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The best Cyber Monday deals according to Alexa: any Amazon-owned brand
- warent 7y agoDidn't Google get into trouble for putting their own shopping results above other search results? It seems like Amazon should seriously be penalized for this. It's completely anticompetitive.
- RegBarclay 7y agoAmazon isn't a search company, so I think it's a little different case. Also, if I call a Ford dealer and ask them for their best deals, why would I expect them to tell me about Toyotas?
- ProAm 7y agoAmazon is a platform that sells any/all/counterfeit products, Ford dealer sells Fords.
- cik 7y agoFord dealers sell used cars of all types. My local Ford dealer is where I bought my first Integra (an Acura).
- ProAm 7y agoIt depends on the dealer, but for multi-brand sellers you can expect them to push whatever has the most profit margin for them, in the case of a Ford dealer that sells multiple brands (new, Im not talking used) I'd expect them to push Ford for the margin, just like Amazon is going to push their brand. But Amazon is a market-place (whereas I cannot go to this Ford dealership and list my own car for sale) and this is anti-competitive .
- basch 7y agoGrocery stores shouldnt be able to give store brands better placement? Costco shouldnt be able to incentivize Kirkland over a competitor? It makes total sense to go to Amazon to buy Echo, eero, Ring, Blink products, why wouldnt I buy them from their manufacturer?
- ProAm 7y agoNo they shouldnt, that is anti-competitive. Grocery store shelf placement is paid for my brands. If Kirkland pays for better placement they get better placement. Not just because they are the inhouse brand.
- basch 7y agoWhen did stores start having to treat all the products they sell equally?
- ProAm 7y agoThey never have, but grocery stores also do not prevent you from selling your product for cheaper elsewhere.
- jersey 7y agoDoes Amazon prevent you from selling on other platforms if you sell on Amazon?
- uoaei 7y agoHave you ever heard the term "monopoly"? They do by soft power -- leveraging their position in the market to make the alternatives completely unprofitable, thus literally preventing you from selling on other platforms.
- basch 7y agothe word monopoly gets mistakenly used in place of anti-competitive all the time. Are you describing predatory pricing? Where they sell at a loss to put competition out of business or to grow faster? Or are you trying to say its not profitable to sell on ebay or shopify instead of amazon? Amazon using its scale to clone products and sell them with low margins, in an effort to prevent competition from springing up is anti-competitive, but its not them being a monopoly.
- vokep 7y agoYes if they have some that are their best deals.
- RegBarclay 7y agoPerhaps on the used car lot.
- bduerst 7y agoFord isn't a platform for selling cars. If Ford was a company that made it's revenue sold Chevy, Dodge, Volkswagen, Bentley, etc. and it's own cars, then they would be analogous to Amazon.
- travmatt 7y agoCar manufacturers are legally barred from owning dealerships, it’s the individual dealership groups who decide what to sell. Car manufacturers selling directly to the public decreased competition as the manufacturers didn’t have any incentive to undercut their own prices between dealerships selling their own products.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- warent 7y agoReally? I thought Tesla owned all its dealerships and employed the dealers. Am I confused?
- neonate 7y agoAmazon is a search-for-something-to-buy company. I think the analogy holds.
- notatoad 7y agoAmazon is not the only search-for-something-to-buy-company. Amazon and Google can't both have a monopoly over the same market. There's a lot of stuff that's allowed when you're a normal company and forbidden when you have a monopoly. Some courts declared google a monopoly, and that's why they are restricted in what they can display on their search pages. (not trying to pass judgement here as to what either company should be allowed to do, just saying that's why it is the way it is.)
- tyingq 7y ago"Didn't Google get into trouble for putting their own shopping results above other search results?" They still do that, so the trouble can't have been that bad.
- bduerst 7y agoGoogle shopping results are search ads with pictures. Every single listing is paid to be there. They're literally set up in the same place that the rest of Google ads are. EU wasn't able to distinguish this so they slapped them on the wrist. Amazon isn't promoting sponsored products, they're promoting their own. That would be like Google only showing Pixel 4 as a result for "buy smartphone".
