How Amazon Makes You Pay More For Everything
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- Опубліковано 12 лис 2023
- An Amazon customer ordered a hat. She was sent a vial of scorpion venom instead.
That customer, writer Meagan Day, wanted to find out why.
Her investigation exposed why Amazon is now charged with running an illegal monopoly in a landmark FTC suit.
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It’s great that you’re teaching people about how terrible Amazon is, but you never explained why you got scorpion venom instead of the hats you ordered.
Yeah, explaining why you got Cuban-made scorpion venom that's illegal in the US instead of hats with an oil rig and "oligopoly" in Cyrillic printed on them would have been a better story. For many viewers of this channel, hearing about Amazon's antics is nothing new.
It's called a mistake. They happen.
@@sa-lb9bl She said the scorpion venom drug is BANNED in the US. Even if it was sold by a 3rd party who also sold the dumb hats she ordered, it was sent to her from a foreign country that had to know the venom product is illegal here. I'm surprised it didn't get grabbed by customs.
@@freedomfighter4990You might be shocked what you can smuggle into the US. It's not airtight. You can mail weed into states where weed is illegal very easily, why do you think a pill bottle is different? Edit: The dude who commented after you has a point, maybe consider the statistics behind how mail is checked? It makes perfect sense to me, idk why you're hung up about America being perfect?
@@yuordreamsdude, this isn't just smuggling if someone can simply post an illegal substance on amazon and deliver it straight to your home... this is some massive lapse in enforcement/regulation.
"When someone's that wealthy, someone and some loophole is being exploited."
Billionaires shouldn't exist.
If you discover the cure for cancer, then sure you should earn a Billion dollars for that. If you open an online bookstore and drive all other stores out of business, NO Jeff Bezos does NOT deserve 161 BILLION DOLLARS!
Poorly regulated economic and social systems breed power players.
good luck with communism. When investment stops, you have massive starvation.
@@mw4507 🤡🤡👏👏
I dunno, man. Companies are people, so why can't a single person become a country or forty?
(self-evident answer, eh?)
This video pretty much sums up why I shop on Amazon as little as possible, and try to buy directly from a company's own website instead whenever I can. Fingers crossed that Amazon is found guilty in the FTC suit.
Same here. Amazon website really has really gone downhill. I want to know I’m actually buying what I want, not some sketchy knock off.
I do the same thing. Even if Amazon is cheaper, I refuse to use them unless I absolutely can't find the item anywhere else
Me too-and a lot of sites have free shipping when you buy a certain amount, or as a sale sometimes.
I agree, I haven't bought anything on Amazon for over a year. I also try and buy used as much as possible, everything from clothes to electronics.
Me, too. I never shy away from sellers, who take a long time to ship. I think that long time shipping needs to be built into a healthy system as an option for buyers.
7:50 Amazon imposing an effective FIFTY PERCENT TAX while at the same time rarely paying any REAL TAX is REALLY rich! 😤😤
Time for Jeff Bezos expose more.
Welcome to a plutocracy.
@@wmpx34havent we been there for a long while? 😅
If a retailer makes five cents profit per dollar of sales, they are doing extraordinarily well. This means that 95% of their sales go to pay for their product and expenses. Amazon third party sellers often never touch their product. They are contracting out their labor expenses to Amazon, which handles warehousing and fulfillment much more efficiently and cost effectively than third party sellers could hope to do without Amazon.
@@Srode1999 lmao, shill more for Amazon, totally not obvious when you react to a comment that's months old. 😅🤣
The thing I find most annoying with Amazon is when you search for something specific, it doesn't show that to you. It shows you the items that paid for priority even if it isn't what you searched for. For example, I was searching for AMD GPUs and CPUs. Amazon kept giving me results for Intel chips that I had no use for. Or when searching for something that is compatible with other equipment they show you things that are not compatible when you didn't ask for that. You really never know if you are getting the lowest price because when you try to sort that way it still gives you 5 or 6 items ahead of it. It really is a horrible system to have to search for anything.
Also half the items you buy are illegal knockoffs
Searching for computer parts on Amazon is a special kind of hell that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Unless you know *exactly* what you want, it's near impossible to find it, since the search filters are borderline useless. Even then, the problem you mentioned crops up all too often. It's probably the reason why Newegg stays in business simply because you can actually search for what you need on there.
