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The Anti-Amazon Alliance

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Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#161

Post by uoaei »

theptip wrote: post #131
zbobet2012 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your points, but I've also found another one that is far more common: They sell products at a loss to gain income in other places. For example, if you are a content producer you are competing with a company that sells "ad-free" video (Prime Video) attached to a low-cost service (Prime) so that they can sell more goods online. Amazon is killing content producers by running a negative margin content busine…

> That is a strategy only available to... monopolies. I don't think this is the case. The strategy is called a "loss leader", and it's a very common business strategy. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lossleader.asp > Loss leading can be a successful strategy if executed properly. A classic example is razor blades. Gillette, for example, gives their razor units away for free knowing that customers must buy their…

The "loss leader" behavior, in typical and non-monopolistic circumstances, does not typically last the whole year without interruption and is only performed during periods of intense consumerism such as Black Friday.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#162

Post by MattGaiser »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #126
MattGaiser wrote: post #93

Most non-Amazon businesses are mediocre. Most grocery stores still don't have online ordering. Years, and years, and years, after Amazon entered the field, the other grocers have just decided to lie down and die. Still waiting for Chapters (a bookstore in Canada) to start sending me reading good reading recommendations. Still waiting on VISA to make generalized gift cards which are not miserable to use. I'm trying to…

> Still waiting for Chapters (a bookstore in Canada) to start sending me reading good reading recommendations. Why do you need the store to recommend to you what to buy from them next? Obviously the store is only going to recommend content which maximally increases its profits, regardless of whether that content is worth your time or really in tune with your most passionate interests. Buying the book from a shop is a…

I view it like browsing in a store. Sure I can go to the Django community and find books on that there (and I do), but Amazon recently recommended me a book on Microservices. They had been off my radar for a while, but I purchased it for later.

It is about uncovering things that are of value, but that I might not think of immediately.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#163

Post by uoaei »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #159
rhizome wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing to recognize (or at least something I feel is under-recognized) is that Capitalism prefers monopolies or monopsonies, whichever the case may be. Capitalism talks a big game about the benefits of competition, but history tell us that it is actually their enemy. It reminds me of a Big Lie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

This is precisely why we need capitalism as well as strong, enforced antitrust laws.

GP does nothing to justify or address why we "need" capitalism...

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#164

Post by Loughla »

zbobet2012 wrote: post #11
softwaredoug wrote: post #4

As a consultant, I see companies struggling to compete with Amazon (or Amazon-like companies). Most companies struggle for a couple of reasons - They are ego driven, with legacy execs & others relentlessly protecting their status - whereas Amazon is relentlessly data-driven - They have poor incentive structures and are feature factories. They value velocity over outcomes. Amazon, by being more data driven, is focused…

I agree with your points, but I've also found another one that is far more common: They sell products at a loss to gain income in other places. For example, if you are a content producer you are competing with a company that sells "ad-free" video (Prime Video) attached to a low-cost service (Prime) so that they can sell more goods online. Amazon is killing content producers by running a negative margin content busine…

>That is a strategy only available to... monopolies.

Wait. And this is 100% not meant to be snide, it's a real question.

Isn't that the actual strategy for tech startups? Work with investor capital long enough to get established and own the market by selling at negative margins, then increase the price once you own the market?

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#165

Post by uoaei »

spaced-out wrote: post #57
polskibus wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

don't forget they are also cannibalizing sellers that use their own platform by launching cheaper competition - Amazon basics etc.

All the large retailers have their own store brand. Grocery stores like Safeway have a bunch (Lucerne, Open Nature, Safeway Select).

Large retailers can't push competitors' products to the back of the shelf to leave their cheaper alternatives in prominent display. This is basically what Amazon does once they develop a Basics product -- push it to the top of your search results, leaving the original producers down at the bottom.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#166

Post by uoaei »

scarface74 wrote: post #105
woodgrainz wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The large retailers are not monopolies though. Some would argue Amazon is, and therefore must be treated differently.

Last time I checked, Amazon doesn’t have a monopoly on servers, payment systems and shipping...

And what qualifies as a "monopoly" to you?

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#167

Post by mc32 »

softwaredoug wrote: post #4

As a consultant, I see companies struggling to compete with Amazon (or Amazon-like companies). Most companies struggle for a couple of reasons - They are ego driven, with legacy execs & others relentlessly protecting their status - whereas Amazon is relentlessly data-driven - They have poor incentive structures and are feature factories. They value velocity over outcomes. Amazon, by being more data driven, is focused…

That’s all good; when are they going to take issue with fakes, knockoffs product/review swapping and so on, which, being a data-driven company, they could execute if they wanted to?

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#168

Post by wpietri »

thoraway1010 wrote: post #53
wpietri wrote: post #5

I know Google's doing this for their own reasons, but I'll take the help. I've been an Amazon customer since 1997, but their recent anti-worker actions [1] were the straw [2] that broke the camel's back. I canceled my Prime account, and have decided to start my product search elsewhere. Google's product search has been long neglected, so it's great they're giving it some love. [1] E.g. from many: https://www.nbcnews.…

Where are you starting your product search? For everyone claiming they have found the better amazon, the more ethical amazon they never seem to be actually willing to NAME these great places so others can use them - if you are going legitimately would be great to get the name of these product search starting points. And I've tried google's shopping - blah. If that's your starting point we are going to be with amazon…

Sure, I don't expect the change to happen overnight. My switch to getting most ecommerce from Amazon was slow. If the switch away takes that long, I'll live with it. But I'm definitely starting now.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#169

Post by dllthomas »

tracer4201 wrote: post #69
dllthomas wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A contract killer is also responding to market forces. Sometimes people are willing to pay for things we don't want to allow them, and we judge (and punish) the people who provide them. I'm not taking a position on monstrosity, or lack there of, but the reasoning provided seems flawed.

Are you saying Amazons business model is comparable to someone who murders people for a living? Lol what?

Is your comment motivated by actual confusion, misguided rhetorical posturing, or trolling? If the first, I'm happy to walk you through the reasoning should camelite's comment prove insufficient.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#170

Post by nabeards »

poxrud wrote: post #67
zbobet2012 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your points, but I've also found another one that is far more common: They sell products at a loss to gain income in other places. For example, if you are a content producer you are competing with a company that sells "ad-free" video (Prime Video) attached to a low-cost service (Prime) so that they can sell more goods online. Amazon is killing content producers by running a negative margin content busine…

>>Amazon is killing video encoding business by selling a negative margin video encoder to sell through AWS compute. What product are you referring to? I'm in this industry and based on my experience their video encoding+storage+streaming offerings are actually higher priced than their competitors. The reason their services are popular is the integration with the rest of AWS (which is true for most of their offerings)…

Just curious: what are using instead? I use a homegrown solution, at least 3 orders of magnitude cheaper than anything I’ve found.
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