Amazon is a Monopoly

Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, the Google owners. The Democrats have taken over the economy and they are just as greedy as Republicans. Who would have thought?

No Donald it isn’t

I know a chick who works there in marketing. She’s an icy cunt. Of course she thrives in that environment of sociopathic transhumanists.

Is it though? I'm always surprised that it's slice of American retail isn't as big as it seems - though it's growing. Also, almost everything you order on Amazon you can order somewhere else, often multiple places. So, even if it's percentage of a certain product market is large, it's not like there's not a choice. Do Americans even care? They'll ALWAYS choose price and convenience.

Agreed with R4. It's not a Dem vs Repub thing. Ultimately people care about convenience and their wallet. People, not political parties.

Complain about data tracking? Yeah but smartphone usage is higher than ever. They're so convenient!

Complain about evil Uber or Amazon? But they're so convenient.

Etc.

OP should Google the definition of "monopoly". It doesn't mean having a dominant market share or being a large company. If the consumer has a choice, it's not a monopoly.

I worked directly for Bezos for 8 years. AMA!

R5, Amazon and Uber are different things. I don't complain about Amazon and happily use it.

So Amazon is turning people into slaves. Uber isn't. Got it.

OP wants to stop Amazon before it turns all of us into slaves. Slave to what? To their jobs? To their e-commerce?

Do you think he’s a sociopath R7?

I always thought it was Snakes and Ladders.

People, aka consumers, get more lazy. Why were shopping malls so popular in the first place? Everything's available at one place. Now everything's available in one of the biggest online shopping malls in the world. Amazon.

People want easy, cheap, and comfort. Amazon provides that by working their workforce to the bone.

Amazon is convenient no doubt - it's fantastic if you know what you want. It sort of sucks for casual shopping.

R11, he's a very mercurial guy. Meticulous, tic-ish, laughed uproariously at things that were only slightly funny. Every meeting with him tooks days and weeks of preparation. I worked on Kindle for him, for two years before the product launched. If you walked in with an agenda that didn't look right, he'd stop the meeting before it started and tell you to reschedule. Every second was accounted for, there was no rambling, there was no meandering. Proposal, decision, proposal, decision. He was only ever nice to me, but he made several grown men cry after meetings. He never gave any praise, only direction. The smartest people money could buy were in the room with him, and he'd poke holes in every theory, every concept. He's freakishly intelligent. He always just reminded me of the uber-nerd that made good and has zero time for lesser ideas. Way more people-friendly than Gates, whom I've also worked with but not directly. The oddest part to me is both men managed to snag totally normal, lovely wives (Bezos's first, not his current hoochie.) His attitude and demeanor started to change when he bulked up and started eating clean. From nerd to grade-A dick. That's another post.

No genuine nice guy will ever rise to the top in this society. It's a sociopaths' game where players are supposed to out-sociopath each other.

Well my personal insane conspiracy theory is that the coronavirus was created in the Amazon.com labs, and this is all a great big plot to drive every brick-and-mortar retailer in the world out of business.

It's certainly having that effect.

r1 they aren't Democrats. No major CEO is, because you have to be a sociopath to be a successful CEO of a huge corporation. They're all Libertarian at best and Republican at worst. They just aren't public about it, unless they're total morons.

R6 OP's title should've said, "Amazon is becoming a monopoly", which is basically what the linked article is about. "Monopoly abuses" is in that title.

R17 that’s not a bad one. We have a Coronavirus conspiracy thread here somewhere.

Also, Amazon sells cars now. This whole thing will affect every sales position. Why go down to Nissan and see your friend’s cousin Bobby, when you can do everything online and get it delivered to your door... so many sales people are being disconnected from customers and god forbid you just got a sales gig with no events to network at you’re screwed!

r20 Carvana has been selling cars online for years, it isn't a new thing. No one likes dealing with slimy car salesmen who have a different price based on how well you can bargain them down. Good riddance, frankly.

R15 So since he's thought of all those wonderful ways to poke holes in smart people's ideas, does he have a way to survive the lynch mob of people with bricks, pitchforks, fire torches coming to set fire to his multiple homes?

Especially if it really does get more like the Great Depression. How much more advertising propoganda does he think people can take? Us stupids know a 100 million is nothing for the richest man in the world. Hell, his wife got billions and he's still the richest.

I'm seriously wondering if someone could get crazy enough to launch a few Molotov cocktails at his yacht. If people get to starving like Venezuela I guarantee that will happen. Maybe the children of the warehouse workers who committed suicide.