That explains why, the few times I tried, the results fit poorly with my search parameters. You have to *buy* your way atop the algorithm!
I literally have no idea what you're talking about
YES! I work at a preschool, and our center manager was like, if you need something put it in our Amazon cart. So I was being VERY specific with my search terms, and I still got the wrong results!! I was only seeing “sponsored” results. Screw that. I’m telling our center manager we shouldn’t order from Amazon anymore!
Honestly, I've stopped ordering on Amazon... at least to the extent that's possible.
But unfortunately, sometimes, there is no alternative anymore. And i think that's the point, they've killed so many specialty store that you need to buy from them.
Down with monoplies, support small and local!
Same here, I've gone to emailing brands to order direct
Hey, @TheRuralUrbanist funny seeing you here... Love your channel!
Same, I avoid them whenever possible -- but sometimes it's literally the only option. And worse, there are SCORES of sites and articles telling you exactly how to set up a biz as AN AMAZON DROP-SHIPPER on other retailers' websites. The absolutely appalling number of times I've ordered some random thing on eBay thinking I'm supporting a small business....and my item arrives directly from amazon, in amazon packaging, via amazon courier, often with an amazon "gift receipt" -- despite this being 1000% not allowed per eBay's terms of service? The whole thing is disgusting. I'm firmly Team "Fire Bezos [and Zuckerberg and Musk, While We're At It] Into The Effing Sun."
Between this crap, and six hundred instances of "that small indie brand you like? yeah, they try to keep it on the down-low, but they're now owned by Unilever / P&G / Other Evil Conglomerate, so enjoy having some of your purchase price go to corporate donations funding causes and candidates you find absolutely repugnant" ... I'm kind of coming around to the idea of living in a hut in the woods and being done with the whole nasty thing.
Yes. Don't feed the beast.
Yeah I live in a poor area, and I used to buy energy drinks on Amazon, then started buying other foods there.
But, I almost entirely stopped. I remember the days a decade back or so... There is a grocery store a block from me now, but back then the closest grocery store was too far away to really walk with any decent amount of groceries.
It was such a hassle just having the basics all the time back then, and it really is such a blessing to have a grocery store so close now. I realized that if I wish for things to remain like this, I really need to spend ideally all, but as much of my food budget as possible at that store I depend on
Greed is not the desire for more, it's the desire for more at the expense of others.
We look back on the big oil, steel, meatpacking, etc. companies from the Gilded Age (1920s) with immense disdain... can you even imagine how people will look back on Amazon (and other tech giants) that is many times more powerful than those monopolies ever were?
Proud to say that I canceled my prime 5 years ago and never looked back. I only shop there when I absolutely have to. Things are not "cheaper" there anymore. Often actually more expensive than other places.
Yup
I guess I still don't understand why so many people hate on Amazon. I guess it's easy to hate the big guy or the winner.
For me I still find Amazon to be cheaper once you factor in the free same or next day shipping and time saved (time is money) Though I will admit you need to know how to use the Amazon site properly to navigate through the bs. I guess I just have practice doing so.
So I'll still but the exact same thing you're going to get and I'll get it cheaper and faster. It sucks to admit that, but raising kids in 2024 saving time and money just helps you know? And no I'm not with Amazon. Haha. They been really good to me. The few times I've had issues I got an instant full refund and kept the product.
@@seattlesauceIt's not just that they're the "big guy" or the "winner", it's that the way they do things has sapped the life out of small businesses, killed other online stores, killed our high streets, and left themselves as sometimes the only option in the absolute wasteland they've left behind -- and they're not even the cheapest or best, they just have the most sway. I feel like you've missed the parts of the video where they discuss the disgusting anti-competitive practices Amazon takes part in.
Plus, if you shop at Amazon you can be certain that money will leave your local economy and most of it won't be seen again, whereas if you shop local you know that money will be used locally and stimulate local economic activity. I don't mean to advocate for capitalistic methods but I think that it is an uncontested good thing to not centralise most of the money in the world in the hands of a single company.
@@scoreunderAnd the way they treat their employees.
I feel like there was an interesting story to be told about the prevalence of shipping illicit products via fake listings that was missed here.
Ditto. Enquiring minds want to know!
Although it’s fun to speculate about nefarious schemes, I’m guessing what happened was most likely a mistake. A few hats certainly cost way less than a banned cancer drug. What is mainly interesting here is how the mistake happened; why would a seller of hats also be selling drugs?
