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Amazon Stores doesn't sell competitor products. Try buying Google Home on Amazon. Whats worse? Searching for Google Home returns results for Amazon Echo. You c

by kumarm 9y ago

Amazon Stores doesn't sell competitor products. Try buying Google Home on Amazon. Whats worse? Searching for Google Home returns results for Amazon Echo. You can find amazon apps on Google PlayStore though. Amazon is definitely the next Microsoft.

kazinator 9y ago
Or, the next Safeway? Try buying another grocery store's brand of milk at Safeway! The bastards only sell theirs. No wait, the next BMW! I tried to buy a Toyota and no BMW dealership would sell me one, can you believe it?
- wlesieutre 9y ago
  The BMW dealer will sell you 80 different brands of carrot juicers though
  - kazinator 9y ago
    So what? That Safeway also sells plenty of things that are not their house brand (in addition to the house brand, or not). Nobody requires them to; they probably do that because it's profitable to them not because they are worried that someone will regard them as the next Microsoft in the pejorative sense. The fact that Amazon sells their device that is similar to Google's and not Google's is perfectly sensible, if they regard that as a strategic thing which is reasonable given what it is.
    - wlesieutre 9y ago
      Not that I think they should be required to carry everything, but it's stupid from a consumer perspective. All the home streaming and "smart speaker" devices have important differences in what they can do and what they're compatible with. They're not interchangeable. It'd be more like Safeway refusing to sell Mission brand tortillas because they have Safeway brand tortilla chips and that's basically the same thing, right? It's made from flour into thin layers and you eat it.
      - kazinator 9y ago
        > They're not interchangeable. While that is true, more importantly, they are their respective purveyors' spyware devices using which they intend to claw their way into people's lives to an even greater extent.
        wlesieutre 9y ago
        And claw you into their ecosystems. Amazon is more than happy to sell you other brands of USB cables or clothes, despite having their own "Amazon Basics" brand. But they draw the line at other brands of eBook readers and media players.
- pepr 9y ago
  I regularly buy Darigold milk (a local PNW brand) at Safeway.
- bubblesorting 9y ago
  - Safeway and BMW don't tout theirselves as, "Earth's biggest selection of books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software, apparel & accessories, shoes, ..." like Amazon does. They don't even claim to be the biggest selection of groceries/autos. - Safeway and BMW aren't known as "The Everything Store" - You can buy Toyotas at a BMW dealership. They will be used, but they're there.
  - BurningFrog 9y ago
    Do you claim anyone actually has a bigger selection of "books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software, apparel & accessories, shoes, ..."?
    - bubblesorting 9y ago
      Nope. That quote was lifted from Amazon.com meta tags. If I were to guess at what companines might rival Amazon in having the biggest selection, my top 3 would be: eBay, Alibaba, Rakuten.
  - kazinator 9y ago
    Right; so you're bothered by the fact that there are substitutions of x which make true the proposition ∃x:not(sells(Amazon, x)). These are counterexamples to their outrageously false marketing claim ∀x:sells(Amazon, x). To what extent would you say this eating you alive? (BTW: that marketing claim comes from the "Everything"; a collection which is "biggest" isn't necessarily exhaustive; just bigger than others.)
    - jtefera 9y ago
      Did you just learn a little bit of logic and feel the urge to parade it everywhere? Heck, it just made your phrase longer, didn't provide anything useful that couldn't be said in plain English and marginalized anyone who doesn't know those symbols.
      - 9y ago
- mc32 9y ago
  Most of what they carry is not their store brands. They sell many different brands and labels of goods, so it's not a really apt comparison.
  - kazinator 9y ago
    Most of what Amazon's marketplace carries is not Amazon branded stuff.
- ultraluminous 9y ago
  So you'd also definitely agree that if you're running an ecommerce (or video streaming, or food delivery, or grocery delivery or anything really) business on AWS, Amazon is in the clear for terminating your instances? Just making sure you thought your analogy fully through.
  - bardworx 9y ago
    Maybe I’m having a brain fart but are you saying that if you run an ecommerce store or food delivery service on an AWS instance, Amazon can terminate their service without prior warning?
  - tzahola 9y ago
    Yes. And the free market is in the clear for choosing other cloud providers.
Mountain_Skies 9y ago
If I'm not mistaken, it was Google who started blocking Amazon's Echo from serving YouTube content on devices with screens, so this type of anti end user behavior isn't exclusive to Amazon.
- MichaelGG 9y ago
  Amazon kicked this off, delisting Chromecast and Apple TVs, and lying about it.
- robbomacrae 9y ago
  Googles reason was "Amazon’s implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates our terms of service, creating a broken user experience." I don't pretend to know what that broken user experience was.. ads blocked? No auto play next? No subscriber button? But anything along those lines would be a poor deal for YouTube. Im not a fan of either as they both engage in illegal anti-competitive behavior I just feel it isn't one sided in this case.
- simcop2387 9y ago
  This started even before the echo and home devices. it started at least as far back as the chromecast and firetv stick. Possibly with devices before that too.
mseebach 9y ago
That's definitely stupid and childish behaviour on Amazon's part, and will not help them one bit in winning this argument, but if that's the main piece of evidence that they are "definitely" like Microsoft, then, no, they are nothing like Microsoft was in the 90s.
mikestew 9y ago
Amazon Stores doesn't sell competitor products. Were Amazon like Microsoft, as you claim, Amazon would sell competitor products that have an Amazon product built in, whether you want it or not, and it will be priced into the product. (Disclaimer: this analogy to the 90s MS falls apart quickly. But unlike 90s MS, I am not yet forced to do business with Amazon if I don't want to.)

