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Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

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Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#91

Post by unabridged »

Waterluvian wrote: post #21
wonder_bread wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s amazing to watch all this happen on the consumer end but how many more industries can they really do this to? Is Bezos not essentially setting up his successor for failure by turning Amazon into a conglomerate with razor margins in so many areas?

This is the thing that I don't understand about the big companies like Google, Apple, Amazon. What's the endgame? Do you just keep going until you accidentally implode? It's not like there is a finish line they can cross to "win the game". It just goes on forever until something implodes.

The finish line is full automation. There isn't some breakthrough that's going to happen overnight, you are watching it be created in slow motion by Amazon & Walmart. They are slowly working out every issue in their supply chain until its perfect. Once they finish society gets to move on to its next phase.

Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#92

Post by exelius »

legitster wrote: post #80
exelius wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medicine cannot be managed by capitalism. Elements of the industry can, but the basic elements of care giving and treatment basically amount to “pay me or die”. The moral hazard in withholding care from some to be able to raise prices on others is too great. Capitalism is great when the incentives line up without creating moral hazard; which they do in a lot of areas. But we as a society can have different priorities…

But you could say the same about food. "Pay me, or starve". But in their greed, food makers have made food cheap.

That’s because food is easy to grow. Stone Age people seem to have figured it out. Medicine is much harder..

Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#93

Post by 97s »

vthallam wrote: post #34

Apparently better for consumers in general now that there's more competition. One Industry I really really want them to enter is Consumer Airlines. Service in most airlines sucks, like big time. Can't wait for Amazon Airlines with Prime Video and Internet available for all. But of course I know that's a distant dream unless the Prime Air works great.

I can't wait for Amazon Healthcare. I don't fly much, but I feel your woes. Last time I did I swore I wouldn't do it again unless it was the only way to get there.

Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#94

Post by Shivetya »

refurb wrote: post #2

This is going to be interesting. Drug wholesaling is a tough business with razor thin margins. Wholesalers don't make much off of branded drugs because the big drug companies have most of the negotiating power. It's not unusual for their cut to be in the tens of basis points. They make the most money off of generic drugs and often use arbitrage as a revenue source when price increases happen. Price increases for gene…

hey, if they could deliver as an add on item I would be happy. still with the the number of grocery and similar around me offering many common medicines for nothing I have done surprisingly well.

if it can be delivered, managed without quick degradation of quality, then it probably can be fit into Amazon's distribution system

Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#95

Post by gotrecruit »

Waterluvian wrote: post #21
wonder_bread wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s amazing to watch all this happen on the consumer end but how many more industries can they really do this to? Is Bezos not essentially setting up his successor for failure by turning Amazon into a conglomerate with razor margins in so many areas?

This is the thing that I don't understand about the big companies like Google, Apple, Amazon. What's the endgame? Do you just keep going until you accidentally implode? It's not like there is a finish line they can cross to "win the game". It just goes on forever until something implodes.

i think the theory is that Amazon's ultimate goal is to dominate all of commerce in its entirety, which is obviously impossible. However, if you consider that as the end goal, Amazon is really far from achieving it. And as long as Amazon can continue to build parts of this impossible machine in a way that does not deteriorate the system (i.e cause major losses that hold back the company), the value of the system will keep going up as the Amazon machine consumes more and more of the world's commercial activities. Since it's practically impossible to achieve that end goal, within any reasonable number of lifetimes, bezos's and amazon's wealth is unlikely to decline without government intervention.

Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#96

Post by exelius »

mseebach wrote: post #87
exelius wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airlines suck because it’s an undifferentiated service. Consumers aren’t willing to pay much extra for better service, and the lowest ticket price wins. It’s a race to the bottom on price, so features and comfort get cut in exchange for cost savings. It’s basically a commodity industry with high capital requirements and high volatility in marginal costs. There’s a reason that most airlines globally are subsidized by…

> [...] undifferentiated service [...] basically a commodity industry That's pretty much Amazon's sweet spot.

I don't see them getting into passenger travel; the quickest way to trash your brand is to be a telecom or an airline. Low margin, undifferentiated services that consumers need, but require high capital investments... your investors will push you to grow per-seat revenue, and your customers will punish you for it (or vice versa).

Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#97

Post by billmalarky »

oh_sigh wrote: post #26
billmalarky wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah razor thin margins is barrier to entry that amazon sees as an opportunity not a threat.

Not exactly - Amazon has traditionally entered spaces with...not exactly razor thing margins, but margins with some wiggle room. Even their grocery play was on 'higher end' groceries and not a razor thin market like Acme/Shop Rite/Kroegers.

They then proceed to wrench out that wiggle room to drive out the established players and create an impossible barrier to entry.

Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#98

Post by Spooky23 »

exelius wrote: post #68
vthallam wrote: post #34

Apparently better for consumers in general now that there's more competition. One Industry I really really want them to enter is Consumer Airlines. Service in most airlines sucks, like big time. Can't wait for Amazon Airlines with Prime Video and Internet available for all. But of course I know that's a distant dream unless the Prime Air works great.

Airlines suck because it’s an undifferentiated service. Consumers aren’t willing to pay much extra for better service, and the lowest ticket price wins. It’s a race to the bottom on price, so features and comfort get cut in exchange for cost savings. It’s basically a commodity industry with high capital requirements and high volatility in marginal costs. There’s a reason that most airlines globally are subsidized by…

No it sucks because gates are the finite resource in airlines, and deregulation combined with the government’s current view on anti-trust made it possible to monopolize the gates.

Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#99

Post by zodiac »

kgwgk wrote: post #36
bm1362 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It literally just (1) keeps printing money for investors and (2) keep some people employed. Ambitious people will take the mantle every 15-20 years and do more of 1 and 2 until they make a mistake. The goal of a successful company is basically serving those two sets of people, Google may enter the retail market or real estate, or McDonalds will take over Cloud Computing -- they're all just trying to get a consistent…

> keeps printing money for investors Amazon doesn't give money to investors. Late investors give money to early investors. (Edit: Amazon has bought back some shares in the past, but that's far from even offsetting all the shares given away to employees...)

> Amazon doesn't give money to investors.

You mean "Amazon hasn't given (much) money to investors so far". It's an important distinction, whether you agree with their argument or not.

Re: Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states

#100

Post by echosmith »

vthallam wrote: post #34

Apparently better for consumers in general now that there's more competition. One Industry I really really want them to enter is Consumer Airlines. Service in most airlines sucks, like big time. Can't wait for Amazon Airlines with Prime Video and Internet available for all. But of course I know that's a distant dream unless the Prime Air works great.

I wanted Amazon to remake car rental after standing in line at a car rental place for 1.5 hours in for a Convertible I'd booked to go to Coachella, and then being told that they'd given it away to the people right in front of us because we were 'late' (WTF we were in line for 1.5 hours).

Fuck car rental companies.

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