Another "plus" for Amazon

[HRM Resident]

I received a $28 gadget from Amazon yesterday. Today, I got a
chance to try it out. It was defective in that it didn't work at
all. I set up a return request with Amazon, and a new option appeared.
They will pick it up tomorrow. Well, a courier they use will. No
charge. No packaging or the like. Just put it in the box it came
in. The "best" option before was to print off a postage-paid label
and take it to the nearest post office.

I suspect they were getting complaints from people without
printers or those who didn't have an easy way to get to the post
office. It's getting harder and harder to justify buying locally.
While I don't like supporting huge USA behemoths, they are better
than most of the things that remain here.

For 10-12 years, they have been getting better and better. I've
been waiting for them to use their "almost monopoly" to increase
prices and such. So far, they have not. I read some time ago that
their online sales are not their biggest profit machine. Rather,
it's AWS (Amazon Web Services), where they rent out CPU and disk
space, where you can load an operating system and then a web server
like Apache or Nginx. These AWS virtual machines are expensive and
used by most companies nowadays.

My only data point on that is that I use a Toronto-based one for
$10 a month, while the equivalent resources from AWS are $15 a
month. I suspect their online selling is break-even or only a small
profit to get good publicity. If that's the goal, it is working.
Last I heard, Bezos was worth $150 billion.

[Gurpster]

Post by HRM Resident
I received a $28 gadget from Amazon yesterday. Today, I got a
chance to try it out. It was defective in that it didn't work at
all. I set up a return request with Amazon, and a new option appeared.
They will pick it up tomorrow. Well, a courier they use will. No
charge. No packaging or the like. Just put it in the box it came
in. The "best" option before was to print off a postage-paid label
and take it to the nearest post office.
I suspect they were getting complaints from people without
printers or those who didn't have an easy way to get to the post
office. It's getting harder and harder to justify buying locally.
While I don't like supporting huge USA behemoths, they are better
than most of the things that remain here.
For 10-12 years, they have been getting better and better. I've
been waiting for them to use their "almost monopoly" to increase
prices and such. So far, they have not. I read some time ago that
their online sales are not their biggest profit machine. Rather,
it's AWS (Amazon Web Services), where they rent out CPU and disk
space, where you can load an operating system and then a web server
like Apache or Nginx. These AWS virtual machines are expensive and
used by most companies nowadays.
My only data point on that is that I use a Toronto-based one for
$10 a month, while the equivalent resources from AWS are $15 a
month. I suspect their online selling is break-even or only a small
profit to get good publicity. If that's the goal, it is working.
Last I heard, Bezos was worth $150 billion.

Very interesting... I don't know how they do it, and would be very
interested to see what takes place behind the scenes. I think we all
appreciate the aims and ethos behind the buy local concept, but Amazon
is just so extremely good at it. Where will this all end up in 10 or 20
years? Any prediction?

John

[HRM Resident]

Post by Gurpster
Very interesting... I don't know how they do it, and would be very
interested to see what takes place behind the scenes. I think we all
appreciate the aims and ethos behind the buy local concept, but Amazon
is just so extremely good at it. Where will this all end up in 10 or
20 years? Any prediction?
John

I'll have a better idea of the new return option later. They are
supposed to pick up the item today.

Where will it end up? It's hard to say as one can't predict the
future. All I can offer is what happened in the past. The USA does
have a pretty good history of enforcing their anti-trust laws and
slapping down monopolies. They broke up the "robber barons" over 100
years ago (the oil and railroad monopolies.) In the 1960s they broke
up AT&T.

But we are in a different world today, so I don't know if the
political will still exists to do it in the 21st century. Also Amazon
hasn't flexed its muscles yet. Their prices and service are simply
better than the competition. If/when there is no competition, will they
be stopped if they increase prices? A good question.

I don't know of a single instance where Canada has broken up a
monopoly. There may have been some legal action on price fixing here,
but I can't recall any. The EU seems to be quite good at stopping this
practice.

[HRM Resident]

Post by HRM Resident
I'll have a better idea of the new return option later. They are
supposed to pick up the item today.
snip<

They came and got it around 2 PM. Seems to work. The item's order
status says "Your return is in transit. Your refund has been issued."

[Gurpster]

Post by HRM Resident

Post by HRM Resident
I'll have a better idea of the new return option later. They are
supposed to pick up the item today.
snip<

They came and got it around 2 PM. Seems to work. The item's order
status says "Your return is in transit. Your refund has been issued."

Amazing... how is that cost absorbed (and recharged) I wonder... there's
no way a retail model can just eat that. Someone has a plan...

John

[HRM Resident]

Post by Gurpster
Amazing... how is that cost absorbed (and recharged) I wonder... there's
no way a retail model can just eat that. Someone has a plan...
John

I am pretty sure they make most of their money from AWS.
They rent out virtual computers from their massive server
farms. They are ultra reliable in that area and charge a lot.
I *think* they are breaking even or making only a little profit
with online sales. Just a guess. I can’t imagine how they are
making much selling stuff for the same or less than the
competition, especially when they deliver it to your door
and almost everything is returnable with no questions asked.

[James Warren]

Post by HRM Resident

Post by Gurpster
Amazing... how is that cost absorbed (and recharged) I wonder... there's
no way a retail model can just eat that. Someone has a plan...
John

I am pretty sure they make most of their money from AWS.
They rent out virtual computers from their massive server
farms. They are ultra reliable in that area and charge a lot.
I *think* they are breaking even or making only a little profit
with online sales. Just a guess. I can’t imagine how they are
making much selling stuff for the same or less than the
competition, especially when they deliver it to your door
and almost everything is returnable with no questions asked.

My understanding is that Amazon is a middle man. They charge sellers
hefty fees to use their platform. It is the sellers that take the hit
when items are returned, not Amazon.

[HRM Resident]

Post by James Warren
My understanding is that Amazon is a middle man. They charge sellers
hefty fees to use their platform. It is the sellers that take the hit
when items are returned, not Amazon.

I don’t know about that, but the gadget I sent back
yesterday was opened and it didn’t work. It’s likely in
the HRM landfill now. A $28 item that probably cost
less than $5 to make is not worth returning to anyone.

[James Warren]

Post by HRM Resident

Post by James Warren
My understanding is that Amazon is a middle man. They charge sellers
hefty fees to use their platform. It is the sellers that take the hit
when items are returned, not Amazon.

I don’t know about that, but the gadget I sent back
yesterday was opened and it didn’t work. It’s likely in
the HRM landfill now. A $28 item that probably cost
less than $5 to make is not worth returning to anyone.

That's likely true. In this case I don't think the seller got his money
but Amazon got their fee for listing it on their platform.