I was in Manhattan last week so stopped into the Amazonbooks store. Given Amazon’s reputation with Go, Drones, Blimps, etc. and their label as a traditional retailer killer, I braced for a truly unique (and perhaps mind blowing) experience. I was genuinely excited to check it out.

A friendly associate welcome me upon entry and, having found out I was a first-timer, took me through the whole process. For those of you who haven’t been, you use the app to scan books, access prices, find books and pay.

The store looks like a traditional book store, shelves of books, a few Amazon devices on tables and a coffee shop off to the side. If you want to find out the price for a book you can either look at the insert or they prefer you scan the book with your app. If you are a Prime member, you get the Prime price. On the shelf set beneath each book is a printed review card. The card has a “real” review on it and a star rating for the book (think what Best Buy did years ago but large enough to actually read). That’s the store in a nutshell.

Now I’m really a library guy; why buy a book you will likely only read once? But I decided to give the store a shot so searched for the Elon Musk biography that’s been on my list.

Together the associate and I searched for the book. The search went like this: Type Musk into the app, a few titles pop up, select the right one, the page says lists the part of the store it’s in, we walk over to, in this case Biographies, and find the book.

By now I am in a hurry so I grab the book and head over to checkout. Just before I get there another customer steps into line ahead of me. She has a question, seems like a complex one. I stand there with my app open and book in hand. Amazon knows me, I just scanned the book 5 minutes beforehand. I wait another 2–3 minutes and wonder why I can’t just walk out of the store. Finally I get my turn. The (super friendly) woman behind the counter has me scan by phone, puts my book in a bag and asks if I want a printed receipt. I walk away wondering why the I had to wait in line.

When the associate asked me what I thought of the store, I said, “this feels like a Barnes and Noble”. Her gasp actually made me feel a little guilty. Just a little.

The store didn’t live up to my expectations. My mind was far, far from being blown away. I was actually ticked that I had to wait in line and couldn’t slip that feeling for a while afterwards.

My takeaways.

1) Amazon has set some pretty high expectations, pressure is on to deliver.

2) Though I found the bookstore ho hum (with great associates), I can only assume that Bezos has something else up his sleeve on this.

3) I understand that the US market might not be ready for something more advanced than this but I’d rather have seen Amazon push this further (see point 1), even integrating the Go infrastructure.

4) There are opportunities to vastly improve reviews. How they are curated and delivered, especially in a store setting.

5) Maybe Amazon should bail on stores and just become the OS of all retail.

6) If they keep building stores, I hope their teams have some misfits and hackers who will push on convention. Traditional retail really isn’t that old but so many preconceived notions of what it should be are molded into our minds and that’s holding the industry back.

Raj B. Shroff is Principal and Founder of PINE.

(Full disclosure: I’ve made great money on my investment in Amazon, am a Prime member and am rooting for them to live up to the hype. Btw, read the Musk book, it’s inspiring).

Our clients are faced with a range of challenges in the changing competitive landscape yet Voice continues to be a source of discussion in meetings. It also feels like you can’t go more than a few minutes without finding something about its relevance, impact and (potential) power.

Some industry leaders are wondering if Voice will be the death of brands. Others are taking a more pragmatic approach. And, JPMorgan Chase is committing by naming VaynerMedia as their Voice Agency of Record. A bit more searching and I would find a myriad of other takes and honestly, don’t know if my brain can handle that.

So with all of these hot takes spanning such a wide range, how do you make sense of it all?

I don’t know that you can (fair warning) right now.

Voice seems more noise than form or function at the moment and it is way too early to tell how it will impact our lives overall, let alone how it will impact the role of brands. I do know that no matter how it comes to life, Voice will cause significant disruption and with disruption breeds opportunity. And we personally believe Voice is much more of an opportunity area for brands than it is a death sentence.

Brands will have to deal with a world in which a consumer can simply say “Alexa, order more detergent”, but will they be willing to have an Amazon Basics arrive vs. their preferred brand?

Early on, we don’t see consumers willing to sacrifice quality. But assuming Amazon’s product prowess delivers on its promises and can match or exceed quality where it matters, Voice will most certainly level the playing field if shoppers just rattle off the product type, “Alexa, I need dish soap”.

But if brands are willing to stick it out, continue to develop products that consumers value and can do so before Amazon makes a duplicate, Voice offers retailers and brands some potentially innovative ways to drive ongoing consumer engagement and loyalty. What if a food brand could provide you simple recipes through a certain voice command that is linked to the packaging? Or if that awkward sound you get when you squeeze an almost empty bottle of ketchup was able to be purchased by Heinz, specifically to trigger re-order (think bidding on key sounds, not keywords). And the myriad of other ways Voice could equate to opportunity.

Be excited (I know I am), we live in a unique and very challenging time for marketers, retailers and brands. But with every challenge comes opportunity.

Michael Reda is a Partner of Strategy & Business Development at PINE.