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Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#481

Post by ryukoposting »

bushbaba wrote: post #453
wolvoleo wrote: post #33

Hmm Amazon fresh was useless anyway. It was this weird niche of grocery delivery but for small urgent orders. I just don't have that need like ever, if I need a bottle of shampoo or a head of lettuce urgently I'll just go to the corner shop. Edit: oh oops I see this is about physical fresh stores, we never had those in the first place. Here in Europe Amazon fresh is a weird service for quick small grocery orders. For…

Amazon fresh in the Bay Area was equivalent to Safeway but for better price/quality

I just moved here, but WOW Safeway's prices are absolutely criminal. We'll shop anywhere else. It'd be hard to be worse than Safeway.

I haven't been to a Fresh here, but we had one in IL and it was just a normal grocery store but more confusing. There's a constant sense of "am I stealing?" And the whole "just walk out" thing doesn't work if you don't have a Prime membership, so it all felt a bit overwrought and pointless. Some of the prices were good, others were bad, others were stupid (produce by item count instead of weight). I'd rather just go to a normal grocery store.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#482

Post by jermaustin1 »

PaulHoule wrote: post #99
eithed wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did naming things have to reflect reality? ie it's "Burger King" and not "Bearable Burger"

It was a pretty good burger until 2013 when they changed the machine they used to cook the burgers. Now it's worse than McD's and that's saying something.

I can't tell if it was franchise specific, but we have a Burger King near us in Clear Lake/Houston that is absolutely amazing. Fries are always crispy and well seasoned, the patties actually have grill marks and taste like they've been charred. The location hasn't been updated since before I moved away in 2015, and has been consistently good since 2010 or so when I first moved near it.

That said, every other Burger King around me, and near my house in Louisiana, and near all of the places I lived including NJ, NY, CT, VT have been awful. I never ate there BEFORE this 2013 change though, so I cannot comment on the quality in the before times. But my local, is amazing. Tastes like I remember it from the 90s.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#483

Post by giaour »

bushbaba wrote: post #452
giaour wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selling items for less than they cost to produce is known as "dumping" in international trade (where it is generally disallowed by trade organizations) and can be illegal in the US if the intent is to eliminate competition [0]. That last factor can be hard to prove, and I don't think the FTC is doing much about anticompetitive behavior these days. [0]: https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

Selling it at cost though isn’t. And the cost to make a good is often less than 50% retail

Standard grocery margins are usually lower, in the 30%-40% range, and are often much lower for promotional items. Rotating "loss leaders" to get people in the door are standard practice. IMHO that would make it hard to bring an antitrust action against a grocery chain, as pretty much every store engages in a limited amount of predatory pricing as a marketing technique.

50% is the standard retail markup, but it varies by industry.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#484

Post by mjmas »

geoduck14 wrote: post #475
mjmas wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something interesting I found while looking up Hungry Jacks (the Burger King franchise here in Australia) is that the angry Whopper is a normal menu item here but it seems to be only a seasonal/special item for Burker King.

Please tell me what is in an Angry Whopper? Also, time I was in Australia, I had a burger with a fried egg and a beat. It was SO good.

It is a Whopper with onion rings and Jalapenos.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#485

Post by giaour »

kay_o wrote: post #382
giaour wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selling items for less than they cost to produce is known as "dumping" in international trade (where it is generally disallowed by trade organizations) and can be illegal in the US if the intent is to eliminate competition [0]. That last factor can be hard to prove, and I don't think the FTC is doing much about anticompetitive behavior these days. [0]: https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

I'd be unsurprised in this case that Amazon could produce the product profitably for less than half the cost due to scale.

I don't think Amazon was producing anything they sold in their grocery stores. They were probably buying the same white label items as everyone else for their store brand.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#486

Post by NickC25 »

lmm wrote: post #429
NickC25 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeff Bezos in FY 2024 filed for, and received, a $2k child tax credit. While the company he was the founder of passed over a trillion dollars in market cap.

If it's a good tax credit, incentivising something society wants to incentivise, then everyone it applies to should get it; that helps social cohesion. If you make billionaires ineligible for tax credits they'll oppose them (and why shouldn't they?)

>then everyone it applies to should get it; that helps social cohesion

You know what else helps social cohesion?

One person NOT being able to effectively rig the economic and political landscape because they were outsized beneficiaries of it.

You know what also helps social cohesion?

Someone who realizes that they've got more than enough money, and realizes that they don't have a life-or-death need for more, and is happy to pay their taxes.

>(and why shouldn't they?)

Because they've literally got billions of dollars, and the tax credit system was not designed with extreme outliers in mind. "Oh jeeze, I'm just a billionaire, woe is me, I'm not eligible for a $2k tax refund, the world will end".

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#487

Post by frutiger »

NickC25 wrote: post #268
nebula8804 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it pretty funny when Mayor Mamdani of NYC pointed out that the people opposing him spent more money trying to stop him being elected than they would end up paying in increased taxes. It really is a game to those people. They can't bear to give up one cent or one ounce of control. Another funny story was that some substack writer (whom I forget sorry) noticed that Bill Ackman subscribed to their substack and u…

Jeff Bezos in FY 2024 filed for, and received, a $2k child tax credit. While the company he was the founder of passed over a trillion dollars in market cap.

The child tax credit starts tapering off if your adjusted gross income is more than $200k single ($400k joint). If Bezos is reporting less than that due to other deductions then that’s truly impressive.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#488

Post by giaour »

twoodfin wrote: post #355
giaour wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selling items for less than they cost to produce is known as "dumping" in international trade (where it is generally disallowed by trade organizations) and can be illegal in the US if the intent is to eliminate competition [0]. That last factor can be hard to prove, and I don't think the FTC is doing much about anticompetitive behavior these days. [0]: https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

Yes, I can imagine it’s hard to prove, which is a pretty good indicator it’s a slippery concept to being with. Everyone wants to “eliminate the competition”, including your competition!

The predatory pricing pattern the FTC would in theory sure over would be: selling items at an artificially low price until the competition goes out of business, then raising prices once you are the only seller left standing. It's the second step that makes it anticompetitive instead of just competitive

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#489

Post by smegger001 »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #482
PaulHoule wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a pretty good burger until 2013 when they changed the machine they used to cook the burgers. Now it's worse than McD's and that's saying something.

I can't tell if it was franchise specific, but we have a Burger King near us in Clear Lake/Houston that is absolutely amazing. Fries are always crispy and well seasoned, the patties actually have grill marks and taste like they've been charred. The location hasn't been updated since before I moved away in 2015, and has been consistently good since 2010 or so when I first moved near it. That said, every other Burger K…

The burgers are fine at the one accross the road from my job but the Burger King here has to most bland frys I dont think they salt them at all they are crispy but lack taste.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#490

Post by solfox »

arjie wrote: post #425
arjie wrote: post #357

I used one in San Francisco once because I wanted to try it out. It was honestly a rather flawless experience for me and I liked it because the scan gate and minders (it was when it launched - I don't know if they kept them) kept the shoplifters out. Shoplifters are unpleasant to share a store with. Unsurprisingly, those who skip some social norms also skip other ones. Anyway, I didn't go back after the first time be…

Absolute tragedy is checking my email and finding out that Amazon is going to discontinue the palm scan.

It's confusing why they are discontinuing that feature. It seemed incredibly accurate/fast and was a great way to pay at Whole Foods.
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