Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#151

Post by prostoalex » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC

prepend wrote: post #116

whatok wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a previous employer, I attended a briefing for our health insurance switching to a mail order pharmacy. Granted this was years ago but the amount of confusion and frustration around the signup process, scheduling, skepticism about delivery times/reliability, etc were numerous. To me, it couldn't have been an easier process. For some people (especially retirees), going to the local pharmacy is part of a regular rou…

I don’t get many prescriptions so when my doc writes one I don’t care who fills it. She couldn’t send it to a random mail order pharmacy, I had to pick one. I think there’s a big opportunity for insurers to pick a default mail pharmacy that customers out of. So depending on your insurer, the EMR automatically files with a pharmacy you don’t care about and mails it to you within 24 hours.

> there’s a big opportunity for insurers to pick a default mail pharmacy

Looks like it’s already happening, albeit in an opposite direction, with Aetna acquisition by CVS.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#152

Post by lozaning » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 5:56 PM UTC

dwild wrote: post #132

treis wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that inventory from different sellers is commingled unless the seller pays extra. So Amazon's controllers are in the same bin as the ones from Real Good Fakes Inc. Even if you buy from Amazon the actual product you get might have been supplied by Real Good Fakes.

Source? That doesn't make sense. They would then need to make sure "Real Good Fakes" products are cheaper than what they send... At anytime "Real Good Fakes" can ask for his stuff back and that has to be "Real Good Fakes" stuff or there may be a big problem (used vs refurbished vs new). They automate everything, there's no way there's no barcode for this kind of thing.

I can confirm this as someone who used to do 6 figures plus of business on amazon every quarter. Unless I mark that I dont want my inventory commingled (which is an option more expensive than general FBA) once my product shows up at the various warehouses it's dumped into a bin along with everyone else who sent in the same part in for FBA fulfillment.

I got all my product from HP via Synnex, all factory sealed brand new genuine parts. The number of times I got burned by people leaving shitty feedback or returning stuff because what they got when they placed there order for the part I was selling was some knockoff that was close but not exactly it was high enough that I no longer sell on there.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#153

Post by lozaning » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 5:58 PM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #139

dwild wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source? That doesn't make sense. They would then need to make sure "Real Good Fakes" products are cheaper than what they send... At anytime "Real Good Fakes" can ask for his stuff back and that has to be "Real Good Fakes" stuff or there may be a big problem (used vs refurbished vs new). They automate everything, there's no way there's no barcode for this kind of thing.

>At anytime "Real Good Fakes" can ask for his stuff back and that has to be "Real Good Fakes" stuff no, they can't, and it doesn't have to be. that's how the FBA program works - when you send your stuff to amazon, they store it in their warehouse on the understanding that it's identical to any other example of the product it is listed as. You can't then turn around and say "i want all the ones i shipped you back", be…

Amazon is actually happy to charge you more to use FBA to keep your inventory non commingled. So you can totally get all the exact things you sent them, as long as you paid for the ability to do so before sending all your stuff to the warehouse.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#154

Post by mrfusion » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 5:59 PM UTC

Just an FYI. I measured the inside temp of my mailbox in August’s once and it was 150 degrees. You want to be careful getting medications in the mail.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#155

Post by pm90 » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 6:00 PM UTC

simonsarris wrote: post #49

cabaalis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They tried to take on Etsy with Amazon Handmade which bombed Etsy stock, but Handmade has gone pretty much nowhere, except some re-branding this year. Is severely damaging another online vendor really a failure for Amazon? It seems to me at that level, revenue from a venture is not always the only measure of success.

I had wondered that. Disclaimer, I'm long SQ. If you're following AMZN, SQ, or PYPL, you probably saw the headlines back in April: Amazon's Next Mission: Using Alexa to Help You Pay Friends Firm looks to make voice commands the next wave of commerce SQ and PYPL took a small dive on this news, even though at face value, its quite silly. Amazon would probably have a much better time trying to buy PayPal for Venmo or Sq…

Its hard to discern what they were thinking of. But I feel like you are overthinking it. Having worked at companies of all sizes, many products are often some executives' pet project to make a splash and other execs just let them do what they want if they're not fucking up other shit too much or taking much needed resources away from other things. Many of the failed ventures may just have been a result of that.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#156

Post by pm90 » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 6:03 PM UTC

atourgates wrote: post #134

ProAm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No different than when Garmin's stock collapsed when Google announced free Maps/Navigation [1][2]. It's just the market reacting to supply and demand. [1] http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/10/28/google.maps.helps.gps... [2] http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-free-gps-service-crus...

And caused a sea change for the industry and Garmin's business model. Garmin's automotive segment revenue has dropped from $2.5-billion in 2008, to $700-million in 2017. [1] They've been able to largely make up for it with revenue from other sources, [2] (mostly outdoor/fitness) [3], but I'm sure that shift and innovation was driven by the event you mentioned. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/217901/net-sales-…

Wow those are staggering numbers! Props to Garmin for surviving a 60% reduction in revenue... I would've expected the company to just fold after that kind of loss.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#157

Post by seibelj » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 6:03 PM UTC

Congrats to Techstars Boston and the first unicorn exit of a Techstars company! Awesome news

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#158

Post by beagle3 » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 6:09 PM UTC

kolbe wrote: post #65

The cumulative loss to CVS's and Walgreens's market caps has been about $12b. If Amazon had wanted to, they likely could have made more from the destruction of value to those companies than they paid to buy PillPack. I wonder what other industries out there can be arbitraged like this. I bet Amazon could shave well over $10b of market cap off of BKNG if they made the right strategic investment.

IANAL but I suspect it is actually legal for Amazon to short CVS+Walgreen in this case: Don't "inside information" trading laws apply only to the specific company about which information is available?

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#159

Post by tibbon » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 6:09 PM UTC

tombrossman wrote: post #18

This is interesting because Amazon isn't exactly known for supply chain integrity. Who here hasn't received fakes from Amazon? If you rely on a specific medication for your health, is Amazon a brand you trust to deliver it? How long until they start commingling pills and shipping random counterfeit/fake product to users? Hope it never happens but if they do with pharmaceuticals what they did with everything else they…

I think one issue there however is that nearly anyone can sell through Amazon. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that to be a pharmacy distributing via Amazon would require some level of licensure well beyond what it takes to sell XBox controllers.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#160

Post by mehrdadn » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 6:10 PM UTC

lozaning wrote: post #152

dwild wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source? That doesn't make sense. They would then need to make sure "Real Good Fakes" products are cheaper than what they send... At anytime "Real Good Fakes" can ask for his stuff back and that has to be "Real Good Fakes" stuff or there may be a big problem (used vs refurbished vs new). They automate everything, there's no way there's no barcode for this kind of thing.

I can confirm this as someone who used to do 6 figures plus of business on amazon every quarter. Unless I mark that I dont want my inventory commingled (which is an option more expensive than general FBA) once my product shows up at the various warehouses it's dumped into a bin along with everyone else who sent in the same part in for FBA fulfillment. I got all my product from HP via Synnex, all factory sealed brand…

I guess I see how this can happen for everything marked as "New" with no extra details, but how does this work when the ones from different vendors are in a different condition (missing box or whatever)? Are they still commingled then? And if so then how do they make sure the condition matches the one they send you (e.g. not give a missing-box as one that's factory-sealed)?