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Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

businessinsider.com

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Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#221

Post by james_s_tayler »

Retric wrote: post #190
MattGaiser wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If true, Amazon is selling a service that isn't robust or flexible enough for such a season. Nobody in that area is robust enough for a once in a century pandemic.

This is still far smaller than other pandemics in the last 100 years. The 1957 "Asian flu" had around 1–4 million dead. AIDS is sitting around 770,000 dead per year and the total is vastly higher etc. What makes things different about COVID-19 is how people are responding to it in the hope of saving vast numbers of lives.

Given R0 is around 4 and mortality rate is some single digit percentage, left unchecked this pandemic is bigger than those.

The only recourse we have to reduce R is stay the hell away from each other. No business really plans on that.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#222

Post by vwcx »

iagovar wrote: post #27
WhyKill wrote: post #13

Amazon sucks now. I can't buy most of the specific items I use in my work, and when I do find something it's swimming in a sea of clone crap. The best thing it does still is books. Anything else is a mizxed bag. AMZ is just Ali Baba for people who can't wait for the ship.

This. I used to read this comments and think it only applied to the US. Also happening to Spain. Amazon has become useless. Rankings are weird, quality stuff is is very hard to find and I have to resort to forums that point to Amazon links that you cannot find using Amazon search. Also, I'm more and more attracted to specialized shops again. For example for the last two years I've been buying most electronic stuff fr…

With all the Amazon clones/fake/crap, I've found that eBay is quickly filling my needs. I used to overlook eBay because the same problems Amazon now has, but I'm finding eBay an easier platform to weed out the fakes...and things tend to ship quicker.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#223

Post by WaltPurvis »

shuckles wrote: post #152
WaltPurvis wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with the CARES act, Amazon employees can't just quit their jobs and choose to collect unemployment instead. People who quit their jobs aren't eligible for unemployment. There are a few exceptions under the CARES act if you can't work because of something directly related to COVID, e.g., if you're a parent who has to take care of children because schools are closed. Being afraid you might catch the coronavirus at…

Parents with kids in school sounds like a large chunk of the workforce, no?

Perhaps, but I don't know anything about the makeup of Amazon's distribution workforce.

Even among parents, I doubt that all of them would leap at the "opportunity" to quit their job just so they can take home slightly more money for a period of four months (which is all the CARES act covers). Surely most people must realize jobs are going to be extremely scarce four months from now, so if you have a job right now you probably should think very hard before throwing it away.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#224

Post by SerLava »

crazygringo wrote: post #30
coder1001 wrote: post #25

Is this a good or bad sign? What problems exist that only the founder can solve and require his involvement? or is that just what he wants to do?

It's a good sign. In cases of normal business operation, normal corporate management, delegation, and accountability techniques generally work quite well. Decisions are extensively researched and weighed before being taken. Doing things right, not quickly, is the goal here. In times of urgent emergency, normal management techniques fail because they can't respond quickly enough. Not because they're inferior, but beca…

It could be a good thing for Amazon at this moment, due to the reasons you listed, or it could indicate unknown issues.

And from the descriptions of Bezos I've heard, he can be an obsessive micromanager type, flying down to make super low-level decisions for some random warehouse when he gets set off by some mistake. Having worked under a CEO like that, I can imagine Bezos suddenly steamrolling some important internal processes out of some mix of passion and narcissism, driving even more damage.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#225

Post by nerdbaggy »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #207
ethagknight wrote: post #109

My theory: Prime, and its 2-day shipping service, is a flat rate deal, priced according to 10.5 normal months and 1.5 batshit crazy delivery months. Since they can't charge on a demand basis for shipping like FedEx can, they've run into an internal train wreck where they can't afford to deliver all the orders the've received. So their bottleneck is actually a bottleneck of budgeted "delivery slots" for these Spring m…