Amazon is such an unnecessary, unneeded company anyway.

bezos is richer than all the other billionaires in the world put together. boil him in oil

R21 good riddance to whatever your career is too.

R15, thanks for sharing. Please do tell us about what happened when he started to bulk up.

Yes R15 more Bezos dirt!

No-one is forcing anyone to shop at Amazon, or ride with Uber, or drink Starbucks. Sorry...no sympathy here.

R15 here. Every summer, Bezos had a "fireside", four days of leadership bonding. Same place every summer. The first few summers, when he was still schlubby, wearing his button-down blue cotton shirts and dad jeans with a leather belt and--he always wore weird shoes--I distinctly remember he had several pair of "rocketdogs". Anyhow, during first few summers, he came out for the business-focused meetings and dinners, but we wouldn't see him for most of day. Rest of us went biking, hiking, rafting, etc. Started bulking up and I remember the first summer he really started to look different, he shaved his head down completely, started wearing tee shirts, and started showing off his body. His attitude and demeanor changed from dork to "I know I can get pussy now" and he seemed to loosen up a lot, but still in a stiff way. Like if a robot just got some oil. He still didn't come on group activities but he started bringing his wife and kids along, which he never did before, and seemed to be enjoying life more in general. (I sound here like I know him super personally, and I really don't, I don't think the guy has any friends or close confidantes. Every year, he had a highly-coveted "shadow" that was his protege, but those people signed a mountain of NDAs. We all did, that's why there's so little personal info on him out there.) I noticed the women on the team were different around him, too. No longer the schlub, he brought out a flirtier, kinder, more open vibe. Several of us knew it was a matter of time with MacKenzie.

I did go to his home once for a post-Kindle launch celebratory dinner. My identity and car was checked at the gate, twice, I had to hand over my, at the time, BlackBerry, and was given a reserved parking spot then taken to the house in a golf cart.

He's a true Libertarian.

I did see him fire a Sr. VP on the spot. No emotion, no follow-up, just a swift, harsh "you won't be wasting any more of our time" and we all knew he meant for good, not just for that meeting. The recipient knew, too, he got up and left and about an hour later, I saw his email and badge had been deactivated.

Not huge, dirty stories, but the guy got way dickier over the years. Sociopathic? Not sure. Asshole? Oh god yeah.

R28 sounds like he’s eventually going to murder someone.

Who is worse Jeff Bezos or the Walton family who owns Walmart?

R30 absolutely Bezos, the Waltons started the trend but never quite got to 100%. If Amazon continues in 10 years 95% of retail will be gone.

Yep R29

That’s a manifesto if I’ve ever seen one.

No I meant Bezos not the Datalounger...

Years ago Bezos was interviewed for one of those financial magazines (The Economist, maybe?) He came off as a real life Lex Luthor obsessed with world domination. After reading that I cancelled my Amazon account and refuse to patronize any business related to him, not that he needs my measly dollars anyway.

He seems to be a cold, ultra creepy sociopath who gets more dangerous as he accumulates more power.

The most effective way to stop Amazon is to do that with the power of your own wallet.

Don’t buy Amazon.

Looks like on Twitter it's trending about how Jeff Bezos could possibly become the first trillionaire and that during this pandemic he has continued to get richer and richer.

A new analysis shows that Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, will be the first billionaire to turn into a trillion by 2026 at the age of 62.

They are bring slavery back. These motherfuckers are sociopaths. Take it to the guillotine.

Yes, yes, those greedy fuckers, all Dems, except for:

EXON

General Motors

Ford

Boeing

Chevron

Walmart

CVS

ATT

Bank of America

Capital One

Progressive

Home Depot

Costco

Comcast

Kroger

Met Life

Pepsi Co

Procter and Gamble

Fed EX

Lowes

Goldman Sacks

Morgan Stanely

Merk

Tyson Food

The Fortune 500 and more.

R39 schizophrenic

[quote]They are bring slavery back. These motherfuckers are sociopaths. Take it to the guillotine.

Russian Troll posting from France circa 1787.

maybe it's just time traveling troll?

Don't ever go to amazon.com. Just buy it from some other site.

Fuck that, I love Amazon. Especially Amazon Prime! Free shipping 2 days or less, some times same day!

And trust me, I look around at other retaileres, even downloaded apps that can price check and more times than not, Amazon is not only the best price, it's also the fastest and FREE SHIPPING!

R44, illustrates R4's point.

[quote]I worked directly for Bezos for 8 years. AMA!

