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

Lol and doesnt amazon support net neutrality?

Hypocrites.

Simply can't see the attraction of an Amazon store anyway, they're only relevant due to online/shipping to me.

This seems like a pointless idea. I don't need to connect to a store's wifi if I wanted to check prices on my phone.

Amazon has brick and mortar stores?

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net neutrality

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You mean "liberal fascism".

Screw Amazon.

I thought hovering flight vehicles were going to bring us all of our rubber dog shite purchases. Just wait until the price of refined fuel starts moving back up. There is a reason only really wealthy people own and operate helicopters.

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Perhaps the advantage to obtaining this patent is to make it more difficult for other brick and mortar stores from doing the same thing

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This was my first thought before reading the story.

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Perhaps the advantage to obtaining this patent is to make it more difficult for other brick and mortar stores from doing the same thing. An attempt by other stores to do this would have a larger effect on Amazon.

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That seems very plausible

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.

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Simply can't see the attraction of an Amazon store anyway,

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mainly for returns and test their in-store shopping technology to liscense to other stores.