Amazon Earnings Very Strong: Could it be that people are avoiding the Gloomy Mall?

Amazon just keeps surprising people even though consumers are supposed to be cutting back.

Amazon.com Inc. said earnings climbed 24 percent to $177 million, or 41 cents per share, compared with $143 million, or 34 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. That easily beat the 31 cents per share that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected.

The company said revenue rose 18 percent to $4.89 billion, slightly higher than analysts' expectations of $4.76 billion.

So they were able to increase the top and bottom line when some companies are facing double digit drops? I think more and more people are just moving their day to day spending from the mall to Amazon and taking advantage of Amazon Prime to save a buck.

I think one factor that might be driving Amazon sales is that malls are now some of the gloomiest places you can go to buy something. I mean Ward Warehouse which is close to my workplace is like a ghost town full of closed shops and restaurants and is mostly made up of darkened hallways and furtive, scared-looking merchants.

If I wanted to pick up some clothes or something I would much rather do a few clicks on Amazon then drive down to a Fallout 3-like wasteland of a mall. Amazon is cheerful and cheap while the mall is full-priced and gloomy. It is not such a hard choice to make.