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"Many complain about Bezos making billions and not paying a fair share of taxes; yet they support and empower him to further do so with every purchase they make

"Many complain about Bezos making billions and not paying a fair share of taxes; yet they support and empower him to further do so with every purchase they make from Amazon." From what I understand, the vast majority of Amazon's profit comes not from the e-commerce website but from AWS. And the overwhelming majority of Bezos' net worth comes from the value of Amazon's stock, does it not? So aren't the people who are most responsible for his wealth the purchasers of Amazon's stock, not the users of the e-commerce part of the business?

joshjdr 5y ago
It’s true they’ve rewarded shareholders and shareholders have rewarded them, but the profit metrics by division are almost trivial in this context. Amazon didn’t turn a profit for nearly 15 years- and not because they couldn’t have. The e-commerce has historically been run at near-zero margin, even willfully running categories at a loss to drive out competitors. As the consumer buying diapers from Amazon you might think you’re just saving a dollar vs diapers.com, it’s low margin so who cares, maybe you’re even sticking it to them if they’re really losing money on the transaction? But then diapers.com doesn’t exist anymore, and shareholders are rewarding Amazon. A single snapshot can only begin to tell the story.
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  So should we have been buying from Amazon's competitors instead, even if they have a worse selection, worse customer service, few if any reviews, slower delivery, and are much more inconvenient to buy from? Variety, choice, and a healthy competitive ecosystem are definitely desirable and to be missed with Amazon's dominance, but there are many reasons Amazon is ahead of other e-commerce sites and brick-and-mortar stores. It'll be interesting to see if/when Amazon finally starts to seriously increase its prices once the rest of its competition are dead and there's no where else for consumers to go. Will there be a reckoning? Will Amazon be split up?

joshjdr 5y ago

It’s true they’ve rewarded shareholders and shareholders have rewarded them, but the profit metrics by division are almost trivial in this context. Amazon didn’t turn a profit for nearly 15 years- and not because they couldn’t have. The e-commerce has historically been run at near-zero margin, even willfully running categories at a loss to drive out competitors. As the consumer buying diapers from Amazon you might think you’re just saving a dollar vs diapers.com, it’s low margin so who cares, maybe you’re even sticking it to them if they’re really losing money on the transaction? But then diapers.com doesn’t exist anymore, and shareholders are rewarding Amazon. A single snapshot can only begin to tell the story.

pmoriarty 5y ago
So should we have been buying from Amazon's competitors instead, even if they have a worse selection, worse customer service, few if any reviews, slower delivery, and are much more inconvenient to buy from? Variety, choice, and a healthy competitive ecosystem are definitely desirable and to be missed with Amazon's dominance, but there are many reasons Amazon is ahead of other e-commerce sites and brick-and-mortar stores. It'll be interesting to see if/when Amazon finally starts to seriously increase its prices once the rest of its competition are dead and there's no where else for consumers to go. Will there be a reckoning? Will Amazon be split up?