- duxup 7y agoGoogle's shopping thing (Google Shopping?) ... for a while at least was pay to play.
- WoahNoun 7y agoEU considered it anticompetitive because of Google's marketshare in search (something like >80% in the EU). Amazon doesn't have nearly the same marketshare in retail.
- Akinato 7y agoYeah, I feel like there's a light slap coming Amazon's way for this. It's too blatantly anti-competitive. It should probably be more punitive than it will be, but that doesn't seem to be the way our governments are going these days.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- gtirloni 7y agoMy local supermarket is a marketplace for lots of brands. They heavily promote their own generic brands. What kind of punishment should they get from the government?
- cryptozeus 7y agoIn other words, company is promoting its own product on its own platform. Some people don’t like it.
- EliRivers 7y agoIn other words, something I paid for lies to me and misdirects me in order to make more money from me. Damn right I don't like it. Do you like it?
- reading-at-work 7y agoI don't like it, but I don't fault them for it. My exact thought when browsing their Cyber Monday deals was: "Oh, looks like they're mostly promoting their own stuff. Meh." close tab I don't get all the fuss over it I suppose. I don't expect Amazon to be impartial. If I want an unbiased source for the best deals, there are plenty of shopping blogs that aggregate that information. EDIT: Actually, I guess I could see the argument that 3rd party sellers are getting the shaft due to this behavior. I'm not sure what the solution is though, as I still feel Amazon should be able to promote their own products on their own platform. Tough call.
- basch 7y agoAre 3rd party sellers entitled to fairness? They choose to use Amazon as a platform, they could use ebay, etsy, woocommerce, shopify, bigcommerce? There is also not much but complexity and time stopping them from using a bunch of those services. Theres also things like ecomdash.com that let you treat all the platforms as just another sales channel of your business. Im not sure how much I feel for the "I sold my soul to the devil for a quick buck and he turned on me, woe is me" crowd. If you dont like the deal, and you dont want to list your product at one of the biggest stores in the world, nobody is forcing you to. There may absolutely be some anti-competitive behavior happening. Im not sure how I feel about amazon watching trends and then cloning products. Being paid by their competitors to be fed market research. But its not a unique business model to Amazon, Wal-mart has been doing it forever. If this behavior type needs correcting, correct the rules, not haphazard sanctions after the fact.
- mikestew 7y agoI don't browse Amazon, but when I was ordering something their "Cyber Monday Deals" caught my eye. Oh, okay, I'll bite. Every single item under "Electronics" was an Amazon device. Really? Because, for example, $150 off an iPad Pro seems worth a mention (I bought one). Surely there was something that was a deal that didn't have Amazon's logo on it. I know, I know, smack 'em on the nose. I don't really care about that so much as the fact that Amazon isn't dead to me just yet, but they're on life support and every little niggle such as this gets me closer to pulling the plug.
- helpPeople 7y agoHope this doesn't get flagged, hn weirdly hides posts that mention- Apple marketing. They likely bought themselves into the top spot. Now that you are in the Apple ecosystem, you will be buying Apple stuff.
- reading-at-work 7y agoTo be the devil's advocate, what if those deals really were the best? What if Amazon sold those items at such a loss that no other deals could compare? (That's probably not the case, but just thinking hypothetically). Also: > That potential favoritism can come in varied forms... even right at checkout when an Amazon customer is ready to buy an item from a non-Amazon brand. This last tactic could be compared to a cashier in a physical store showing you a deal for the store’s own brand when you walk up to pay for a competitor’s product. Would it really be considered anti-competitive if a brick and mortar store did that? I feel like I've had cashiers actually do that before, and I was grateful because usually it's a better deal on some generic stuff where I don't care what brand it actually is.
- scblock 7y agoI don't believe that scenario holds water. All five of the devices in the list are surveillance or spy devices which capture data that Amazon likely considers very valuable. As such, Amazon is likely selling many of these devices at cost or below because they provide Amazon with more data. The list of five devices includes three cameras and two alexa listening devices.
