Shopping around, or going somewhere else is possible, but not that simple. Amazon created a pretty well-oiled system that makes competitor's lives very difficul

Shopping around, or going somewhere else is possible, but not that simple. Amazon created a pretty well-oiled system that makes competitor's lives very difficult. They usually offer the best price, a trustworthy service, they already store all your details, addresses, payment details etc. You know that if there's a problem, they'll sort it out. To shop around means: * figuring out if the site is trustworthy * trying to work out how much delivery would cost * registering for a new account * adding payment info * worrying about returns policy, lost deliveries and so on That's a pretty big hurdle in most cases, if you end up saving only a couple of bucks. better prices, better service and inertia are pretty huge. It feels a little like saying "there's nothing that makes people stick to Apple besides better UI, better software and the fact that all your digital media is already there" (ok, maybe it's not the perfect example, but pretty close).