Amazon used to be my go to for pretty much everything. I could occasionally get something cheaper in the store at Walmart, but lately Amazon has been matching Walmart's prices, to the penny, for just about everything. My question is in the long run how is this strategy going to play out? Amazon has to eat shipping charges and remain profitable. The prices that walmart posts includes any transportation related expenses to the point of distribution and the final mile cost is passed onto the buyer indirectly.

These two obviously have market analysts and economists working on squeezing every last penny from every sale. Who do you think is overall more profitable? If amazon and walmart are both selling a camera for $50, which one is making the most profit? What do you think that percentage of profit is?

Letting complete strangers into your business gets expensive.  Allowing only employees in is cheaper.  Shipping vs. lawsuit settlements, I suppose.

Amazon makes more profit per item.  WalMart sells more items.  BestBuy is left out in the cold.

Walmart spends more money getting the product to the customer even if it is sitting in one of the superstores.

Amazon.

They have to ship it to you but I bet that is cheaper than maintaining a store front open to the public many of which are in high real estate cost areas.

I have often wondered what a wal mart's costs are to be open per 24 hour period. Electricity, wages, etc.  

Amazon hasn't even figured out to be continuously profitable yet. They posted a loss for Q2 2014, Q3 2013 and FY2012.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=AMZN

thats what it may look like from the OUTSIDE of the organization.