I 100% agree with this. In a matter of 4 days, Amazon went from next day shipping to 1+ month "estimated" delivery timeframes. This was the final straw for me to finally commit to finding items from non-Amazon sources. So far everything I've ordered has come in a reasonable timeframe. Possibly, taking one day longer, but not 15x longer. I ordered an air conditioner that showed up 2 days later with free shipping. Yet,…

I was in the same situation with a thermometer. I even had to buy one on eBay, and it was junk. I’m not endorsing this but I ended up getting one of these since it would be delivered in a few days https://ihealthlabs.com/product/PT3

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#226

Post by lallysingh »

Retric wrote: post #190
MattGaiser wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If true, Amazon is selling a service that isn't robust or flexible enough for such a season. Nobody in that area is robust enough for a once in a century pandemic.

This is still far smaller than other pandemics in the last 100 years. The 1957 "Asian flu" had around 1–4 million dead. AIDS is sitting around 770,000 dead per year and the total is vastly higher etc. What makes things different about COVID-19 is how people are responding to it in the hope of saving vast numbers of lives.

How well did Internet stores deliver during them?

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#227

Post by aianus »

WaltPurvis wrote: post #143
emmp wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In normal times, true. However unemployment insurance has been significantly boosted by the CARES act during the pandemic

Even with the CARES act, Amazon employees can't just quit their jobs and choose to collect unemployment instead. People who quit their jobs aren't eligible for unemployment. There are a few exceptions under the CARES act if you can't work because of something directly related to COVID, e.g., if you're a parent who has to take care of children because schools are closed. Being afraid you might catch the coronavirus at…

> Amazon employees can't just quit their jobs and choose to collect unemployment instead

You're right, they can't.

However, the 26 million Americans who have been laid off from other jobs have negative incentive to sign up for a new job with Amazon because the benefits are tied to staying unemployed. That exacerbates the problem for Amazon.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#228

Post by mindcrime »

eatbitseveryday wrote: post #156
ethagknight wrote: post #109

My theory: Prime, and its 2-day shipping service, is a flat rate deal, priced according to 10.5 normal months and 1.5 batshit crazy delivery months. Since they can't charge on a demand basis for shipping like FedEx can, they've run into an internal train wreck where they can't afford to deliver all the orders the've received. So their bottleneck is actually a bottleneck of budgeted "delivery slots" for these Spring m…

Around where I live (suburbs in Oregon/USA), the Amazon delivery vans have been making passes multiple times a day for the past few weeks.

Same here (Chapel Hill, NC) - I routinely get multiple Prime deliveries per day. And I see Prime vans running around everywhere.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#229

Post by dublinben »

joyj2nd wrote: post #125
viburnum wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon used to protect books for shipment, sealing them in plastic with a piece of carboard so the book couldn’t move. Now they just shove it in an envelope. Almost all books are delivered with at least minor damage. You’re better off buying a used book.

I buy always used if I have the option. I was actually sad when Amazon bough Abebooks.com I think this should not have been allowed due to monopoly rights.

Alibris.com is an independent book marketplace like Abebooks. You may recognize some of the bigger vendors on there.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#230

Post by Waterluvian »

2almalki wrote: post #168
jefft255 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can second that for Canada; I've ordered at least 4-5 non-essential items in the last month and only one took more than 3-4 days to arrive.

tldr.. get a PRIME account I'm in Canada.. you're right BUT you need a prime account. I ordered some stuff and it was due to come in a month (non prime account).. and after 1.5 weeks it didn't ship. I canceled it and used a family members Prime account (still the delivery date was ~1 month away).. I got the stuff within 3 days.

My Canadian prime account seems to be having no effect. Home cooking appliances not showing up.

Tomorrow I'm cancelling them and cancelling prime renewal. We started using Walmart and curbside delivery and its great.

I feel like covid will stress test existing "curbside pickup" systems and force them to become robust. Where before employees weren't well trained or didn't care, now they're well practiced.

Walmart, Homeless Despot, Zehrs, and Canadian Tire curbside have all been well oiled machines this month.

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