fferent in categories like outdoor sporting goods. Different companies offer drastically different products, and the right brand of bicycle or snowboard matters to enthusiasts. Shoppers might also prefer to seek the guidance of an experienced sales clerk.

“When Amazon was first launching outdoors sporting goods, we panicked,” said John Bresee, cofounder of Backcountry.com, a growing Utah Web retailer owned by Liberty Media. “We kept waiting to see this giant sucking sound as our sales went away. But it hasn’t happened.”

WITH a flash of humility, a trait that Amazon executives try to cultivate in public, Jeff Wilke, the vice president, concedes that “there are going to be niches that no matter how hard we try, we will never be great at.”

Touring those massive distribution centers in Arizona, it does not appear that Amazon is thinking small. At Phoenix 5, the company is putting the finishing touches on 300,000 extra square feet, which will make the facility one of its largest in the country.

Mr. Wegner of Amazon promises — or is it a threat? — that the new space will be ready for the holiday shopping season.

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