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FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

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Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#781

Post by kiney »

ihaveajob wrote: post #82

In my opinion, Amazon needs to be split into at least 4 independent entities: - Online marketplace - Consumer products - Internet infrastructure - Delivery logistics Similar to the three-tier distribution system for beer in most states (a brewer cannot be a wholesaler or a retailer). This makes it easier for smaller players can compete with the big ones on quality at least, if not price or recognition. (Edit: format)

As someone living in germany: We don't have a three tier system. But we have literally thousands of breweries selling better beer at waaay lower prices than in the US. So your three tier systems sucks...

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#782

Post by [deleted] »

ameister14 wrote: post #654
lvl102 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And my point, as someone who’s worked in antitrust field for over a decade, is that Amazon is a company that does the least to exert monopoly power out of all the big tech companies. In fact, they do so little that I think they are being stupid.

That's not a really good point. "They're bad, but they aren't as bad as those other guys. In fact, I think they are stupid for not being worse."

[deleted]

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#783

Post by resuresu »

mrraj wrote: post #444
jollofricepeas wrote: post #52

FBA seller here. A lot of mom and pop businesses (~$20 million) have been built on Amazon over the past 10 years. Most of us are in the $250k to $5 million dollar range. The impact of Amazon’s monopoly power is felt big time by us as we’re being squeezed with no place left to go online especially post-iOS change. Our second option used to be the Facebook/Instagram/TikTok to Shopify connection but with that being dead…

From the Bloomberg article : "Chuck Gregorich, who sells fire pits and outdoor furniture, says turning a profit on Amazon is getting harder. One of his popular fire pits costs $200, of which Amazon takes $112 for its commission, warehouse storage, delivery and advertising. That leaves him with $88 to pay the manufacturer, ship the product in from China and cover his overhead." I have a hard time sympathizing here. Th…

Human labor has little value in the age of chatgpt and onlyfans. Did you know there are teenage girls selling bottles of their dirty bathwater for more money than the average blue collar worker makes in a month. As time goes on, its starting to look like this whole free market thing isnt such a good idea anymore.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#784

Post by ctvo »

whiddershins wrote: post #508

I don’t understand this point: >>> For example, if Amazon discovers that a seller is offering lower-priced goods elsewhere, Amazon can bury discounting sellers so far down in Amazon’s search results that they become effectively invisible. >>> This means if Amazon sees a lower price elsewhere they effectively make the product unavailable on their site? Or is it more complicated than that. On the face of it, while I am…

Amazon has a “buy box” where users can see the default seller for an item and quickly add it to their cart or buy it now. This is prime real estate as most customers won’t think twice about adding the default, pre selected option.

I believe the way it works is as a seller you’re no longer eligible for the buy box if your item is found to be sold cheaper elsewhere.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#785

Post by ctvo »

kiklion wrote: post #330
enriquec wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. I find it hard to argue against something like generics - since they increase access and lower price.

There’s nothing wrong with genetics and nothing wrong with stores having their own brand. We just need regulations to ensure that vertical companies are engaging in arms length transactions. If Walmart charges a company $10 per linear foot of shelf space on the third row, then they need to internally bill the generic brand division the same rate.

So the goal is … create paperwork? Walmart internally bills itself the same price … and they pay themselves the money does what exactly?

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#786

Post by jollofricepeas »

iancmceachern wrote: post #713
jollofricepeas wrote: post #52

FBA seller here. A lot of mom and pop businesses (~$20 million) have been built on Amazon over the past 10 years. Most of us are in the $250k to $5 million dollar range. The impact of Amazon’s monopoly power is felt big time by us as we’re being squeezed with no place left to go online especially post-iOS change. Our second option used to be the Facebook/Instagram/TikTok to Shopify connection but with that being dead…

>A lot of mom and pop businesses (~$20 million) have been built on Amazon over the past 10 years. Most of us are in the $250k to $5 million dollar range. It's interesting, Amazon also put a lot of mom and pop businesses out of business during this time period as well. The overhead that used to go to local commercial property owners, independent trucking and warehousing companies and such now all goes to Amazon. It's…

Selling anything in America is incredibly difficult even when you make design and or manufacture your own products.

Amazon controls the connection to the customer.

Walmart/Family Dollar control pricing.

Stamps.com controls independent shipping/stamps.

Stripe and the major card companies take a chunk of fees for credit card transactions.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#787

Post by xphilter »

newsclues wrote: post #487
BowBun wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make a good point, but I think the parent point is true as well. You still have people actually producing work, unable to compete on these platforms where Amazon will literally make a copy of their product at a lower price. This is the result of commoditizing 'starting a business' to the point of near-worthlessness in the bottom 50%+. Like you say, I don't value the businesses that simply re-sell re-labeled produ…

"This is the result of commoditizing 'starting a business' to the point of near-worthlessness in the bottom 50%+." Is this not just a market effect of saturating the market with competition because suddenly running a business is comparatively easy (communications technology, platforms and existing logistics and production networks) to any other era. I can probably start a company drop shipping crap on Amazon in a sho…

Running a business being easy is limited to these low-value drop-ship businesses. Running an actual business is hard. What they’re doing is just arbitrage: buying in bulk from Ali Baba and selling individually on Amazon. No value would be lost if these companies went away. Compare that to a bookstore or cafe being closed in your town.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#788

Post by jollofricepeas »

notyourwork wrote: post #475
BowBun wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make a good point, but I think the parent point is true as well. You still have people actually producing work, unable to compete on these platforms where Amazon will literally make a copy of their product at a lower price. This is the result of commoditizing 'starting a business' to the point of near-worthlessness in the bottom 50%+. Like you say, I don't value the businesses that simply re-sell re-labeled produ…

Is drop shopping the kind of business to fight for supporting? That’s all this is.

Whoa buddy.

That’s a hell of an assumption.

1. Manufacturing does not happen in America anymore.

2. The proliferation of counterfeiters does not allow dropshippers to scale to a meaningful size. Everyone is game to Alibaba.

Within our industry of paper goods, our manufacturers have to get their parts and raw materials from overseas.

The larger FBA mom and pops will design and market their products here in the US using American workers and have them manufactured overseas completely or in-part.

The impact of Amazon’s monopoly power on American online product businesses is less jobs that pay well.

- Less accounting and bookkeeping jobs

- less marketing jobs

- less design jobs

- less seller fulfilled packing and logistics jobs

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#789

Post by jkestner »

meetingthrower wrote: post #613
thghtihadanacct wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude needs to learn how to weld his own fire pits, teach some new employees, rinse repeat

Yeah all for < $200 shipped!

Dude needs to educate an audience on why they should buy a domestically built $400 fire pit.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#790

Post by tylergetsay »

unclebucknasty wrote: post #678
somsak2 wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this person did 100% of the leg work of getting that sale. That sale doesn't exists without them. I don't really see it that way. The sale wouldn't exist without anyone in the pipeline (Amazon, manufacturer in China, shipping merchant, etc.)

> The sale wouldn't exist without anyone in the pipeline (Amazon, manufacturer in China, shipping merchant, etc.) I think it's actually worse than that. The merchant is the only party that is not needed. In fact, calling a lot of these folks "merchants" at this point is probably a little too generous. Amazon is the merchant. Many of these other guys are sourcing and marketing "partners" for Amazon and the manufacture…

Yes -- They even ship the products directly from China to Amazon, who handles all the logistics of importing.

https://www.sellerapp.com/blog/how-to-get-your-shipments-fro...

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