I'm not gonna take sides in this story, because frankly, I don't know who to believe. But the fact that Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the country, the largest brick and mortar retailer in the country, and that this story is potentially true? I think that says a lot to just how large of a competitor Amazon is.
Walmart became Walmart by leveraging economies of scale and cut-to-the-bone staffing expenses to eliminate all other brick and mortar merchants. Amazon became Amazon by leveraging economies of scale and cut-to-the-bone staffing expenses to eliminate all other merchants. Peter Thiel made the point that as soon as Amazon declares a dividend they're fucked. Because they'll have to declare a dividend forever. And then whoever is willing to operate at even less profit than that will eat them for lunch. We call this capitalism.