Earlier quoted context omitted.
A tangent, but when did 'cargo-cult' become a verb and not a noun?
Wtf is cargo cult?
Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
211–220 of 297 posts
Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, Apple also sells premium accessories for their devices including headphones, cases, backpacks, other hardware accessories and even 3rd party software for their devices. They are not a general purpose store. Amazon is, or at least pretends to be.
So you are saying that if you are a general purpose store, you have to offer products from your competitors. Walmart should sell Target brand products, Home Depot should sell Lowes brand products. See my point? Stores just aren't in the business of selling their competitors products.
Store brands are not usually made available through general supply chains (or rather, they come from a shortened supply chain), apple and google devices are. And Walmart does sell its "competitor's" products alongside their store brands (where they are available), as does Target, Home Depot, and Lowes. This is because their main business is selling things and having a store brand is just a means to squeek a little more margin out of the things they sell anyways.
Obviously a store is under no obligation to carry every product ever, but this argument that an apple or android tablet is equivalent to a store brand is just silly.
Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
A tangent, but when did 'cargo-cult' become a verb and not a noun?
Wtf is cargo cult?
From wikipedia:
"The name derives from the belief that various ritualistic acts will lead to a bestowing of material wealth."
Basically, slavishly copying someone else's actions without actually understanding the underlying principle behind those actions. The most famous example is from WWII - Japanese and American armed forces built airstrips on underdeveloped islands, and either abandoned or shared what seemed like massive amounts of wealth with the islanders. When the war was over, islanders replicated airstrips and military bases, some even dressing up as soldiers, in order to bring back the flow of cargo.
Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple sells many products that are not owned by Apple. I can buy headphones by Bose, RHA, BlueAnt, Beats (were on store prior to Apple purchase). Amazon gets the criticism but they all do it. Remember, we had a store that was willing to sell all these products, it's called Best Buy and it's on the way out. As consumers we choose to boost Amazon into the leading online position.
Yes, Apple also sells premium accessories for their devices including headphones, cases, backpacks, other hardware accessories and even 3rd party software for their devices. They are not a general purpose store. Amazon is, or at least pretends to be.
Absent the select few exceptions, Amazon is a general purpose store. If we're really going to be picky, Apple(and Google) sell products through their store that are "general purpose".
Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
#215Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
#216I see this letter as an attempt at vindication for the controversy sparked by the NYT article on Amazon's corporate culture. Jeff Bezos was clearly affected and I see this as a defense of their "distinctive culture". "For better or for worse" that culture got them to $100 billion in annual sales faster than any company in history.
I live in Seattle and am friends with a lot of Amazon folks. Most work very hard and complain from time to time, but I only know one who left for another job because most who are there now actually really like their jobs. One friend put it best after he transitioned from a small department in the ecommerce side of the business to one of AWS's early-ish hires, that most young departments have the thrill of working at…
Last year folks were leaving Amazon in droves.
Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
#217Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not what I've heard. A quick search found me this: > The company loses an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion on Prime shipping annually http://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-free-shipping-killing-am... Amazon wants market share enough to absorb a loss on shipping costs. It's part of why Amazon is still not profitable.
Not profitable? They made almost 600 million dollars profit, after taxes last year.
Almost $600 million on $107 billion in revenue.
A profit margin of 0.57% [0]. That's so close to zero that I'm comfortable saying they're not profitable.
Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect a lot of the current griping over hiring practices is due to this. Small companies cargo-cult hiring practices from Google/Amazon/Apple/Facebook, but they forget that these companies have huge numbers of good applicants who are willing to jump through hoops just for the opportunity to have $BIGNAME on their resume.
A tangent, but when did 'cargo-cult' become a verb and not a noun?
A cool thing about the English language is you can do that sort of thing whenever you feel like it.
Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, but the point of the Apple store is to sell Apple products, and the Google Play store only sells google devices. Amazon supposedly sells everything. It wasn't created to only sell Amazon products, and it's misleading to consumers to not be more open about that. Case in point - they sell iPads. Why don't they just sell Kindles? The inconsistency comes off as sleezy.
It's not sleazy, it's smart business. Amazon doesn't sell guns either, and they technically could probably do so if they setup the proper infrastructure and background checks and whatever else to do so. Just because they are Wal-Mart of the online world doesn't mean they must sell everything everyone wants. The devices they don't sell are in a heavily contested field, no wonder they don't carry them, that's smart bus…
They wouldn't have to do the back ground checks. The Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) they ship it to would take care of doing that. In case people are unaware you can't sell a firearm to someone outside your own state without transferring it through an FFL. They simply don't do it because they bow to liberal suck ups, down-vote away!