- carty76ers 7y agoLots of hyperbole there. Ring doorbells aren’t cheap and I pay for the subscription plan (fairly limited without it). It generates revenue on the subscription not the data.
- sharkmerry 7y agoI dont doubt they make money from subscriptions, but they have been reported as giving discounts/free Ring products to residents that choose to share. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/06/police-offer-amazon-ring-free-exchange-access/592243/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/06/polic...
- reading-at-work 7y agoI agree with your sentiment that their gadgets are mostly glorified surveillance apparatus. However, that's not a valid reason to bar them from promoting those products. It doesn't really have a bearing on the scenario I described.
- ng7j5d9 7y agoStop the presses ... I asked a Ford salesman what the best Black Friday car deal was and he recommended a Ford!
- eropple 7y agoFord doesn't own the overwhelmingly pervasive marketplace in which all cars, including theirs, are sold.
- ng7j5d9 7y agoAmazon doesn't own the overwhelmingly pervasive marketplace in which all retail products, including theirs, are sold. They do own a website that accounts for something like 4% of retail sales.
- pimlottc 7y ago4% of total retail sales, yes, but for online sales, it’s over 37%. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-13/emarketer-cuts-estimate-of-amazon-s-u-s-online-market-share https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-13/emarketer...
- jdminhbg 7y ago37% isn't "overwhelmingly pervasive" either.
- uoaei 7y agoSurely you're joking. That is utterly dominant. Market-shaping, even.
- jdminhbg 7y agoThe post above describes a hypothetical universe where Ford sells "all cars," not "one out of three cars." And not "one out of three cars, sold via one particular channel that accounts for a small minority of cars sold."
- _arvin 7y agoEveryone is talking about Amazon promoting their own products, but can we talk about the type of products being promoted in the top 5? Security camera, Ring doorbell, Echos, i.e. all surveillance devices people are willingly and voluntarily putting in their private homes, just waiting for that data to be compromised by hackers, data leaks, you name it. Call me tinfoil I don't care, but don't invite me to your homes either if the place is going to be bugged, I'm good.
- imglorp 7y agoYou're worth more as a data source plus customer than just as customer
- iscrewyou 7y ago“F@#k you, pay me.” https://youtu.be/3XGAmPRxV48 https://youtu.be/3XGAmPRxV48
- ne0flex 7y agoMy assumption is that Amazon will look to integrate home services (home cleaning, home cooking, etc.) once enough people have installed those surveillance devices. My idea of their pitch will be: "our home cleaners can access your home while you're away and they will be monitored 100% of the time while in your house, you already have security cameras, etc. installed so there's no need to worry."
- nlfwhulsdhouv 7y agoThat's just great. They're creating this massive underclass of workers that won't be able to afford any of the services they provide. They'll be constantly monitored and any mistake will force them out of the entirely of Amazon's monopolized workforce. Amazon is playing with fire here. Hopefully these new workers will be able to develop solidarity to resist these actions, because the upper middle class these products are marketed to sure aren't going to care about the implications of the surveillance as long as it means no one can lift their new laptop.
- droithomme 7y agoThis really seems to be anti-competitive behavior by a monopolist.
- rb808 7y agoFor me Black Friday and Cyber Monday really didn't have many deals. The Chromebooks I was looking at are all cheaper now than those days. Amazon devices really were discounted heavily though.
- mdorazio 7y agoI used camelcamelcamel to check prices on a bunch of things I was interested in that were advertised as black friday / cyber monday deals. About 90% of them were the same price as normal or the same price as if you just waited for cyclical discounts to come around. There were a few advertised things that had legitimate deals of about 10-15% off the best price from the last 12 months, though.
- bitcoinmoney 7y agoThe Hisense 65” TV at Best Buy was 300$. It’s pretty good so far.
- markosaric 7y agoYeah, I had my Black Friday shopping list ready and camelcamelcamel is a great helper in these situations. Easy to see if you're actually getting a real deal or it's better to wait.
