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I think there's a substantial number of people who don't comparison shop because nobody else has a real prime competitor. When Amazon has a hundred million sub
by ikeboy 7y ago
I think there's a substantial number of people who don't comparison shop because nobody else has a real prime competitor.
When Amazon has a hundred million subscribers to a service to ship in two days, it's reasonable to ask whether that's a monopoly.
- nordsieck 7y ago> I think there's a substantial number of people who don't comparison shop because nobody else has a real prime competitor. That's true of Costco as well. No one's trying to break them up.
- sidlls 7y agoSam's Club is at least one competitor to Costco.
- reificator 7y agoThat's not what they were saying.
- sidlls 7y agoThe comment is in response to one noting that people don't comparison shop because nobody else is a meaningful competitor for Prime. It doesn't make sense without the implication that Costco also has no meaningful competition.
- ikeboy 7y agoSamsclub and BJs are two competitors with the same basic business model.
- ivalm 7y agoWalmart does 2 day shipping (and is a bigger retailer)
- ikeboy 7y agoYes, but Walmart's online sales are very low, and their selection is as well. If you offer 10k products for fast delivery there's an important sense in which you're not a competitor to someone selling millions of products. Regardless, including Walmart and all other sales shipped in two days, in my estimation, Amazon still had a majority of that market.
- scarface74 7y agoSo if Walmart with all of its resources, supply chain efficiency, and control over suppliers can’t compete against Amazon doesn’t that say more about Amazon’s ability to execute than them using “monopoly power”? If they win because they offer a better experience that means capitalism is winning.
- ikeboy 7y agoAmazon isn't selling products, really. It's selling last mile logistics. Walmart has historically been great at the rest of the logistics chain but never really invested in last mile. If nobody else can compete with Amazon, yes, Amazon executed better than anyone else. But they still have monopoly power. Typically a monopoly will have gotten to that position by executing better than everyone else, but that doesn't necessarily mean they should remain in the monopoly position unregulated.
- scarface74 7y agoAmazon has plenty of warehouses. Are you saying that if any company gets to be successful they should be broken up?
- ikeboy 7y agoNo, at no point in this conversation did I discuss what should be done in response to Amazon's monopoly power.
- gnaritas 7y ago> When Amazon has a hundred million subscribers to a service to ship in two days, it's reasonable to ask whether that's a monopoly. No it isn't. It's not reasonable at all because you're arbitrarily defining a slice of the total market they do well in as "the market"; it's intellectually dishonest and not remotely reasonable. This is exactly the same dishonest tactic as a company putting out a job ad that's so specific that only one person could possibly fit the definition: the one they've already chosen to hire and the ad is a sham to fulfill a legal requirement they're doing an end run around. You don't get to define the market ala-carte to target a specific company like this. The market is online sales, it's not online sales that ships in 2 days.
- didibus 7y agoIsn't Amazon comparison shopping on its own though? As multiple sellers can sell the same item at different set prices? All able to offer FBA 2 day shipping?