WalMart to match its own online prices,” says Edgar Dworksy, founder of ConsumerWorld.org. Best Buy has price-matching with Amazon.com and other websites until the end of January, but a spokeswoman declined to say if it will continue. Toys ‘R’ Us only matches online prices on baby gear sold by rival online stores, including Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, Kmart and Amazon. Wal-Mart matches prices in printed ads by local retailers, but this does not extend to online prices; a spokeswoman for the company declined to comment on future plans. (Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.)
Strip out all the technological aspects and the fancy "showrooming" appellation, and this is just an old-fashioned price war. Some of the sellers may lose, even to the point of going out of business, but in the end, consumers win.
It's called competition. Good thing invented by capitalist swine.
