Who Can Compete Against Amazon?

As the price of Amazon stock climbs close to $1,000 per share, with a $464 billion market capitalization – more than twice that of Wal-Mart – a retail apocalypse is starting to become evident. Retail sales and mall traffic is declining and mainstream retailers such Macy’s badly miss their earnings estimates ( while JC Penney and Sears are seen as almost done by many). In a world where Wall Street affords Amazon a price / earnings multiple of 179 against Wal-Mart’s 17, who can possibly compete against Amazon? At Cowen’s third annual “Future of the Consumer” conference, successful retailers weighed…