Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

Post by shalbert » Fri, Dec 19, 2014, 12:53 AM UTC

saosebastiao wrote: post #39

bengali3 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>make a worthwhile margin of profit? If Dominos can do it for pizzas, amazon can do it for much bigger ticket items. PLUS they are not incurring the cost of shipping the item to a prime member. Right now for every physical good prime purchase they spend money on shipping. Also see: Amazon is not worried about short term profit [1] They have probably planned to not profit for a while in exchange for increased cashflow…

Dominos can do it for Pizzas because the profit margin on Pizzas is about as close to 100% as you can get, and delivery-person pay is about as low as you can get, combined with subsidy via tips. A $20 pizza will have a higher total gross margin than a $100 anything-retail. Amazon is going to lose money on this, and it will probably only ever be feasible (even as a net loss) in a handful of zip codes in the US.

Post by click170 » Fri, Dec 19, 2014, 1:05 AM UTC

Pyxl101 wrote: post #96

Chevalier wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stereotypes of French waiters aside, service is just fine in Europe. (Speaking as a former resident with very fond memories.) Tipping is just a way for American employers to rip off their most vulnerable workers. Tipping is a truly toxic practice, and it's a burden on customers as well. Why would anyone want to be assigned extra work to evaluate how unhappy they are in order to calculate how much extra they should pa…

> Tipping is just a way for American employers to rip off their most vulnerable workers. Could you please elaborate? I don't see how tipping can be involved in ripping off workers in the United States. Employers are always required to pay their workers minimum wage - the federal minimum wage in the worst case, and sometimes the state minimum wage when it applies and is higher. See: http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/fl…

Post by click170 » Fri, Dec 19, 2014, 1:58 AM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #112

npizzolato wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While that may be technically true, I imagine any waiter not able to pull in tips to exceed the minimum wage would soon find themselves out of a job, especially in at-will states. In practice tipping just transfers the cost from the employer to the consumer.

The cost is always going to be covered by the consumer.

Post by mooreds » Fri, Dec 19, 2014, 2:39 AM UTC

darkmighty wrote: post #45

mooreds wrote: post #24

It's hard for me to see how this doesn't hurt local vendors badly. Of course, it depends on what the the 25,000 items are, but that was one of the key differentiators between Amazon and local stores--if you needed something and you needed it now, the local store was the only option (things like cabling for a new TV, gifts for a party that night, etc). Now, for prime members in NYC at least, Amazon is a viable option.…

I'd dispute both cost and knowledge. If a store is close to your commute route, for example, the delivery costs will probably never be low enough to match with that. I would also dispute on knowledge. In this case, knowledge is a matter of time: you can always google exactly the product you need, but that's going to cost you time. If you're not sure about the exact specifications of what you need, reading reviews isn…

Post by damian2000 » Fri, Dec 19, 2014, 2:54 AM UTC

jpatokal wrote: post #92

walterbell wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you experienced customer service in countries where there is no tipping? It is often entertaining and involves unpredictable "extra work". Perhaps digital reputation systems will provide a stick to replace the carrot of tipping, unless labor laws evolve to impose Fair Reporting on mobile logistics data.

Yes, I have. Japanese customer service wipes the floor with US customer service, and they'll run down the street to return your "forgotten change" if you attempt to tip in a restaurant.