3 ms·

Yeah, slow and steady growth...

• ceejayoz 13y ago
  Amazon's never been about "slow and steady" growth. They've been about long-term growth at the expense of short-term profit.
  • ihsw 13y ago
    Or, more to the point, using their dominance and abundance against their competitors. They may have razor thin margins, but that's only because they're leveraging their pricing to cut into the margins of their competitors. Lower prices here and there, raise them elsewhere to offset the cost. Their accounting department definitely has to be kept on their toes, especially to make sure things don't fly off the handle too much.
    • chris_mahan 13y ago
      Amazon: Fast, Cheap, and Good: Pick all three. They've really delivered. I've tried to not like Amazon, but they keep impressing with their fast service, availability, low price.
      • g4m8i7 13y ago
        Exactly. When Rise of the Warrior Cop came out, I wanted to pick it up on release day. None of the local bookstores had it in stock, but all were happy to order it for me. It would have taken them all 4-5 business days. I went to Amazon that night, and with Prime, I got it in 2 days, for about $10 less than the local brick and mortar stores. How can anyone compete with that? Especially if they build out their same-day service?
        • ericd 13y ago
          Yeah, I think same day will strike a complete death blow for retail if they can pull it off well.
      • Goronmon 13y ago
        Yeah, it's becoming really hard to use other places, even my use of Newegg has started to be pared back due to how great Amazon is. For instance, I ordered a new monitor a couple of weeks ago. On the day it was delivered I noticed that Amazon had the monitor for $20 cheaper. So, I opened a chat window with a service rep basically saying "Hey, can I get that $20 back?" and a few minutes later I get "Sure, you should see the credit show up in a couple of days." I mean, it's that type of interaction that makes it really hard to use other retailers.
        • secabeen 13y ago
          Officially, they don't price match themselves anymore, but as you've experienced, they will do it if you haven't received the item yet and they decide to in your case. After all, you could always refuse delivery and re-order. However, there are plenty of reports of them saying, "Sorry, tough".