How big is your dick?

There is no moral justification for being a billionaire, let alone a trillionaire (Chrome is telling me this word doesn't exist, but it will soon). It's not about being a socialist or a communist, it's about recognizing that this level of hoarding represents a huge strain for the economy. These 2,153 freaks, who are richer than over half of the world's population, have removed from circulation a grotesque amount of wealth (money, property, etc) just so they can sit on it for when they finally cause an economic and environmental collapse.

My dad went to school with Jeff

Isn’t corporate feudalism the endgame of the ultrawealthy?

You don't have to be a sociopath to make it in business. A lot of CEOs are sociopaths but many aren't. There are plenty of Dems at the top. None of them prominently display their political affiliations except some conservatives. The problem is we've allowed them to get so insanely rich they have too much power. But which party makes them pay higher taxes and at least attempts to regulate their bullshit? Only the Dems. The GOP lets them run wild. Now we have huge behemoths and a few people owning 90% of the wealth. What could go wrong?

The GOP has pandered to them to such an extent we all pay for it. They are too powerful for the Dems to buck them completely.

Amazon is just a modern day shopping mall. None of you bitches had a problem before with a shopping mall owner before when you were stuffing your faces full of Panda Express.

Amazon apologists are lazy and spoiled. Many individual retailers have free shipping above a certain threshold. If you're so enthralled by FREE SHIPPING that you'll place separate orders for, say, a bottle of vitamins and a pair of shoe inserts on individual whims just because you can, then you're a problem.

R39 Most of those companies, as corrupt as some of them are, have contributed more to the US than Amazon has. It's mostly tech companies that have made service jobs obsolete or accelerated outsourcing. Amazon makes Wal Mart look like a mom and pop store in comparison. Additionally, Amazon has even worse working conditions.

r24 you sound really emotional. May we presume you are a car salesman?

Bezos is not a sociopath. Psychopath perhaps.

r55 Libertarians are often sociopaths.

So we all know it's really, incredibly, incredibly, egregiously fucked up that Bezos and the 2000+ billionaire ilk absorbed 50% of the world's money. That's fine, right?

So maybe there is something to the trickle down economically theory, but what is stopping it from becoming an oligarchy that doesn't trickle, but releases a drop every now and again? That's what we have and the stream keeps closing, the faucet tightening.

So guys, please join me in grabbing a hatchet and chopping that fucking faucet apart! Make it spew like a geyser! A fire hydrant! Fuck the little trickles. Do your own dirty work, Bezos!

Strike, fucking strike! Strike! Strike!

[quote]None of you bitches had a problem before with a shopping mall owner before when you were stuffing your faces full of Panda Express.

Wait a fucking minute. Amazon now has PANDA FUCKING EXPRESS???

Any billionaire who has more many than Trump and gets under his skin is still going to get my business.

Isn't Bezos friends with Ivanka and Jared?

Unfortunately people are just lazy and don't shop around anymore. If they did, they'd realize that Amazon really isn't a bargain at all.

I bought a bag for my Mom, summer shoes and an All Clad pot - all from sites that had prices the same as Amazon or cheaper. So I just shopped at those sites. Even a rolling cooler I bought from a local store was priced the same as Amazon. So I just bought it at the local store.

And shipping is much faster from other sites than Amazon these days. Now everything on Amazon takes at least a week. So much for "Prime".

Almost forgot... I really want chinese food but restaurants are still closed. So I wanted to try to make some myself. There are some ingredients you can't find at a regular supermarket, so I had to either trek to an Asian market or go on Amazon. I needed dark soy sauce (apparently its different from regular soy sauce). Amazon had it priced at $11. I went to the asian market today and it cost $2.29. Enough said.

Yeah, they don't offer prime shipping on food items. Some of it is ridiculous like 99 cent snack packs with $5 shipping. They also have gotten really sneaky with hidden charges the last year or so.

They even have gone so far to apply personal credit to listed prices so a person may think they are ordering something at a discount when they actually just blow all their credit.

[quote] Way more people-friendly than Gates, whom I've also worked with....

Can you describe your experiences/impressions of Gates (as you’ve done for Bezos...TY!), R15 / R28?

Must be weird to be that rich and know you're going to die in a couple decades (or less) and you can't take it with you. Damn!

Bezos doesn't need your business, R59, and being against Trump doesn't mean he's any better than him.

