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How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

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Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#251

Post by sureshv »

jrabone wrote: post #229
sureshv wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Q1 2012 Amazon had $13B in revenue and basically broke even, Costco had $23B in revenue, and Walmart has $113B. Where are you getting your financials from?

And Amazon's revenue is growing 33% YoY. Costco is 8%. Wallmart is 8.5%. See where this is going?

While making very little profit; that's not infinitely sustainable in retail where margins approach nothing. Amazon 2012 profit was $650M, Costco $1.4B, and Walmart $16B. If Walmart decided to go zero profit they could drive out a lot of competition and get a visit from the DOJ...

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#252

Post by ams6110 »

wilki wrote: post #193

I do wonder how much online retailers have saved by not dealing with shoplifting and the overhead involved with a fleet of loss-prevention employees.

I'm quite sure any warehouse operator will tell you that there is still a problem with theft.

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#253

Post by jbattle »

sigkill wrote: post #223
dclowd9901 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say it was "bad". Women's shoes are designed with fashion and daintiness in mind. They seem flimsy because they are flimsy, and they are flimsy because well crafted, long lasting shoes are big and burly with lots of material and stitching. This goes counter to the point of the shoes: to look trim and to make the woman's foot look small and pretty.

This maybe a bit impractical by todays social norms but I don't think anyone has ever thought of carbon-fibre footwear combined with leather cushions. I'm reasonably sure that this will be light and strong. We only need comfort testing, but I think the flip-side would be that womens shoes would cost upward of $200-$300 equivalent. I don't know if there's a market for that.

I would think when you are spending ++$ to look fashionable, you really don't want the shoes to last. Wearing three year old 'fashionable' shoes would sort miss the point, no?

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#254

Post by GFischer »

cglace wrote: post #246
GFischer wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an idea for a side project/startup tackling that problem. What's your main problem? Finding out how it would look on you? How it feels/quality? What are the suggestions and opinions you look for? Thanks :)

All of the above are problems. Huge problem is fit. Especially pants. So many things can go wrong. Too tight in the thighs, pants run short, pants are tighter than usual in the hips, weird fit in the butt, etc. . . Feel/quality is a big one for me personally because I have some hangups with textures. If something has a certain feel it makes my skin crawl. As for suggestions and opinions, I'm usually looking for advic…

It does :) . Thank you ! As soon as I have an MVP I'll post it here on Hacker News :) .

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#255

Post by rabidsnail »

JackC wrote: post #240
rabidsnail wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It must be better than the alternative or they wouldn't be working there.

You seem to be saying that as a defense of Amazon's treatment of warehouse workers. It's not. Read the Mother Jones article linked above. When people are working in terrible conditions, and they believe those conditions are better than the alternative, that is not a good thing. It's heartrending. I say this as someone who hates shopping in retail stores and can't wait to buy everything on Amazon. But the unseen and u…

My point isn't that conditions are good, just that the alternative must be worse. By not shopping at Amazon you're taking the warehouse jobs away from those people and pushing them to whatever that worse alternative is. "Chemotherapy makes me sick, so I'll die of cancer instead".

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#256

Post by muyuu »

CitizenKane wrote: post #171

This is already happening in China. Because of the nature of shipping companies here it's not unusual to buy a product (typically off of http://taobao.com ) and get it later that day or the next day. Many of these businesses are based in Shanghai and if you live there delivery happens nearly instantly. One online shop, http://cheers-in.com/ delivers cold beer in Shanghai in 1 - 2 hours from an order. Stuff like this…

That's really impressive.

For people like me who hate the process of shopping, and don't want to be cornered by salespeople in brick-and-mortar stores, it sounds like heaven.

With this and Japanese-style vending machines all over the place, I can get away with almost 0 human interaction with strangers. :P

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#257

Post by msutherl »

msutherl wrote: post #176
CitizenKane wrote: post #171

This is already happening in China. Because of the nature of shipping companies here it's not unusual to buy a product (typically off of http://taobao.com ) and get it later that day or the next day. Many of these businesses are based in Shanghai and if you live there delivery happens nearly instantly. One online shop, http://cheers-in.com/ delivers cold beer in Shanghai in 1 - 2 hours from an order. Stuff like this…

Great for consumers like us, but terrible for all of the people who work ridiculous hours under constant stress on warehouse floors or do deliveries day in and day out. I try to buy from brick & mortar shops purely because running a shop is a job that has a shred of dignity left in it.

Most comments on my post are supportive, for instance this one:

"You seem to be saying that as a defense of Amazon's treatment of warehouse workers. It's not. Read the Mother Jones article linked above [...] the unseen and unregulated treatment of the hidden workers who make our amazing lives possible is a huge, unsolved problem in the world."

But I'm getting down-voted. Do people seriously think that supporting mass mistreatment of workers is o.k.? I'm sorry, but automating factory floors is not inexpensive enough to happen on a mass scale yet, which means that consumer pressure for faster shipping = inhumane working conditions for the people who pack the boxes. This is a legitimate dilemma and I meant only to point out that out.

Yes, it's better than the alternative for the people working, since they're working there after all. But that doesn't make it o.k.

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#258

Post by GFischer »

ippisl wrote: post #69
Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #42

There are a few fundamental, hard problems : energy and transportation. Amazon is trying to solve a subset of the latter here. However, I like to see/feel some things in person before buying. I often go through lot of items before finding "the one". Examples: food, pens, shoes. It would revolutionize the industry if Amazon could solve that. Until then, it's just a really large online store. Also - USA isn't the world…

I think amazon is concentrating on the clear and really hard pieces of eCommerce: warehouses everywhere, robotics, pack stations and leaves the fuzzy and less hard pieces to start-ups. So now for example there are many start-ups working on the clothes and shoes fitting problem. In the future when the solution will be found , amazon would buy them , or just use their eCommerce muscle to force them into good terms or j…

Do you have some examples of startups working on the clothes and shoes fitting problem? (I have an idea about that, which I hope to turn into an MVP)

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#259

Post by parka »

I hope this applies to international shipping as well.

I buy stuff regularly from Amazon and their prices are even cheaper than what my country's local stores are offering after shipping included. E.g. A book from Amazon cost ~30% cheaper than the shops here in Singapore.

Re: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail

#260

Post by highfreq »

smallblacksun wrote: post #155
ww520 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Texas would have collected double taxes in the form of use tax from its resident and the sales tax from Amazon.

No one actually pays use taxes.

My businesses do. Since we have to keep all the records for the Feds. Here in Washington it is nice to have Amazon collecting the sales tax. It leaves less use tax paper work for us.
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