5 ms·

Man, it really seems like amazon is just going to be everything at some point. In, say, 20 years will some meaningful percentage of all the money I spend someho

Man, it really seems like amazon is just going to be everything at some point. In, say, 20 years will some meaningful percentage of all the money I spend somehow funnel through amazon? Kind of seems that way.

thedailymail 8y ago
They are already getting into Too Big to Boycott territory. If you factor in the indirect support we all give by interacting with paying users of AWS, that day may already be here.
rococode 8y ago
You wake up in the morning. "Alexa, make me a coffee." As you settle into your Amazon Auto - self-driving, of course - with a warm cup of Prime Espresso, your car's HUD lights up with a reminder. "Don't forget, your monthly electricity bill is due in 3 days! Thank you for being a customer! Echo Energy". Agh, more bills to pay. Luckily, you've been able to refinance your loans through your local BoA (Bank of Amazon) branch so you have more than enough to cover your living costs. To be honest though, I personally wouldn't mind Amazon controlling more aspects of my life for now at least, however threatening to various liberties that might be. My overall experiences with their customer service have been stellar, which is much more than I can say for some of the other monopolistic companies I have to deal with.
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  You're lucky - Amazon actually give a shit about the US. They launched in Australia (the newspapers were predicting the end of retail). They have what, 30% of products available here? Then they launched Prime - except they obviously haven't hired anyone who has used Australia Post before. You can't expect a Prime 2 day delivery if you use standard Post. All this, and they thought restricting access to the US version was a good idea. Amazon Australia: death by 1000 paper cuts. When eBay looks like a better option, you've really screwed up.
  - ClassyJacket 8y ago
    >You can't expect a Prime 2 day delivery if you use standard Post. You can't even get Express Post items in 2 days about half the time, even tho they "Guarantee next business day delivery"
    - ryanchoi 8y ago
      Not sure if this applies to this scenario, but tricky wording related to 1 day delivery landed amzn in hot water in the UK. In this case, they meant one day after dispatch, not one day from order placement. https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/business-45183887 https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/business-45183887
- benatkin 8y ago
  Prime Espresso is actually scary, since coffee is one of the three products in 1984...
manmal 8y ago
I doubt that the US or EU will allow such a megacorp to exist. It would be a threat to the free market and even democracy.
- laumars 8y ago
  The EU doesn't have an issue with megacorps per se. It's businesses that abuse their market position. This is the crucial point that many Americans miss when they moan about the EU interfering with American businesses. Source: I work for a monopoly in the EU and while my company is heavily audited and regulated to ensure we operate fairly, we are still free to run as a monopoly.
virgilp 8y ago
Isn't that Bezos' declared goal? To have a cut from all economic activity.
ReverseCold 8y ago
> In, say, 20 years will some meaningful percentage of all the money I spend somehow funnel through amazon? Amazon already has 5% of the total retail market in the US. I consider that a meaningful percentage. More anecdotally, one of the discord servers I'm in recently had a trend where people shared their total yearly spend on Amazon. Upwards of $10-20k were not uncommon. (The data source is definitely biased though, as it's more of a hobby-related discord == upper middle class segment).
- deadbunny 8y ago
  How are they getting their yearly spend? I would be interested in my yearly spend (over the years) and to see how it's grown/shrunk.
swaroop 8y ago
Yep, they want a cut of as many economic activities as possible, for example, AWS takes a cut of all online businesses! See https://stratechery.com/2016/the-amazon-tax/ https://stratechery.com/2016/the-amazon-tax/
- deadbunny 8y ago
  You could always null route their ip ranges: https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

thedailymail 8y ago

They are already getting into Too Big to Boycott territory. If you factor in the indirect support we all give by interacting with paying users of AWS, that day may already be here.

rococode 8y ago

You wake up in the morning. "Alexa, make me a coffee." As you settle into your Amazon Auto - self-driving, of course - with a warm cup of Prime Espresso, your car's HUD lights up with a reminder. "Don't forget, your monthly electricity bill is due in 3 days! Thank you for being a customer! Echo Energy". Agh, more bills to pay. Luckily, you've been able to refinance your loans through your local BoA (Bank of Amazon) branch so you have more than enough to cover your living costs. To be honest though, I personally wouldn't mind Amazon controlling more aspects of my life for now at least, however threatening to various liberties that might be. My overall experiences with their customer service have been stellar, which is much more than I can say for some of the other monopolistic companies I have to deal with.

voltagex_ 8y ago
You're lucky - Amazon actually give a shit about the US. They launched in Australia (the newspapers were predicting the end of retail). They have what, 30% of products available here? Then they launched Prime - except they obviously haven't hired anyone who has used Australia Post before. You can't expect a Prime 2 day delivery if you use standard Post. All this, and they thought restricting access to the US version was a good idea. Amazon Australia: death by 1000 paper cuts. When eBay looks like a better option, you've really screwed up.
- ClassyJacket 8y ago
  >You can't expect a Prime 2 day delivery if you use standard Post. You can't even get Express Post items in 2 days about half the time, even tho they "Guarantee next business day delivery"
  - ryanchoi 8y ago
    Not sure if this applies to this scenario, but tricky wording related to 1 day delivery landed amzn in hot water in the UK. In this case, they meant one day after dispatch, not one day from order placement. https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/business-45183887 https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/business-45183887
benatkin 8y ago
Prime Espresso is actually scary, since coffee is one of the three products in 1984...

manmal 8y ago

I doubt that the US or EU will allow such a megacorp to exist. It would be a threat to the free market and even democracy.

laumars 8y ago
The EU doesn't have an issue with megacorps per se. It's businesses that abuse their market position. This is the crucial point that many Americans miss when they moan about the EU interfering with American businesses. Source: I work for a monopoly in the EU and while my company is heavily audited and regulated to ensure we operate fairly, we are still free to run as a monopoly.

virgilp 8y ago

Isn't that Bezos' declared goal? To have a cut from all economic activity.

ReverseCold 8y ago

> In, say, 20 years will some meaningful percentage of all the money I spend somehow funnel through amazon? Amazon already has 5% of the total retail market in the US. I consider that a meaningful percentage. More anecdotally, one of the discord servers I'm in recently had a trend where people shared their total yearly spend on Amazon. Upwards of $10-20k were not uncommon. (The data source is definitely biased though, as it's more of a hobby-related discord == upper middle class segment).

deadbunny 8y ago
How are they getting their yearly spend? I would be interested in my yearly spend (over the years) and to see how it's grown/shrunk.

swaroop 8y ago

Yep, they want a cut of as many economic activities as possible, for example, AWS takes a cut of all online businesses! See https://stratechery.com/2016/the-amazon-tax/ https://stratechery.com/2016/the-amazon-tax/

deadbunny 8y ago
You could always null route their ip ranges: https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]