re: Amazon granted a patent that prevents in-store shoppers from online price checking

Not so fast, sometimes the best way to prevent someone from doing something you don't want to do is to patent the idea to ensure it doesn't happen unless you give someone approval. For example, since Amazon has this patent, this would prevent Wal-Mart or Target from setting up this system in their stores unless Amazon gives them permission to do it. I think this might be more of a patent to deal with possible business threats than it is a patent for something they plan to implement.