This policy has a "unintended" side-effect of making Amazon always cheaper, since the face-value price has to be the same or higher, and Amazon's advantage is t

This policy has a "unintended" side-effect of making Amazon always cheaper, since the face-value price has to be the same or higher, and Amazon's advantage is their logistics network it means that cost + shipping is a calculation that Amazon will always win. I get why Amazon is afraid of this, a bunch of retailers setting Amazon prices higher to drive sales to their own site, but this would really just push Amazon to quantify and charge directly for their value as a discovery platform. This doom situation really has to explain why it hasn't killed Target and why retailers wouldn't be willing to pay Amazon a premium for an additional sales avenue.