- mirekrusin 7y agoI got 1TB SSD for £80, I think not bad.
- lacker 7y agoSimilarly, when I go to apple.com they say the best deals are all Apple-owned brands. I can't even buy a Kindle there!
- sdnlafkjh34rw 7y agoThese are two completely different businesses. Amazon is a marketplace that sells basically anything sold by anyone. Apple is a manufacturer who lists their own products or accessories for their own products.
- luma 7y agoWhen I walk into my local grocer, they offer better deals on the house brand and advertise as such. Why does Amazon need to push people toward someone else’s product? We don’t hold any other retailer I can think of to this standard.
- uoaei 7y agoThere's a difference between stocking your own products alongside the alternatives and marketing your own products to the exclusion of the alternatives. If you're doing only one or the other, there's no problem. If you're doing both, there's a serious asymmetry and you are taking money from the alternatives' suppliers under false pretenses. The suppliers expect to be on equal footing with its competitors. At this stage, Amazon's products should be considered one supplier out of many and shouldn't be offered special treatment because it belongs to the retailer. When you walk into your local grocer, they aren't putting all the house brand stuff in the front and hiding the name brand stuff in a stockroom where you need to specifically ask for it.
- sdnlafkjh34rw 7y agoWell in this case, the primary issue is around anti-trust and competition. Given that amazon has a bout a 50% share of e-commerce, this kind of behavior could be harmful to competition and well functioning markets. The counter argument is to say that their space is not e-commerce but all retail and thus Amazon is not a monopolist, but I would argue that this not a good precedent to set for a well functioning economy. Most tech companies have avoided anti-trust by arguing that they don't hold monopoly power, but I think we are behind the game in terms of regulation. Again, I wouldn't have a problem with Amazon promoting their own products if it didn't have a strong effect on competition and how well markets operate, but I really believe that a lot of the placers are exhibiting monopolist behavior.
- octocop 7y agoIf you own one of these you kind are bound to fall down the depths of the data harvesting gods.
- BookmarkSaver 7y agoCan you buy Amazon products anywhere except Amazon? I feel like this would be more legitimately "anti-competitive" if these products were available in all sorts of places (like most of Amazon's merchandise). But the only place to buy Kindles and Echos is Amazon.
- tzs 7y agoYou can buy Kindles and Echos and Rings at Best Buy, Target, and Office Depot. You can also buy Echos and Rings, but not Kindles, at Lowes. Home Depot has Rings, but not Echos or Kindles as far as I can tell.
- millstone 7y agoMany comments refer to this as "Amazon promoting its own products over competitors" but that's not the right way to look at this. They aren't promoting their own products, they're promoting exclusively the Ring/Blink/Echo family. In the past I've bought Amazon house brand clothing, batteries, sheets. They aren't promoting similar products that I'm likely to buy. Instead more than half the storefront is devoted to Echo products which I've never bought, and never will. This isn't a case of "here's something we think you'll like," it's "here's something we want you to have."
- miguelmota 7y agoSpot on. Also consumers are attracted to tech gadgets during cyber Monday sales so it's even way easier for them to sell those items over non-electronics.
- jhawk28 7y agoAmazon just needs to hire Kris Kringle...
- JauntTrooper 7y agoSupermarkets and drugstores are notorious for this. Supermarkets will often see a product that is selling well and copy it as closely as they can without going over the line -- similar colors, size, packaging -- then sell it under their own brand right next to the branded product at a more attractive price. It feels unfair if you're a producer, but it's often just one of the costs of having access to the distribution platform.
- miguelmota 7y agoAmazon also slapped the "Deal of the day" label on many products during black Friday and cyber Monday, even though the prices for those products were still the same as before. No price drops but good at creating FOMO for consumers.
- xz0r 7y agoI keep seeing this way too frequently - Amazon pushing everything towards a dystopian environment. These posts gets highly voted and then its as if we forget and move on let things be the way they were. Amazon has gained too much momentum and now its way too difficult to stop it.
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