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Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

atg.wa.gov

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Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#171

Post by hoofhearted »

skarz wrote: post #78

Now if only the people behind diapers.com made a comeback. This whole thing was sparked by that case where Amazon priced out diapers.com to make them go bankrupt - only to turn around and buy diapers.com

Marc Lore sold Diapers.com and his others sites to Amazon and worked for them for a couple years.

He then left Amazon and founded Jet.com. He ran Jet for a little bit and then sold it to Walmart. Walmart put him in charge of their US e-commerce sales, and they shut Jet down and pointed the domain to Walmart.com.

He left Walmart in recent years and I’m not sure what he’s up to currently.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#172

Post by tkojames »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #130
pstrateman wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sold by Amazon and Fulfilled by Amazon seem to come out of the same box at the warehouse. Unfortunately if you really need genuine products you simply cannot buy things off Amazon anymore.

> Unfortunately if you really need genuine products you simply cannot buy things off Amazon anymore. That is a very generalized statement. I have bought hundreds products shipped and sold by Amazon and never had an issue with authenticity. I'm sure it happens, but I'm willing to guess it is pretty rare and Amazon has always been quick to refund products that are shipped and sold by Amazon.

And I used to buy SD cards and Mac adapters from Amazon for work and it was about half of them products were fake until I finally stopped and got them from cdw. They would fight me every time I brought it up. It is well know issue glad you never dealt with it.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#173

Post by granzymes »

fragmede wrote: post #154
cmroanirgo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Loss Leader" is the term and the problem. A wholesaler sells to a reseller at their usual price. Reseller deliberately sells less than RRP & sometimes less than their buy price. It's a good way to guarantee the reseller "owns" the market. Then, if the reseller is big enough and has captured the market, has the leverage to tell the wholesaler to lower the wholesale price and/or the reseller gets it made elsewhere and…

It's more nefarious than simple loss-leadering and undercutting your competitor's margins. That's business 101. Amazon is playing business 201. Amazon took over pricing for the widget, and then undercut that price with their own. Stay with me for a second because 201 is kinda complicated. Widget usually sells for $25. Amazon agrees to buy 1 from you at $20 (you give them a volume discount because it's Amazon buying s…

Is there any evidence this happened? It seems like companies would simply leave the "sold by Amazon" program, and quickly.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#174

Post by quintushoratius »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #130
pstrateman wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sold by Amazon and Fulfilled by Amazon seem to come out of the same box at the warehouse. Unfortunately if you really need genuine products you simply cannot buy things off Amazon anymore.

> Unfortunately if you really need genuine products you simply cannot buy things off Amazon anymore. That is a very generalized statement. I have bought hundreds products shipped and sold by Amazon and never had an issue with authenticity. I'm sure it happens, but I'm willing to guess it is pretty rare and Amazon has always been quick to refund products that are shipped and sold by Amazon.

My own experience of counterfeits includes, of all things, water filters. The packaging was perfect, but the filters literally wouldn't fit without modification.

I gave up after the third time and went back to buying from brick-and-mortar, and haven't had a problem since.

Between my experience and reports from others, I'd say that you've been extraordinarily lucky.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#175

Post by seanmcdirmid »

Supermancho wrote: post #153
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any big corp that doesn’t do “never use these words” training? “We are going to crush the competition” has been taboo in emails since the mid 1990s. Not to mention a lot of words that should be avoided for sensitivity reasons.

> Is there any big corp that doesn’t do “never use these words” training? As I stated I've never seen it, in the context of anti-trust. If your company has to have that in literature, they are already skirting and it's just a matter of time.

All the companies are buying pretty much the same training units from the same set of providers. If you haven't experienced personally at the American office in the big corp you claim to work out, I'm not sure what to tell you.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#176

Post by zarmin »

luckydata wrote: post #147
organsnyder wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "don't use terms like 'market share' in internal communications" Sounds like the training was teaching you how to avoid leaving an audit trail rather than how to prevent illegal activity.

duh, what do you think training is for?

No post body was provided.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#177

Post by granzymes »

clintonc wrote: post #67
Spivak wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this different from Kroger getting to set the prices of both Lay’s and their store brand chips?

It would be the same, except - Kroger isn't 50% of all grocery stores on earth - Kroger paid money up front for your potato chips - Kroger isn't charging you for storing your potato chips

>Kroger paid money up front for your potato chips

Not always. Products can be sold as "pay per scan," where the manufacturer maintains ownership up until the moment the barcode is scanned at checkout. The retail store then instantly purchases the product for an agreed-upon price and turns around to sell it to the consumer.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#178

Post by Spooky23 »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #130
pstrateman wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sold by Amazon and Fulfilled by Amazon seem to come out of the same box at the warehouse. Unfortunately if you really need genuine products you simply cannot buy things off Amazon anymore.

> Unfortunately if you really need genuine products you simply cannot buy things off Amazon anymore. That is a very generalized statement. I have bought hundreds products shipped and sold by Amazon and never had an issue with authenticity. I'm sure it happens, but I'm willing to guess it is pretty rare and Amazon has always been quick to refund products that are shipped and sold by Amazon.

How do you know?

Some of the fake stuff is pretty good. Would you notice if your energizer batteries were random Chinese fakes?

The first fake I discovered on amazon was a mouse trap of all things.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#180

Post by DannyBee »

robomartin wrote: post #170
throw_nbvc1234 wrote: post #38

In case others were as confused as i was about this "While they’re often confused, Sold by Amazon and Fulfilled by Amazon are two different things. With SBA, Amazon prices your products and owns any transactions that take place. When an item sells, they pass the proceeds on to you for allowing them to sell your product. With FBA, you price your products and own the transactions. It is a service where Amazon handles t…

> and own the transactions I would strike that from the description. You never really own the transaction when it comes to Amazon. FBA customers are not your customers. You cannot communicate with them and have the kind of relationship you would have with your customers if you "owned" the transaction. Case in point: Amazon can shut down your FBA account next Monday and you'd have no way to reach "your" customers unle…

There are zero sellers I want a relationship with on Amazon. Almost all spam and annoyance I get by email is somebody I bought one thing for who wants a relationship with me. The vast majority of my shopping is transactional, and I want it that way. If I want a relationship with a seller, I can take care of making one

The most frightening part of the Senate bills are that they require Apple, et al to let people communicate with customers outside of the app store.

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