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Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

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Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#221

Post by Navarr »

sremani wrote: post #175
shuri wrote: post #3

You have to love this sentence "We want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member."

Amazon is too good at what they do. The feeling that they give too good of a value, while I spent thousands of dollars on their site was a weird kind of high. That is the end game, you spend a lot with Prime since, it shows up in two days and no shipping etc. I cancelled my Prime membership, and just that saves me a hundred or two a month, because now I have to think twice before ordering anything since shipping cost…

You shouldn't consider Jet.com not collecting sales tax as a "good thing" since you are technically required to pay it by law (in most places, normally, afaik, IANAL)

So you technically do still need to pay that 8.25% differential.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#222

Post by xux »

amelius wrote: post #155
alimbada wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's Stallman. No one should take him seriously, ever.

Ad hominem fallacy.

Just because is ad hominem, doesn't mean it's a fallacy. Sometimes a person's reputation is so bad you don't need to give any benefit of the doubt for his/her opinions.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#223

Post by cookiecaper »

hguant wrote: post #213
jjtheblunt wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>Basically, slavishly copying someone else's actions without actually understanding the underlying principle behind those actions.

And it should be noted that this works really well much of the time, which is why humans often do it. A deep understanding can be beneficial if you're capable of grasping it, but if we're honest, most people aren't.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#225

Post by [deleted] »

ErrantX wrote: post #182
pc86 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the exception that if you drive to store and back home for a single item, you'll have the item inside of an hour. If you live close, inside of 15 minutes? When I know I will need batteries in a week, I'll buy a box on Amazon and get it in a few days. If I need batteries now, I'll have them within an hour. It's certainly not "like going to the DMV."

Here in the UK Amazon seem to be heading for same-day delivery for Prime customers (we already have free next day on Prime) and ultimately "within the hour" types of delivery in major cities.

[deleted]

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#226

Post by tvladeck »

timje1 wrote: post #204
zeemonkee3 wrote: post #131

Earlier 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?

Nouns get verbed all the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_(word_formation)

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#227

Post by ArkyBeagle »

pc86 wrote: post #170
ArkyBeagle wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very effective sleight of hand. The cherry on top is 2-day delivery being prepaid. I wouldn't have paid for 2-day otherwise. They "fixed" that for me. The whole thing makes going to a brick and mortar store feel like going to the DMV.

With the exception that if you drive to store and back home for a single item, you'll have the item inside of an hour. If you live close, inside of 15 minutes? When I know I will need batteries in a week, I'll buy a box on Amazon and get it in a few days. If I need batteries now, I'll have them within an hour. It's certainly not "like going to the DMV."

Relative to not having go it feels like going to the DMV.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#228

Post by backtoyoujim »

pmontra wrote: post #142
shuri wrote: post #3

You have to love this sentence "We want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member."

I recently took advantage of Prime but I don't buy from them often enough, not even every year. I cancelled before the 30 days free trial expired. If they somewhat manage to get me buy stuff on Amazon often, I'll be back.

Ah ... Prime. The only place you can get "free two-day shipping" that takes 6 days.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#229

Post by mywittyname »

sbank wrote: post #85
MichaelGG wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cancelled it because Amazon's abusing their position. Refusing to sell Chromecast and Apple TV, then lying, repeatedly, about the reason when asked? I've been an Amazon customer for 13 years. I was rather annoyed to see them go with the anti-Wikileaks and try to be "sensitive" by banning certain cultural items. But this shows they've zero commitment to selling products customers want. Edit: And it really hurts. Som…

Maybe you don't like it, and you are fully within your rights to cancel, but it is not abuse. They can or should be able to carry whatever products they damn well please.

Amazon is big enough that they could be seen as abusing their power as the largest online retailer to suppress competitors in other markets. These are products that consumers would reasonably expect Amazon to carry, but they don't because it competes with Amazon's other businesses.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#230

Post by kevando »

preordained wrote: post #101

I work at a small software company, and too often our CEO and company will latch onto nuggets from material like this and use it to justify a "swing for the fences", "nothing ventured nothing gained" sort of mindset. All well and good, but they blithely overlook the "we fail all the time" parts, and sometimes we take risks where the potential losses are not easy to absorb, or we don't have the vast resources of a big…

Do you understand why your CEO swings for the fences? It sounds like the mindset isn't what bothers you, it's why she swings for the fences.
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