I like Amazon because I can keep a gift card balance there indefinitely and buy almost anything. I can keep my cards all paid off that way too. I don't have to keep track of random card amounts at random stores. Plus they don't charge a fee like say PayPal dose to add money. Also, I like that they keep history so I can reorder or check out things I bought in the past. That's such a pain to do with other retailers and having them all in one spot works for me. I don't do food though, it's way over priced.

Go for it, R68!

Support Bezos! And his billions (soon to be trillions)!

Because it’s soooooo easy! And convenient!

Although it’s not quite so easy nor convenient for some: that senior VP who was described above, the DL poster who told us about his antics - and described his behaviour has a$$holish, or questionably sociopathic - his workers who struggle and have died with Covid, the businesses he’s stomped out of existence with his monopoly, his impact on privacy, his global reach and other issues.

Bu.....bu.....but it’s sooooooo easy and convenient to order from Amazon for YOU!

Thanks R69, I am going to watch a free Prime movie now.

You’re a keeper, R68.

Zuckerberg is a republican. Facebook is partially responsible for Trump. Hey R7 you might not know the answer but the rumor is that Bezos is hung like a mule? There were dick pics that were supposedly around during his divorce and people who have seen them have all said "whoa" - true?

This thread is going straight into my Best of Datalounge folder.

Here is a documentary from 2017 by David Carr-Brown, possibly not available outside Europe nor even France or Germany.

It shows Jeff Bezos from the dorky days and retells his early beginnings as a hedge fund manager/analyst at D. E. Shaw where his work as an analyst led him to decide to invest in online retail, in 1992. He set up Amazon the next year, in 1993. Moved out of NYC all the way to Seattle and started the company that is now known as Amazon "from his garage". Yes, well, his garage-house that had been set up specifically for this, with an initial investment partly funded by his parents who gave him an alleged $300,000??? So this is a story of riches to riches.

Anyway.

The film also features Katherine Mangu-Ward of Reason magazine, a Libertarian publication. And we get a glimpse of Bezos obsession with colonizing space (with who? convicts? the elderly? Anyone we don't like?)

R15 If you have more to tell us about your experience, please do. Also feel free to contribute to any book, publication, etc that will enlighten us as to the workings of this juggernaut that is Amazon.

[quote] And we get a glimpse of Bezos obsession with colonizing space (with who? convicts? the elderly? Anyone we don't like?)

Perhaps we can send R68 / R70?

He’s such an Amazon fan after all..

[quote]Bu.....bu.....but it’s sooooooo easy and convenient to order from Amazon for YOU!

Oh please, Zuckerberg is a closet Republican, come back when you get off Facebook and Instagram.

[quote] Oh please, Zuckerberg is a closet Republican, come back when you get off Facebook and Instagram

What the h*ll does this have to do with this discussion?

If you are R68 / R70, you really are coo coo for cocoa puffs. (i.e. crazy)

(And many are not on FB or the ‘Gram). Nor a Zuck fan either.

As if somehow concern over Bezos and the monopoly of Amazon makes one a Zuck supporter??

Where did you come up with THAT?

r77 the beginning of the discussion was that these billionaires are all democrats and taking over.

They're not Democrats. They're Libertarians. This has been discussed.

I’d fuck him!

I’d fuck him!

[quote]This thread is going straight into my Best of Datalounge folder.

I worry about you and your folders r73.

[quote] Must be weird to be that rich and know you're going to die in a couple decades (or less) and you can't take it with you. Damn!

A trillion dollars can buy a lot of research on how to keep going on.

Thans to Anazon and Walmart, completely useless crap from China is now available in 2 days with free shipping!

I have never used Amazon.

And don’t plan to in the future.

(Though I stopped shopping at Whole Foods after Bezos acquired it - and WF seemed to deteriorate - admit to purchasing about 20 items there since :( )

I represented injured Amazon workers. Exploitation. Every minute of the workday is accounted for. Time spent walking to and from the restroom and time there.

“Pickers” have headphones directing them to get various items from various shelves and then place them in a tote on a conveyer belt. Oppressive conditions. Fifty year old women having to climb and lift heavy objects. They get injured but their work comp doctor keeps them working until they keel over.

I remember Book Depository was my favourite vendor on Amazon - until Amazon bought it. After that it was all downhill. Made me realise what Amazon was really up to - complete market domination, and ultimately world domination.

r86 — Actually, most pickers are directed by scanners rather than headphones, but your point is well taken.

My Amazon account dates back 20 years! Longer than most of you have had relationships. Cant quit him now.

Amazon is considering buying JC Penney.

