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Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

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Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#41

Post by mulmen »

Invictus0 wrote: post #2

The problem with these new giants is that people really want them around. People don't care so much that their neighbors are going out of business; they just want their crap cheap and as soon as possible. The current legislative environment is entirely ill-equipped to deal with these companies, and moreover, no one even knows how to deal with them. What is clear, though, is that the proliferation of supercompanies li…

Can you provide some explanation of why a supercompany is repugnant to the ideals of a free market? It seems to me free markets favor supercompanies. That's why we have anti-trust laws.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#44

Post by specialist »

kbos87 wrote: post #10

I don’t think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry. When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don’t have any jarrin…

Amazon won (thus far) due to low-cost capital and tax avoidance.

Yayaya, Bezos is smart, hired smart people, has many accomplishments, etc.

But what makes Bezos unique, his primary innovation, was convincing Wall St that marketshare was more important than quarterly results.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#45

Post by mulmen »

jdale27 wrote: post #5
Invictus0 wrote: post #2

The problem with these new giants is that people really want them around. People don't care so much that their neighbors are going out of business; they just want their crap cheap and as soon as possible. The current legislative environment is entirely ill-equipped to deal with these companies, and moreover, no one even knows how to deal with them. What is clear, though, is that the proliferation of supercompanies li…

The current legislative environment is entirely ill-equipped to deal with these companies, and moreover, no one even knows how to deal with them. The former may be true; not sure about the latter. Existing anti-trust law could be sufficient to deal with them, if the powers that be had the will to use it.

I think there is a challenge in applying current anti-trust laws to a company like Amazon because Amazon's reach is more wide than it is deep. AT&T owned almost the entire telecom network in the United States, Amazon doesn't have anywhere near that kind of influence in any of it's businesses. What Amazon does have is a significant presence in many different (competitive) businesses. I can't think of an example of antitrust being applied in a similar situation in the past but I could be missing something obvious.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#46

Post by FLUX-YOU »

kbos87 wrote: post #10

I don’t think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry. When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don’t have any jarrin…

>When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom.

They'll put a lot of people out of work, which is what proponents of basic income and automation have been warning us about for a while now.

In fact, we should want this, because an Amazon that can automate a large amount of its workforce will paint the clearest picture possible because of the perception and (frankly) importance of Amazon to the US economy.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#47

Post by mulmen »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #16
Arcaten wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To which ideals is Amazon's success "repugnant"? It seems to me that Amazon is facilitating demand much better than its competitors, which means, according to the rules of the free market, it should win. Or am I misunderstanding?

Free markets aren't a guarantee that things aren't repugnant (and likely the opposite -- most winners in free markets are repugnant in various ways). Free markets are a travesty of economics; bring back competitive markets.

The GP said that companies like Amazon are repugnant to free markets. Not to the moral perspective of some third party observer.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#48

Post by AndrewKemendo »

deevolution wrote: post #30
ams6110 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, Amazon is a long way off from threatening my local supermarket and other local retailers. Would I buy clothes from Amazon? No, I like to try them on first. Returning stuff by mail is a pain. Would I buy expensive home furnishings from Amazon? No, I like to see, touch, try these things before I spend a lot of money. Would I buy perishable groceries from Amazon? No, because deliveries happen when I'm at work an…

"Would I buy expensive home furnishings from Amazon? No, I like to see, touch, try these things before I spend a lot of money." I imagine AR might convince people otherwise.

In fact it does. We've seen 2% purchase lift on home furnishings with our AR.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#49

Post by banku_brougham »

kbos87 wrote: post #10

I don’t think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry. When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don’t have any jarrin…

I think there is a simpler explanation. For example, they are not going slowly so nobody notices. Amazon is good at executing business ideas, they are doung that as fast as they can.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#50

Post by reilly3000 »

rtpg wrote: post #13
kbos87 wrote: post #10

I don’t think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry. When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don’t have any jarrin…

I understand the dangers of monopoly, but I wish there was a stronger argument here. We've seen this sort of thing happen before, with Walmart. And none of these arguments worked! Walmart is big and dominant. It killed off smaller places, but people don't care because it has mostly everything and is cheap. "This convenient good thing is actually bad!" isn't super convincing I guess.... EDIT: the ultimate irony being…

Going off of your Walmart comment, I must say that company has shown the world what logistics can be. They have brought RFID to the state of the art, such that an entire container can be inventoried at the loading dock automagically. Amazon has 10X as many innovations, and keeps many of them pretty out in the open. I agree will OP’s chilling assessment, but appreciate the effect of innovation at scale on the rest of the world.
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