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> (In a statement to Variety, Amazon said, “The overlap was unintentional. [...] So then they are having urgent meetings on "how did we possibly mess up this o

by neilv 2y ago

> (In a statement to Variety, Amazon said, “The overlap was unintentional. [...] So then they are having urgent meetings on "how did we possibly mess up this one, and look like jerks"? Or is someone getting their bonus or promotion for being aggressive?

mcphage 2y ago
Yeah, I think it would be more like “Well, we didn’t plan on being a jerk, but we like it!”
- neilv 2y ago
  "We don't pay attention to the book trade at all for over a decade -- random books just show up in our warehouses, and then money appears in our bank accounts -- so we didn't know about the annual independent booksellers event, and nobody told us."
  - morkalork 2y ago
    "Our elite data scientists built an inscrutable deep neural network to predict and maximize sales opportunities and this is what it told us to do, we will swear complete innocence up and down"
Supermancho 2y ago
Amazon knows about the day. Amazon has third party independent sellers. Amazon decided this was a good opportunity for them and their marketplace. It's not mysterious. It hurts small stores that aren't aligned with Amazon and helps Amazon and small stores aligned with Amazon. Looks like typical Amazon bullying which has already been accepted since nobody is challenging the passthru book marketplace. Amazon used to sell books though, so that matters?
- autobodie 2y ago
  bullying? sounds like standard capitalist market economics to me.
  - Supermancho 2y ago
    Yep. Biggest marketshare will have the largest presence, after a certain size. Then they will always eat the little ones. Standard capitalist market economics. Amazon will benefit more by copying the little market innovations. This is an aspect of bullying.
- zeroonetwothree 2y ago
  Amazon has many employees, it's certainly possible the one that picked the dates of their book sale wasn't aware of this other event. After all, last year they didn't overlap?
Gathering6678 2y ago
There are definitely people in Amazon who are aware of this, but do not want to get themselves in trouble for talking out loud, because this is not their responsibility. I would have done the same thing.
- saagarjha 2y ago
  Sounds like someone skipped out on exercising Ownership, Bias for Action and Earn Trust.
SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
Large corporations don't make off-the-cuff comments on viral controversies. If Amazon made a statement to Variety, there were definitely urgent meetings about the issue before that statement went out. One thing they would have concluded pretty quickly, though, is that there's no way for a large corporation to win a public argument with random small bookshops. If it was in fact inadvertent, writing a fact sheet with detailed refutations of every argument that they acted in bad faith would just make them look obnoxious. So Amazon says what they think is best to say, independent bookstores say they don't buy it, and that kinda has to be the end of it.

by neilv 2y ago

mcphage 2y ago

Yeah, I think it would be more like “Well, we didn’t plan on being a jerk, but we like it!”

neilv 2y ago
"We don't pay attention to the book trade at all for over a decade -- random books just show up in our warehouses, and then money appears in our bank accounts -- so we didn't know about the annual independent booksellers event, and nobody told us."
- morkalork 2y ago
  "Our elite data scientists built an inscrutable deep neural network to predict and maximize sales opportunities and this is what it told us to do, we will swear complete innocence up and down"

Supermancho 2y ago

Amazon knows about the day. Amazon has third party independent sellers. Amazon decided this was a good opportunity for them and their marketplace. It's not mysterious. It hurts small stores that aren't aligned with Amazon and helps Amazon and small stores aligned with Amazon. Looks like typical Amazon bullying which has already been accepted since nobody is challenging the passthru book marketplace. Amazon used to sell books though, so that matters?

autobodie 2y ago
bullying? sounds like standard capitalist market economics to me.
- Supermancho 2y ago
  Yep. Biggest marketshare will have the largest presence, after a certain size. Then they will always eat the little ones. Standard capitalist market economics. Amazon will benefit more by copying the little market innovations. This is an aspect of bullying.
zeroonetwothree 2y ago
Amazon has many employees, it's certainly possible the one that picked the dates of their book sale wasn't aware of this other event. After all, last year they didn't overlap?

Gathering6678 2y ago

There are definitely people in Amazon who are aware of this, but do not want to get themselves in trouble for talking out loud, because this is not their responsibility. I would have done the same thing.

saagarjha 2y ago
Sounds like someone skipped out on exercising Ownership, Bias for Action and Earn Trust.

SpicyLemonZest 2y ago

Large corporations don't make off-the-cuff comments on viral controversies. If Amazon made a statement to Variety, there were definitely urgent meetings about the issue before that statement went out. One thing they would have concluded pretty quickly, though, is that there's no way for a large corporation to win a public argument with random small bookshops. If it was in fact inadvertent, writing a fact sheet with detailed refutations of every argument that they acted in bad faith would just make them look obnoxious. So Amazon says what they think is best to say, independent bookstores say they don't buy it, and that kinda has to be the end of it.