261–270 of 297 posts
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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. [0]: https://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=AMZN+Key+Statistics
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The fee is getting paid somehow - either by you up front, as a subscription, or for "free" built into the cost of the item.
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.
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I know a ton of people like this. 70% of the people I know didn't stay at Amazon past 4 years.
If you don't work at Amazon, there's a pretty big sampling bias in your data. (You are wildly more likely to work with someone who has left Amazon than someone who has happily stayed there, and in casual interactions, you're more likely to hear from the strongly disgruntled than the happy. In the same way, current Amazon workers are likely to know a higher than average percentage of long-tenured and happy Amazon empl…
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I was done after a year and a half. Owed them for moving expenses, etc. but I really didn't care. I spent 6 months doing nothing before I even considered getting another job. Easily the worst experience in my life and completely colored my entire impression of the tech industry negatively. I went from loving what I did to just doing this as a job for a paycheck (even at another company now that is leaps and bounds "b…
Which office was this?
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They don't pay as well as most companies in Seattle, unless you're only looking at tiny companies or something. Maybe the new hire offer is market rate, but at 1+ years you are definitely going to be paid more anywhere else. Amazon's job levels are also structured to have higher requirements and lower pay than equivalent positions elsewhere.
Amazon's job levels outpace others fairly quickly I've found. If I were to ask for my salary at Google or FB, I'd probably get laughed out the door. You start lower, but if you work at it, you'll surpass what you'd be paid elsewhere. Benefits however is another story...
You might be surprised if you were to actually have that conversation with a competitor.
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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!
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For me amazon just seems like a bad deal compensation wise compared to other BigCos like facebook, google, apple, msft . Back loaded stock grants, lower pay, etc. Then add a high pressure big-company culture on top of that. I'll be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong!
The thing that I like about working at Amazon is that they don't push the "Kool-Aid" culture that I sense from Facebook, Google, and Apple. I come to work, I feel proud of what I've done, I go home. That is it. That is what I want out of a job. I don't want to be a "Googler," or be told that I'm "changing the world" as I deploy a new sticker pack of poop emojis to Messenger. I want a job, not a cult.
Think about this next time you have a conversation where everyone quotes the leadership principles.
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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.
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> Buying with Prime is a pain in the ass, since half the stuff they sell isn't eligible. From what I can see, Amazon sells very little that isn't Prime eligible. There are lots of "Marketplace" offerings that aren't Prime eligible, but you can filter those out by clicking the "Prime" checkbox that pops up on the left whenever you're in a search or category view.
From the user's (i.e. my) perspective, "Marketplace" offerings are still things that Amazon sells. The "Prime" checkbox doesn't work well. It doesn't filter out add-on items (which can be removed with another checkbox), and it doesn't do a very good job of only showing me Prime items. Searching for hard drives, just as a random example, I get results where the primary seller isn't Prime, and the Prime option is eithe…
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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…
I went to the site. They popped up a window that asked for my email address and there was no way to dismiss this without giving it something. I closed the tab.