Amid growing tension and competition between online and brick-and-mortar retailing giants, Wal-Mart has decided to stop selling Amazon's Kindle Fire e-readers.
"We have recently made the business decision to not carry Amazon tablets and e-Readers beyond our existing inventory and purchase commitments. This includes all Amazon Kindle models current and recently announced," said Wal-Mart, according Reuters.
Amazon declined to comment on Wal-Mart's decision.
The decision comes with online retailing eating into the sales of physical retail stores, as many consumers now prefer to order products online. Amazon is the world's largest online retailer that sells just about anything. The move comes at a time of holiday season sales.
In May, another retailer, Target, said they would stop selling Kindles in their stores. So, with two major retailers not selling Kindle Fires that range from $159 to $599, Reuters reports that Amazon might as well open stores where consumers can buy Kindles.
Amazon offended retailers by promoting a smartphone app, Price Check, which allowed users to compare the price of other stores with that of Amazon's by scanning bar codes, the Wall Street Journal reported.
However, Wal-Mart will continue selling Apple's iPad tablets and Barnes & Nobles' Nook e-reader.
"Wal-Mart and other retailers don't want to facilitate Amazon in any way. Wal-Mart probably doesn't sell many Kindle units, but they don't want to become a showroom for Amazon, who they are fighting tooth and nail with on almost all their other products," Brian Walker, Forrester Research analyst, said to the Wall Street Journal.
Other retailers like Best Buy and RadioShack will continue to sell Kindle devices. Earlier this month, Amazon released a new range of tablets that can challenge iPads.