@@SashazurI think that would be the story - that the biggest sellers are selling everything from regulated substances to cheap clothing, because of how its set up to make that the best strategy for selling on Amazon, and how small specialized sellers are punished or forced out of business by all the fees
Into the light IS the point of this story. And if it was a gooogle product it would have been misinformation and not on yootube
Amazon will also block reviews where you point out the other reviews are fake. They don't want you to know what you're buying.
Thankfully, there's a plug-in u can get now that filters out fake Amazon reviews
Bravo! We teach our kids a few things,.like never use a self service check out. We support cashier service.
Same with Amazon. We literally never buy via Amazon platform. Even if this means to pay a little more (in Europe we don't live from pay check to pay check as often).
So in the moment we can afford it we have the obligation to behave responsible. Buy local, never use any Amazon branch.
"in Europe, we don't live from paycheck to paycheck" what a weird thing to bring up as supporting evidence
Lmfao. What a joke
@@anonymouse9833How did they use that as supporting evidence? Seems they were just mentioning their reasoning.
Europe hardly seems like a monolith as far as personal finance goes
there are plenty of jobs in an economy and there is nothing wrong with cashiers becoming obsolete
Every dollar Amazon takes in comes from us the consumers. The "inflated seller fees" that sellers have to pay Amazon, simply means we are paying a higher price for that item. Amazon is shafting us!!!
😮😢
Those random looking brands aren't just there to swamp the search results. It's because you need a legal trademark to sell your stuff on Amazon, and random strings of letters are unlikely to have already been trademarked. Therefore Amazon encourages sellers to offload their anti-counterfeiting efforts to the government, and this single-handedly puts enough strain on the trademark office to slow down the processing of paperwork for legitimate startups.
We don't get "free" shipping because we Prime members don't get great deals anymore. And more and more, my deliveries are late.
Don't you also pay for prime? (I don't shop on Amazon, so I don't know.)
@@susanperry4177 Yes, I pay for Prime
I think it's $14.99 a month now. An annual membership is probably less.
A lot of the late deliveries is because they use 3rd party delivery services or Flex drivers.
In the case of Flex drivers, you get dinged if your package is late by 5 mins, but there's no penalty for returning it to the station
@@anonymouse9833 Which explains why Amazon tracking will say it is delivered but you don't actually get it until a day or two later.
I used to be sad, that in my country Amazon doesn't really work (you can buy there, but it is more expensive than local eshops) - even tho they have an infamous big warehouse here - but lately I am happy, that they didn't really get that big here.
I moved to the Philippines and amazon does not deliver here. For two years I've cancelled my account several times and still get billed for the prime service.
The antitrust act law is has been suspended since Reagan. Along with workers rights in the US and across the world.
You mention that the FTC suit might possibly break Amazon up.
All I can think is, "So... the management and owners that participated in breaking laws with very real and significant consequences for millions of people world wide, get to walk away more or less unpunished."
A $44 billion fine is not exactly unpunished.
and watch out, those will be the off-branchers setting up to compete with AMazon. Your next boss.
The best 12 minute commentary I have seen about Amazon and their dominance. And she didn’t delve into the deeper point of private brand labels further punishing the small biz owners.
Or that shit where they were encouraging Kindle users to return books they had bought and read. Basically screwing over the authors.
Yup. I had a small business 5ish years ago that used Amazon to sell products I made. It's way worse than you reported. Start a business and sell a product to learn more and report what you find. Amazon looses a package or ships the customer the wrong package, the seller pays that. Not Amazon. There was no way for me to make a living wage due to Amazon and the American consumers. I love creating but I'll never make anything again for sale. I blame Amazon and the consumers. I just wanted to create quality products and earn a living wage.
If you don't mind, please tell us what you made.
I’m curious how this compares to Etsy, which advertises itself as a place for people who make things?
I appreciate the local farmer’s markets and maker/artist/gift markets in my city. Alternative market spaces where we can buy directly from the makers. I know there is usually a cost for the tables/booths, and spending time selling can be a drain, but curious if that sort of thing exists where you are at all, or what folks’ experiences have been, as a different kind of alternative. Small and local.
Etsy is better than eBay, and Etsy is more suited to people who craft items.
