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Getting people to physically visit their B&M store, for whatever reason, is hugely valuable.

yep. foot traffic. go to CVS to do this amazon thing and pick up some candy or something while you are there.

I do wonder if Amazon Pay is a next step for these folks. I cannot believe Amazon will not have an answer Google and Apple.

It looks like the retailer is essentially selling a gift card that gets automatically credited to the purchaser's Amazon account via the barcode they present. I suspect the retailer is getting a small cut of the sale just like they do with normal gift cards. Some of those giant gift card stands rent space from stores and I suspect Amazon has a similar arrangement for this.

Well amazon isn't really competing with kum & go (a gas station) or grocery stores (yet). CVS, I would also say not a big competition--you primarily go there when you need a couple of items quickly.

The value to them is they get a cut, of course.

Let's say you, yes you, don't have a bank account or credit card. Now, how do you buy something from amazon?

they can't help themselves? short term gain, long term consequences