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Anyone upset with this could just cancel their prime membership and stop doing business with Amazon. It is easier now than ever because they no longer compete o

by ryao 10y ago

Anyone upset with this could just cancel their prime membership and stop doing business with Amazon. It is easier now than ever because they no longer compete on price. It is almost always the case that I find the same things cheaper on eBay, Newegg or jet.com. Their decision to drop price zombie from their affiliate program would seem to confirm that they no longer intend to compete on price. I assume that is how they fund Prime Video.

r00fus 10y ago
Don't forget Google Shopping Express if you absolutely need it next day - which even passes on sales from local stores to delivery purchases. Prime (free) Video could be seen as simply a sales channel for their paid video.
- ryao 10y ago
  Enough to pay for $3 billion in original content spending with amazon's reporting margins? https://www.google.com/amp/www.techtimes.com/amp/articles/171930/20160731/amazon-takes-on-netflix-with-huge-original-content-budget.htm https://www.google.com/amp/www.techtimes.com/amp/articles/17... They ought to be subsidizing it with higher prices.
- justicezyx 10y ago
  I don't think you actually have Amazon prime account. The prime video itself now have very high-quality original/exclusive content. The most recent example is Grand Tour, google it you can see how it is welcomed universally.
  - r00fus 10y ago
    You're incorrect, I do. I just didn't find anything good 1-2 years ago. Perhaps I should revisit, but the fact that it's not on the AppleTV makes it more difficult.
kayoone 10y ago
In my european country Amazon is still usually the cheapest and fastet way to get stuff and i enjoy zero delivery fees and their generous return policies, however i don't really use Prime Now so all deliveries are by DHL anyway. I am not sure which service would come close and is equally convenient.
quadrangle 10y ago
I don't know why people still believe that boycotts and individual consumer decisions are effective strategy for such things. All the evidence is against this. I suppose it's the propaganda of the "free market" and such. If a market were as the simplistic theory describes, all the drivers would be completely independent, set their own terms, and all product manufacturers would negotiate with all the drivers and all the consumers would negotiate etc. It would be totally inefficient and impractical, but we'd have actual competition and supply/demand etc. Reality is Amazon is a massive organization with a top-down power structure and massive power inequities. Consumers are individual people with no comparable organizational power. The idea that each individual consumer should make decisions that mediate the power of the massive corporation is a farce.
- camus2 10y ago
  > Consumers are individual people with no comparable organizational power. Nobody said consumers have to be individuals, consumers can organize just like low wage workers should. They have just been sold individualism thanks to centuries of propaganda. Rich people have no problem organizing, that's what corporations are, but somehow when people at the bottom of the ladder do, it is a bad thing? This is puritan morals, "rich are blessed with wealth, poor people only deserve contempt" and it certainly defines America.
  - quadrangle 10y ago
    Well, I think we agree completely. Citizens can organize, but powerful organizations of rich people have worked hard to keep regular citizens divided and helpless, and they spread the propaganda of "consumer choice" to try to insist that any situation can be blamed on the consumers themselves. I agree that massive organized consumer groups or institutions can make a difference.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  Companies like Amazon are more vulnerable than you think. The slightest disruption in flow impacts them hard. You get a large bloc of people to act, they will notice.
edblarney 10y ago
"Anyone upset with this could just cancel their prime membership and stop doing business with Amazon." No, this is not quite reasonable. Consumers do not realistically have this kind of power, especially vis-a-vis very large entities. It would take a massive, massive informational campaign, massive awareness, coordination, coordination in the press etc.. For the same reason in the 19th century, before unions, people couldn't just 'not shop somewhere'. Labour practices are best codified in law and policy. I'm not a big fan of unions, where they are entrenched, they often have too much power ... But where unions are 'possibly forming', it's usually for a very good reason. Salaries for many working class jobs can't be left entirely up to the free market, otherwise they'd be earning next to zero. It's really quite a paradox how benevolent Bezos and his ideological friends seem to be, all their charities blah blah blah and yet they treat many of their labour workers terribly. There are some real horror stories from the picking/packing plants.

by ryao 10y ago

r00fus 10y ago

Don't forget Google Shopping Express if you absolutely need it next day - which even passes on sales from local stores to delivery purchases. Prime (free) Video could be seen as simply a sales channel for their paid video.

ryao 10y ago
Enough to pay for $3 billion in original content spending with amazon's reporting margins? https://www.google.com/amp/www.techtimes.com/amp/articles/171930/20160731/amazon-takes-on-netflix-with-huge-original-content-budget.htm https://www.google.com/amp/www.techtimes.com/amp/articles/17... They ought to be subsidizing it with higher prices.
justicezyx 10y ago
I don't think you actually have Amazon prime account. The prime video itself now have very high-quality original/exclusive content. The most recent example is Grand Tour, google it you can see how it is welcomed universally.
- r00fus 10y ago
  You're incorrect, I do. I just didn't find anything good 1-2 years ago. Perhaps I should revisit, but the fact that it's not on the AppleTV makes it more difficult.

kayoone 10y ago

In my european country Amazon is still usually the cheapest and fastet way to get stuff and i enjoy zero delivery fees and their generous return policies, however i don't really use Prime Now so all deliveries are by DHL anyway. I am not sure which service would come close and is equally convenient.

quadrangle 10y ago

I don't know why people still believe that boycotts and individual consumer decisions are effective strategy for such things. All the evidence is against this. I suppose it's the propaganda of the "free market" and such. If a market were as the simplistic theory describes, all the drivers would be completely independent, set their own terms, and all product manufacturers would negotiate with all the drivers and all the consumers would negotiate etc. It would be totally inefficient and impractical, but we'd have actual competition and supply/demand etc. Reality is Amazon is a massive organization with a top-down power structure and massive power inequities. Consumers are individual people with no comparable organizational power. The idea that each individual consumer should make decisions that mediate the power of the massive corporation is a farce.

camus2 10y ago
> Consumers are individual people with no comparable organizational power. Nobody said consumers have to be individuals, consumers can organize just like low wage workers should. They have just been sold individualism thanks to centuries of propaganda. Rich people have no problem organizing, that's what corporations are, but somehow when people at the bottom of the ladder do, it is a bad thing? This is puritan morals, "rich are blessed with wealth, poor people only deserve contempt" and it certainly defines America.
- quadrangle 10y ago
  Well, I think we agree completely. Citizens can organize, but powerful organizations of rich people have worked hard to keep regular citizens divided and helpless, and they spread the propaganda of "consumer choice" to try to insist that any situation can be blamed on the consumers themselves. I agree that massive organized consumer groups or institutions can make a difference.
Spooky23 10y ago
Companies like Amazon are more vulnerable than you think. The slightest disruption in flow impacts them hard. You get a large bloc of people to act, they will notice.

edblarney 10y ago

"Anyone upset with this could just cancel their prime membership and stop doing business with Amazon." No, this is not quite reasonable. Consumers do not realistically have this kind of power, especially vis-a-vis very large entities. It would take a massive, massive informational campaign, massive awareness, coordination, coordination in the press etc.. For the same reason in the 19th century, before unions, people couldn't just 'not shop somewhere'. Labour practices are best codified in law and policy. I'm not a big fan of unions, where they are entrenched, they often have too much power ... But where unions are 'possibly forming', it's usually for a very good reason. Salaries for many working class jobs can't be left entirely up to the free market, otherwise they'd be earning next to zero. It's really quite a paradox how benevolent Bezos and his ideological friends seem to be, all their charities blah blah blah and yet they treat many of their labour workers terribly. There are some real horror stories from the picking/packing plants.