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> "Amazon took my idea and did the same thing at lower cost" This isn't always the case, as many merchants have pointed it out. Sometimes (I'm sure not all the

> "Amazon took my idea and did the same thing at lower cost" This isn't always the case, as many merchants have pointed it out. Sometimes (I'm sure not all the time), it's more "Amazon took my idea, and all the validation work I did in order to develop and prove it and build a market for it, and is selling it below cost in order to force everyone else out of the market" I'm not passing judgement on whether that is okay or not; I'm pointing out that Amazon "winning marketshare" does not mean that they're doing it in a better way, or at a lower cost. Sometimes it just means that Amazon is able to spend/risk a whole lot more money than anyone else.

jdm2212 6y ago
I'm not aware of any evidence that Amazon sells stuff below cost.
- nrmitchi 6y ago
  And really you're not going to get any direct evidence of this. Amazon is a private company that would have to willingly release this information related to their costs, and obviously won't. However during congressional testimony last week Bezos was directly asked this in relation to Echo devices. His response was that "at list price" Echo devices "are not below cost", however stated "sometimes when it’s on promotion it may be below cost, yes." Echo devices (for example) are "on promotion" a significant amount of the time. Hell during Prime Day last year Amazon was selling Fire tablets for like $12 (although that was widely believed to be a pricing error that was still honored).
  - jdm2212 6y ago
    > Amazon is a private company Amazon is a public company. > however stated "sometimes when it’s on promotion it may be below cost, yes." Using hardware as a loss leader isn't unusual -- you get a discount on the hardware but on average they make it back on products/services that are complements of the hardware. Keurig and every printer manufacturer do this, too.

jdm2212 6y ago

I'm not aware of any evidence that Amazon sells stuff below cost.

nrmitchi 6y ago
And really you're not going to get any direct evidence of this. Amazon is a private company that would have to willingly release this information related to their costs, and obviously won't. However during congressional testimony last week Bezos was directly asked this in relation to Echo devices. His response was that "at list price" Echo devices "are not below cost", however stated "sometimes when it’s on promotion it may be below cost, yes." Echo devices (for example) are "on promotion" a significant amount of the time. Hell during Prime Day last year Amazon was selling Fire tablets for like $12 (although that was widely believed to be a pricing error that was still honored).
- jdm2212 6y ago
  > Amazon is a private company Amazon is a public company. > however stated "sometimes when it’s on promotion it may be below cost, yes." Using hardware as a loss leader isn't unusual -- you get a discount on the hardware but on average they make it back on products/services that are complements of the hardware. Keurig and every printer manufacturer do this, too.