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Yes, Matt Yglesias once said Amazon is "a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers"

michaelchisari 9y ago
I really don't see the kind of aggressive growth plan and opportunities that Amazon chased after being pursued by many of these current startups. Amazon, Google, Facebook, they all quickly learned that their current model couldn't sustain their pie-in-the-sky valuations, so they pushed outwards in multiple directions. Blue Apron, as an example, doesn't seem to be doing that. And may not be capable of it. If they had a plan to use their valuation to purchase, automate and control the whole farm-to-table product chain, all while building up advanced technical services that can be sold to other tech companies and startups, that might be a different story. But I'm very skeptical that's the case.
- ghaff 9y ago
  The biggest thing for me is that, if there really is a market for home delivery of fresh food (at least in urban areas)... And there certainly seems to be. There is in the UK and it's growing in the US even if some services like Instacart have their own profitability problems. Meal kits [from the same stores/services] are such an obvious expansion to that and they're already happening. Blue Apron and its dozen or more competitors just seem like such a niche [standalone] offering. I'm pretty darn close to their target demographic and they still don't quite fit my needs. Developing a platform to serve this market presupposes that it's a viable size of market to serve as standalone businesses and I'm not convinced it is.
sah2ed 9y ago
No. Bezos himself strongly disagreed with that characterization that he included that quote in his annual shareholder letter for 2013 [1]. Along with a rebuttal. "To me, trying to dole out improvements in a just-in-time fashion would be too clever by half. It would be risky in a world as fast-moving as the one we all live in. More fundamentally, I think long-term thinking squares the circle. Proactively delighting customers earns trust, which earns more business from those customers, even in new business arenas. Take a long-term view, and the interests of customers and shareholders align. " [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312513151836/d511111dex991.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312513...

michaelchisari 9y ago

I really don't see the kind of aggressive growth plan and opportunities that Amazon chased after being pursued by many of these current startups. Amazon, Google, Facebook, they all quickly learned that their current model couldn't sustain their pie-in-the-sky valuations, so they pushed outwards in multiple directions. Blue Apron, as an example, doesn't seem to be doing that. And may not be capable of it. If they had a plan to use their valuation to purchase, automate and control the whole farm-to-table product chain, all while building up advanced technical services that can be sold to other tech companies and startups, that might be a different story. But I'm very skeptical that's the case.

ghaff 9y ago
The biggest thing for me is that, if there really is a market for home delivery of fresh food (at least in urban areas)... And there certainly seems to be. There is in the UK and it's growing in the US even if some services like Instacart have their own profitability problems. Meal kits [from the same stores/services] are such an obvious expansion to that and they're already happening. Blue Apron and its dozen or more competitors just seem like such a niche [standalone] offering. I'm pretty darn close to their target demographic and they still don't quite fit my needs. Developing a platform to serve this market presupposes that it's a viable size of market to serve as standalone businesses and I'm not convinced it is.

sah2ed 9y ago

No. Bezos himself strongly disagreed with that characterization that he included that quote in his annual shareholder letter for 2013 [1]. Along with a rebuttal. "To me, trying to dole out improvements in a just-in-time fashion would be too clever by half. It would be risky in a world as fast-moving as the one we all live in. More fundamentally, I think long-term thinking squares the circle. Proactively delighting customers earns trust, which earns more business from those customers, even in new business arenas. Take a long-term view, and the interests of customers and shareholders align. " [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312513151836/d511111dex991.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312513...