Is Amazon Getting too big? Amazon Air

www.cnn.com...

UPS and FedEx plunge on Amazon Air fears

Let's face it Amazon has been dominate in the marketplace for a while now. They have literally changed how many people shop. The one thorn in their side has always been shipping. They rely heavily on UPS and Fedex, and now it seems those two companies have a lot at stake with that business. Ten percent of your business coming from Amazon is a lot, probably too much. I remember Walmart and Mcdonalds doing similar moves years ago and putting companies out of business.

It also announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in order to build an Amazon Air hub on more than 900 acres of land that it is leasing near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Amazon bought an additional 210 acres earlier this year.

Is Amazon a Monopoly? Maybe not yet, but it sure seems that's where they are headed!

a reply to: JAGStorm

It won't be hard for them either.

FedEx Ground showed how the model can be done.

They bought RPS to start, which gave them a little bit of a jumping off point on the Ground (this was when FedEx was strictly air distributed, not linehaul).

Their next move for fast expansion was genius.

Lease the buildings, hell people even build them new terminals putting the upfront cash for a lease promise of X amount of years. Next, all the drivers are contractors, or hired by contractors, vehicles and the insurance is on the contractor, this goes for the linehaul drivers too who have to have their own rigs... Only thing really owned by FedEx Ground is the trailers.

a reply to: JAGStorm

But to answer your question, yes, they are getting to big.

They host the CIA's cloud, and are the front runner to win the Pentagon.

That makes me really uncomfortable, and makes me think they will be favored in any kind of case that is likely to be brought up against them.

They'll simply have too much leverage against the Government IMO.

Jeff Bazos's net worth puts him in the top 50 countries if he was one, mixed with the value of Amazon, I'm thinking in a few years we'll all look back and wonder how we let them get so big.

free markets bruh if Amazon owns everything on the planet it's cause Jeff deserves it man, free markets bruh

Amazon is becoming a Monopoly, causing a decline in businesses in your and my local areas. The whole internet sales thing is going to bust our consumer based economy and bring our country to it's knees. We have exported the majority of the jobs producing things, now they want to take away all the other jobs, technology even taking your order at the burger joint and cooking it and delivering it. Where are we going to get the money to buy those burgers or the stuff off Amazon if nobody is working. We will wind up with a big poor class and an rich class, all of the people in the middle class will be poor. In fact, most of the middle class actually is far in debt, if the stock market tumbled and the economy pooped out for a year, people would be in jeopardy of losing their homes again. Not many people learned from the collapse of 08

a reply to: CriticalStinker

We (the people) didn't "let him" become so big.

We *made* him big because we are lazy and will pay for his company to provide a service.

When we look back honestly, realizing our fault, we will say "we created a monster!".

a reply to: JAGStorm

Jeff Bezos said it himself that Amazon is not too big to fail, let's wait and see what happens.

a reply to: rickymouse

this is what the right wingers don't realize is that our jobs are being replaced by machine and they think their personal wealth is more important than the survival of our society

it's a joke

originally posted by: muzzleflash
a reply to: CriticalStinker

We (the people) didn't "let him" become so big.

We *made* him big because we are lazy and will pay for his company to provide a service.

When we look back honestly, realizing our fault, we will say "we created a monster!".

here's the problem though, we have no choice but to choose the cheaper option because we SHOULD be in a deflationary period. but since the Fed is buying up all the bad debt and creating bubbles we aren't. we are in an inflationary period.

so now everyone is strapped by the massive increase in cost of living but no wage growth in ten years and they have no choice but to take the cheaper option

a reply to: JAGStorm

I don't know that Amazon is truly a monopoly in a traditional sense. They may be becoming a monopoly in some sectors, but as long as viable alternatives exists, they aren't technically a monopoly.

That said, I think Amazon is potentially becoming too large and may represent something in the anti-trust world which has really never existed before. Their level of vertical integration and market dominance in so many areas is mind boggling. Yes, we the consumer get more for less and we even get it faster, but what is the long-term cost? I think there is a growing trend with traditional retailers where customers will come to browse in their stores, but ultimately buy online when they compare the prices. Its just too easy. My amazon app will scan the barcode of an item in a store and tell me how much less Amazon can provide it for.

As an aside though, I am beginning to think I should stop shopping on Amazon, not because of the anti-trust issues, but because of their overall attitude toward privacy and consumer data. I am truly sick of these internet powerhouses (FB, Google, Amazon) treating my personal data as though it is not mine. I have unplugged my Alexa and I don't know that I will ever plug it back in. I am sick of seeing Amazon suggestions for things I need, but have never searched for on their site.

a reply to: toysforadults

It's still not a good excuse.

I didn't buy a bunch of frivilous bs off Amazon.

It doesn't matter how cheap garbage becomes, at some point you gotta stop the materialistic "buy stuff all the time" mentality.

And what's even more ironic is that I, the non-Amazon customer, don't actually really care if the consumer public turns Amazon into a monster. It's inevitable that someone would take over that part of the economy and so Jeff and the gang are somewhat irrelevant when it comes to principles.

While at the same time, many Amazon customers are alarmed because they cannot control themselves and keep ordering things?

I always find it weird and surprising when I realize that I'm the skeptic lol.

Every hard left leaning person I know shops at Amazon and Wal-Mart for 2/3 off their purchases.
In these parts, it's the older, hard working conservatives keeping the small businesses alive. Since the educational system has become an indoctrinational system which teaches people that conservatives are all bad, I fear that we will lose those small businesses when the older, hard working generations are all gone.

Amazon has 711 type stores called GO Amazon with no cashiers inside just machines. Now they are contemplating putting this system in bigger stores, some say such as Whole Foods where they have thousands of employees who will have to Go. No pun intended

While Amazon Go is more of a convenience store, with limited groceries and prepared foods, the intention is to apply the technology to Whole Foods, according to WSJ's sources. An average Whole Foods has 34,000 items. Both Amazon and Whole Foods declined to comment on the rumor to the news outlet, but given Amazon purchased the supermarket chain for a whopping $13.7 billion last year, the partnership makes sense.

mashable.com...

a reply to: Willtell

Amazon has 711 type stores called GO Amazon with no cashiers inside just machines. Now they are contemplating putting this system in bigger stores, some say such as Whole Foods where they have thousands of employees who will have to Go. No pun intended

If it is anything like the self checkout at grocery stores, they have a Looooong way to go. Those things are annoying as can be. Our local Mcdonalds had those self checkout screens, but it ran out of paper for the receipt so you ended up still having to go to the counter. Also i've noticed they don't put the self checkout in sketchier neighborhoods.

a reply to: muzzleflash

dude people are buying toilet paper and clothes and grocery shopping on Amazon they are using it for basic goods and services

not having money and using Amazon to save because it's cheaper isn't just an option for half of our country

People can blame who they want for small town issues but in our small town there is 9 empty buildings and only one for rent and they want $1200 a month plus utilities. For $600 it would be rented by my neighbor who doesn't care about making money just likes to buy sell antiques and has money to do it.

Small town greed simple as that another 8 buildings with crap stacked floor to celling hoping American Pickers stop by.


Just an observation

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Is Amazon a Monopoly? Maybe not yet, but it sure seems that's where they are headed!

Amazon is like Apple, Google and their ilk. They may not be monopolies, but they are too powerful and create an uncompetitive environment, including using their global scale to avoid tax. If they have a competitor then they will kill them off, or buy them out.

The danger for companies who become dependent on them is that these companies become exposed, and that's a significant business risk. Apple (for example) killed off a British chip maker (if I recall) by just changing supplier with zero notice.