Amazon (AMZN) is reportedly in talks with JCPenney (JCP), the debt-laden retailer that filed for bankruptcy protection last week. Amazon stock moved up.

According to apparel industry trade publication Women's Wear Daily, Amazon has a team in Plano, Texas, where JCPenney is headquartered. The report cited an unnamed source saying there is a dialogue between the two companies.

The acquisition of JCPenney could potentially bolster the online retailer's burgeoning apparel business. It's also possible Amazon could be interested in acquiring some of the stores that JCPenney plans to sell and use them as distribution outlets.

More at link

JC Penny? That would be a mistake. Everything about them sucks. Especially their clothes.

I stopped Amazon for anything except music and cancelled Prime.

*stopped using

If Amazon is a monopoly, why is it so easy not to use them? I haven’t ordered from Amazon in years.

The cable companies have monopolies. The power companies too. You have no choice. With Amazon, there is always a choice to buy elsewhere.

Just because Amazon is popular does not make it a monopoly.

Make sure the checks from your Amazon warehouse clients clear soon r86

Out of all the jobs to soon be replaced by robots, theirs are definitely next on the list.

[quote] JC Penny? That would be a mistake. Everything about them sucks. Especially their clothes.

If they bought JC Penney it would probably be for their real estate locations, their employees, their distribution centers and as outlets for Amazon's existing suppliers. JC Penney does have a few decent brands, some of their Arizona brand is good.

R96 no under 35 knows JCP brands, so a logo and design overhaul and throw them up on Amazon

[QUOTE]It shows Jeff Bezos from the dorky days and retells his early beginnings as a hedge fund manager/analyst at D. E. Shaw where his work as an analyst led him to decide to invest in online retail,

So he's basically a Wall Street douchebag who struck gold.

Now I despise him even more.

R92 Same here.

How crazy. I bought a thrusting dildo from Amazon, which I will be using tonight, envisioning Bezos banging me - while manifesting the man of my dreams <3

LOL - yes, because you had absolutely NOTHING to do with Amazon annual sales hitting $233 billion. If you don't want Bezos to become richer as Amazon becomes more profitable, then stop buying stuff from them.

By the way, Walmart annual sales is almost double that of Amazon, so if Amazon is a "monopoly" then Walmart is one...oh wait, they must be a duopoly since there are two of them.

But, please explain how their prices are higher and are hurting the consumer. Or how there are no other options for consumers.

You clearly just enjoy blowing the dog whistle and screaming monopoly without actually even knowing what one is.

[quote] [R96] no under 35 knows JCP brands, so a logo and design overhaul and throw them up on Amazon

So you are telling me that all those people under 35 I see in JC Penney the few times I go there, have no idea about the brands? or are you projecting?

R101 stick a rusty pipe up your cunt

But, r103, Monopoly is so much fun...

Except for that conspiracy where they keep saying that the Monopoly man, Rich Uncle Pennybags, doesn't have a monocle.

I know he had one on the game when I was growing up.

Even when you only have two major players, perhaps it's not a monopoly, but then it becomes a cartel - no better.

Amazon is a Cartel

[quote]Amazon is a Cartel

You mean like DL fav 90210 perpetual teen Gabrielle Cartel?

R95 — It’s going to be logistically difficult for Amazon to replace even a majority of its fulfillment center workers with robots. Facilities have to be specifically designed for their use, and converting existing FCs to robotic would be extremely expensive (many if not most Amazon FCs have state & local tax rebates associated with them that are pegged to the number of jobs at a site) Also, there are certain classes of inventory that the Kiva robots are ill-equipped to handle (larger bulkier items, as well as clothing/apparel).

R108 with tax incentives they’ll just treat humans like disposable robots, they already are.

It's ironic the handful of people became wealthy by using the very thing the tax payer paid for to develop: the internet -- which we have to pay for to get basic usage. Hope the cheapskates buying cheap plastic products (that break within a month), are factoring internet, computer, and so on, into that cheap price.

Reminds me of uber drivers not calculating in their car costs. No wonder there's so many fatasses. They can't even walk around a store.

Yes let’s take away a useful mode of buying for future pandemics. Even Bezos knows that Amazon won’t last forever. Something new will come along and they will be like the big box stores currently dying out.

R111 it could take 30 years. Walmart is still thriving.

Amazon just needs to pay their fair share of federal tax. They cannot pay nothing so that we have the world’s first trillionaire sitting on his piles of cash.

Bill Maher weighs in...

I know the Real Time writers read Datalounge.