by kumarm 9y ago

kazinator 9y ago

Or, the next Safeway? Try buying another grocery store's brand of milk at Safeway! The bastards only sell theirs. No wait, the next BMW! I tried to buy a Toyota and no BMW dealership would sell me one, can you believe it?

wlesieutre 9y ago
The BMW dealer will sell you 80 different brands of carrot juicers though
- kazinator 9y ago
  So what? That Safeway also sells plenty of things that are not their house brand (in addition to the house brand, or not). Nobody requires them to; they probably do that because it's profitable to them not because they are worried that someone will regard them as the next Microsoft in the pejorative sense. The fact that Amazon sells their device that is similar to Google's and not Google's is perfectly sensible, if they regard that as a strategic thing which is reasonable given what it is.
  - wlesieutre 9y ago
    Not that I think they should be required to carry everything, but it's stupid from a consumer perspective. All the home streaming and "smart speaker" devices have important differences in what they can do and what they're compatible with. They're not interchangeable. It'd be more like Safeway refusing to sell Mission brand tortillas because they have Safeway brand tortilla chips and that's basically the same thing, right? It's made from flour into thin layers and you eat it.
    - kazinator 9y ago
      > They're not interchangeable. While that is true, more importantly, they are their respective purveyors' spyware devices using which they intend to claw their way into people's lives to an even greater extent.
      - wlesieutre 9y ago
        And claw you into their ecosystems. Amazon is more than happy to sell you other brands of USB cables or clothes, despite having their own "Amazon Basics" brand. But they draw the line at other brands of eBook readers and media players.
pepr 9y ago
I regularly buy Darigold milk (a local PNW brand) at Safeway.
bubblesorting 9y ago
- Safeway and BMW don't tout theirselves as, "Earth's biggest selection of books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software, apparel & accessories, shoes, ..." like Amazon does. They don't even claim to be the biggest selection of groceries/autos. - Safeway and BMW aren't known as "The Everything Store" - You can buy Toyotas at a BMW dealership. They will be used, but they're there.
- BurningFrog 9y ago
  Do you claim anyone actually has a bigger selection of "books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software, apparel & accessories, shoes, ..."?
  - bubblesorting 9y ago
    Nope. That quote was lifted from Amazon.com meta tags. If I were to guess at what companines might rival Amazon in having the biggest selection, my top 3 would be: eBay, Alibaba, Rakuten.
- kazinator 9y ago
  Right; so you're bothered by the fact that there are substitutions of x which make true the proposition ∃x:not(sells(Amazon, x)). These are counterexamples to their outrageously false marketing claim ∀x:sells(Amazon, x). To what extent would you say this eating you alive? (BTW: that marketing claim comes from the "Everything"; a collection which is "biggest" isn't necessarily exhaustive; just bigger than others.)
  - jtefera 9y ago
    Did you just learn a little bit of logic and feel the urge to parade it everywhere? Heck, it just made your phrase longer, didn't provide anything useful that couldn't be said in plain English and marginalized anyone who doesn't know those symbols.
    - 9y ago
mc32 9y ago
Most of what they carry is not their store brands. They sell many different brands and labels of goods, so it's not a really apt comparison.
- kazinator 9y ago
  Most of what Amazon's marketplace carries is not Amazon branded stuff.
ultraluminous 9y ago
So you'd also definitely agree that if you're running an ecommerce (or video streaming, or food delivery, or grocery delivery or anything really) business on AWS, Amazon is in the clear for terminating your instances? Just making sure you thought your analogy fully through.
- bardworx 9y ago
  Maybe I’m having a brain fart but are you saying that if you run an ecommerce store or food delivery service on an AWS instance, Amazon can terminate their service without prior warning?
- tzahola 9y ago
  Yes. And the free market is in the clear for choosing other cloud providers.

Mountain_Skies 9y ago

If I'm not mistaken, it was Google who started blocking Amazon's Echo from serving YouTube content on devices with screens, so this type of anti end user behavior isn't exclusive to Amazon.

MichaelGG 9y ago
Amazon kicked this off, delisting Chromecast and Apple TVs, and lying about it.
robbomacrae 9y ago
Googles reason was "Amazon’s implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates our terms of service, creating a broken user experience." I don't pretend to know what that broken user experience was.. ads blocked? No auto play next? No subscriber button? But anything along those lines would be a poor deal for YouTube. Im not a fan of either as they both engage in illegal anti-competitive behavior I just feel it isn't one sided in this case.
simcop2387 9y ago
This started even before the echo and home devices. it started at least as far back as the chromecast and firetv stick. Possibly with devices before that too.

mseebach 9y ago

That's definitely stupid and childish behaviour on Amazon's part, and will not help them one bit in winning this argument, but if that's the main piece of evidence that they are "definitely" like Microsoft, then, no, they are nothing like Microsoft was in the 90s.

mikestew 9y ago

Amazon Stores doesn't sell competitor products. Were Amazon like Microsoft, as you claim, Amazon would sell competitor products that have an Amazon product built in, whether you want it or not, and it will be priced into the product. (Disclaimer: this analogy to the 90s MS falls apart quickly. But unlike 90s MS, I am not yet forced to do business with Amazon if I don't want to.)