the unstoppable local-biz-swallowing pseudo-monopoly that is AMAZON

trademark that now imo

I was talking to my FIL recently about that, how Amazon's business model is very deliberately to not make a profit but rather to spend everything on eating the entire market for everything. Not sure if that means that there's some hypothetical point 20 years in the future where they actually do have monopoly power and start earning profits?

they will distribute 1/3 of america's food, clothing and leisure goods and employ a fifth of the workforce, leading to a semi-hostile government takeover
#illuminatiisreal

Ordered stuff from amazon there it's good

power washer?

Alas

ffs

(haha, as if they give a shit about you specifically).

oh, but they do. because you have specific money and they want it. and the more they know about you specifically, the greater their chances of acquiring that money which is in your specific pocket and not someone else's. but I agree that they don't give a shit beyond that very specific point. if you broke your neck, they'd only try to sell you a hospital bed.

Amazon is such a weird bloated machine now. Some items have become difficult to shop for just because there are so many different options, the sorting systems are so bad/broken, and the reviews are not reliable. E.g. you look for a certain kind of electronic item or light bulb and there are 30 different unknown chinese manufacturers and you're always taking a chance that you'll pick the one that's absolute shit.

Just last night on Amazon, I discovered a) a professionally-packaged bootleg DVD set of a TV show that has not been officially released on DVD, and b) a PS3 peripheral (explicitly advertised as compatible with the PS3) which features one-star reviews going back several years from people who unanimously confirm that said peripheral does not work with a PS3.

It's like a global flea market

if there's anything that links all the disparate "tech" companies now it's enabling brave new forms of con artistry

lol I should unbookmark this thread before I fall any deeper into the trench

you can get anything on there

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31UTUWZTFML._AC_US436_QL65_.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Yyy8DAoXL._SL1097_.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-6ECDPNBL._SL1097_.jpg

thisisfine.jpg

https://i.redd.it/pc6tbns245c01.png

Yes but it doesn't just eliminate them for one day so that's why it adds up to 2.8bn I mean this is simple stuff folks

billions of dollars and he still has no hair

fp'd for baldphobia

bald-exclusionary radical feminist

at least jeff bezos and i have one thing in common

which is to say i too am a billionaire

i fucking love capitalism

https://i.imgur.com/MUuZ9sr.jpg

that's a hell of a triple header headline alright

feel sick now thanks

I know that for all intents and purposes holding stock in Amazon is "wealth" but some part of me sees the number that counts all of his stock as personal net worth and thinks "fake money"

now if he had all those billions in hundos under a really big mattress, now we're talking

By that definition probably almost any billionaire has a lot of his wealth in "fake money." Maybe more diversified fake money.

all money is fake money

I guess the "fake" aspect is that Bezos couldn't just like liquidate his Amazon stake and suddenly have $113 billion in cash. But that's an almost meaninglessly large amount of cash anyway -- I don't even know what you could do with it other than buy another huge corporation.

the NYT probably has a section for that now

sad lol

Imagine the luxury you could live in while trying to work out what to do with 113 billion

hey, it's not that much; a couple billion for food safaris, a couple billion for illuminati school, all of a sudden you're stretching just to pay for next week's jet service to the ponce de leon institute for a long overdue blood transfusion...

a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money

I would buy the Steelers and the Patriots and then make all the players kiss each other

i can’t help feeling it’s plans like that which will prevent you from becoming a billionaire in the first place

Save the billions and the trillions will look after themselves

eh I'll just change my name to "Tony Blockchain" or something and wait for the checks to show up at my door

Jeff Bezos should give out $100 bonuses to every single American.

this is all heading for one of those futures where people cower and whisper in the corner of the space station about whether the corporation is going to jettison them from an airlock for not having enough to cover their oxygen credits for the month

"can you FLY bobby"

HamNo:

This is all fucked. Companies like Amazon build new headquarters and other facilities because they have a business need to do so. If a business has a business need to build a business facility, you do not need to pay the business money to do so. The fact that it has a business need means that ultimately it will make money by doing so. There is no charity involved here. The only thing that every damn city in America is bidding on here is the right to have a business facility located in a certain place. You do not have to be a genius to see that, in aggregate, from a national perspective, this is a losing game for the public. If we did not give private corporations any free public money, they would still build their business facilities, because doing so is a necessary part of doing business, which is what businesses do. Furthermore, taxes are what we charge for public services. By giving Amazon tax breaks, you excuse them from paying (a lot) for public services. As a result, either public services will suffer, or the rest of us will pay more to make up the difference. This is charity money being spent to enrich the richest man in the world. It is the worst possible use of public funds.

https://splinternews.com/make-this-amazon-charade-illegal-1822511600

good lord hamilton is such a basic bitch and also his name is hamilton. by his same stupid 100% tautological argument about 'business sense' if a city determines there is a municipal need to incentivize a giant company to headquarter there then ultimately it will benefit the municipality to do so. is he even saying anything at all, here or in any of his writings? yes, i know bezos/amazon is already rich.. because they fucking generate lots of money. spending some money to make lots more money is not the "worst possible use of public funds"

I thought his arguments made perfect sense.

Amazon depresses local wages and erodes labor norms generally, they do not help workers or citizens generally over time

xp thought experiment: why do both of y'all live in NYC instead of, say, sioux falls south dakota? completely gorgeous cities with no money are much less appealing to 90% of the population than filthy cities with tons of money.

municipalities might well "determine" that it will benefit the city but that don't make it so and it has not turned out to be the case basically anywhere AFAIK beyond the initial influx of jobs xp

I live in a big city because there are jobs in my field and for basically no other reason.

right, jobs are good for cities. companies offer jobs. my point. thank you. thanks.

sleepingbag sounds like the kind of citizen sports owners like to pay for their stadia.

As to why I live here, I plead guilty to being a voluntary inmate (as described in My Dinner with Andre) who should've left in 2002. (Also, in line with Simon, I am probably unemployable above a subsistence level nearly everywhere else. And soon, here.)

one more time for sleepingbag:

Amazon depresses local wages and erodes labor norms generally, they do not help workers or citizens generally over time

more on this from those pesky lefties at The Economist

https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21735020-worlds-largest-online-retailer-underpaying-its-employees-what-amazon-does-wages

to say nothing of the strikes in Italy and Germany