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In the short term it creates competition and lower priced products. In the long term, Amazon undercuts suppliers who have to exit the market. That reduces comp

In the short term it creates competition and lower priced products. In the long term, Amazon undercuts suppliers who have to exit the market. That reduces competition and allows Amazon to charge more.

supercanuck 6y ago
People seem to think "capitalism" produces the best results simply because of privatization, but it is the competition that is created. It doesn't matter if the one producer is Soviet Russia or Amazon, it hurts everyone in the long run when their is one supplier.
_jal 6y ago
This is a frequent trick in econ 101-style defenses of anarchic markets - play with the time horizon. If you're hungry, a soda is "great for the consumer". For 15 minutes, it alleviates that feeling. Does it follow that everyone should consume only soda?
dubcanada 6y ago
You're focused to much on Amazon. Every company does this just go to your local Walmart, everything is white-label. A law like this would have to be applied to them as well.
- luckylion 6y ago
  > A law like this would have to be applied to them as well. You say it as if that was a bad thing. More competition is good for the consumer, bad for the oligopolists.
  - vntok 6y ago
    But Amazon launching new products is strictly more competition, so...
    - luckylion 6y ago
      Similarly how Microsoft launching Internet Explorer to beat Netscape and eat another Market was technically more competition (for a while, until they've established another monopoly and all competition ceases).
  - toasterlovin 6y ago
    On the contrary, house brand products are great for consumers. Rather than having to figure out if they can trust a brand for a product category that they really don't care about, they can just buy the house brand knowing that a certain minimum level of quality exists. This is why Amazon Basics products are so popular on Amazon: consumers know that, at the very least, Amazon can be sued, a form of recourse that is not available with most of the smaller brands and sellers on their platform.
    - beamatronic 6y ago
      This is me. I bought an AmazonBasics product initially, a phone cable, thinking it would be crap. It wasn't. So I bought another one, a set of HDMI cables. They weren't crap either! Then I bought AmazonBasics wash cloths as a joke. They were quite nice! Now I find myself shopping around the AmazonBasics section first. I still find it amusing in a "Spaceballs, the flamethrower!" kind of way.
      - odysseus 6y ago
        Where IS the AmazonBasics section? Is there a way to restrict searches to only Amazon white label products?
        beamatronic 6y ago
        I see it as a tab at the top
ghostwriter 6y ago
> That reduces competition and allows Amazon to charge more. that never happens, unless there's a regulation in place that prevents new sellers to get into the market as quickly as they can. When a price for the product begins to rise, it attracts new sellers, as now there's a wider price range to position your competing product.
bofadeez 6y ago
If they attempt to charge more in the future when others exit, that will invite a flood of competition to re-enter.

supercanuck 6y ago

People seem to think "capitalism" produces the best results simply because of privatization, but it is the competition that is created. It doesn't matter if the one producer is Soviet Russia or Amazon, it hurts everyone in the long run when their is one supplier.

_jal 6y ago

This is a frequent trick in econ 101-style defenses of anarchic markets - play with the time horizon. If you're hungry, a soda is "great for the consumer". For 15 minutes, it alleviates that feeling. Does it follow that everyone should consume only soda?

dubcanada 6y ago

You're focused to much on Amazon. Every company does this just go to your local Walmart, everything is white-label. A law like this would have to be applied to them as well.

luckylion 6y ago
> A law like this would have to be applied to them as well. You say it as if that was a bad thing. More competition is good for the consumer, bad for the oligopolists.
- vntok 6y ago
  But Amazon launching new products is strictly more competition, so...
  - luckylion 6y ago
    Similarly how Microsoft launching Internet Explorer to beat Netscape and eat another Market was technically more competition (for a while, until they've established another monopoly and all competition ceases).
- toasterlovin 6y ago
  On the contrary, house brand products are great for consumers. Rather than having to figure out if they can trust a brand for a product category that they really don't care about, they can just buy the house brand knowing that a certain minimum level of quality exists. This is why Amazon Basics products are so popular on Amazon: consumers know that, at the very least, Amazon can be sued, a form of recourse that is not available with most of the smaller brands and sellers on their platform.
  - beamatronic 6y ago
    This is me. I bought an AmazonBasics product initially, a phone cable, thinking it would be crap. It wasn't. So I bought another one, a set of HDMI cables. They weren't crap either! Then I bought AmazonBasics wash cloths as a joke. They were quite nice! Now I find myself shopping around the AmazonBasics section first. I still find it amusing in a "Spaceballs, the flamethrower!" kind of way.
    - odysseus 6y ago
      Where IS the AmazonBasics section? Is there a way to restrict searches to only Amazon white label products?
      - beamatronic 6y ago
        I see it as a tab at the top

ghostwriter 6y ago

> That reduces competition and allows Amazon to charge more. that never happens, unless there's a regulation in place that prevents new sellers to get into the market as quickly as they can. When a price for the product begins to rise, it attracts new sellers, as now there's a wider price range to position your competing product.

bofadeez 6y ago

If they attempt to charge more in the future when others exit, that will invite a flood of competition to re-enter.