I agree with Amazon's warehousing issues.
Walmart is the same shit
@@amandac715 My cousin was selling on Etsy. By the sound of it they were doing well, their items were pretty popular, but apparently it really starting going down hill the past few years.
There were all sorts of knock-off sellers that would just bootleg their designs. In the past Etsy used to moderate copycats better, but since they went public they've abandoned trying to protect original creators in search of bigger profits.
My cousin doesn't sell on there anymore.
You might think "well if running Fulfilment cost that much and the fees match whats the problem" but then remember YOU PAY FOR PRIME. Youd think everyone paying 12 dollars monthly for expedited shipping would make it so Amazon didnt have to take 50% cut of to its sellers who want to offer it.
We pay for EVERYTHING, every dollar that goes into Amazon's pocket comes from us the consumers and tax payers. NSA has a contract with Amazon for AWS? Who funds the NSA? Us taxpayers!
Amazon is a blight. I watched an Amazon driver full on THROW a package at the customer's door the other day. Now, I could complain about the driver, about how they are being lazy, careless and destructive, but the truth is that if I worked for Amazon, for that pay under those conditions, I'd probably be just as lazy, careless and destructive. I mean, why work any harder than you are being paid to work? Why give your employer, brand and products or their customers any more care, respect or regard than they give you, a human being?
It's stuff like this that makes me feel lucky that I didn't develop a materialistic personality.
Yet here you are on a materialistic iphone/laptop/desktop...you ever heard of living screen free? Apparently you aren't the minimalist you think you are.
You'd think that Amazon would do everything right for customers, but they subvert even what the customers want. Very often Amazon's own search results don't even supply what you want, just what they want you to buy.
Why would a monopoly try to do anything right for anybody???? That's an oxymoron
TIME FOR MONOPOLIES TO BE BROKEN UP!! 😤😤😤😤
have fun paying substainally more for everything.
@@mw4507 🤡🤡👏👏
@@mw4507 What he thinks he said: "Have fun paying more for things"
What he actually said:
"I didn't watch the video"
Breaking up monopolies is a lie for the most part. The companies really just split up into different companies that are deep down owned and ran by the same people.
It's an age old story.
It's why Google started Alphabet.. They did it to try to stop the FTC from coming after them for literally controlling 80%± of the internet and access thereof.
And it WORKED! The FTC is now only going after Google for default search engine contracts.
Which BTW, the most likely ruling of blocking all default search engine contracts on web browsers will actually HELP Google/Alphabet. It will get rid of Firefox's main source of funding (Firefox /Mozilla is a non profit).
And since Chrome / Chromium based browsers are now how over 50% of people access the internet.. Firefox going away would be HUGE.
Windows Edge is Chromium based btw.
So the picture very quickly is gonna become Google/Alphabet vrs Apple (Safari)
And it's gonna be about 80% Chrome /Chromium and 20% Safari.
But that won't last long, Google will change internet standards with proprietary technology and force Apple make Safari Chromium based.
... And I'm writing this on an Android phone which is also controlled by Google... And which Android is over 50% of the smartphone market.
But Google, Chrome, Android are all "separate" companies so the FTC has to go after them one by one or something stupid.
Lol , ditto :) The point of monopolies is to make everyone pay more so the monopoly owners can make more.
I enjoy using Etsy, when I can. I may be getting deceived, but I feel like I’m buying from small businesses. I’ve definitely bought some very nice, hand made, and even custom made items.
Etsy is also a mess at the moment, there are still many legitimate small businesses selling handmade art, but it's been flooded by drop shippers selling mass-produced new goods labelled as 'vintage' which is frustrating for customers, and has some really terrible policies like delayed seller payouts that hurt small businesses ('cause they often need the cash from that order to purchase supplies or ship the product, and Etsy holds it hostage, leading to a stalemate of 'can't get paid till it ships but can't ship it till you get paid')
They're taking their plays straight out of the Amazon handbook and doing the same thing as Amazon Mom Paul companies are being put out of business because of low quality merchandise being copied from China. Etsy's fees or about the same as Amazon's for their sellers. And Etsy keeps coming up with more ways to drain the sellers that are on their site making it almost impossible to make a profit off of the merchandise you're posting on there. I went through it all to put my merchandise on Etsy to find out it was literally highway robbery. Almost 50% of your earnings goes to Etsy and that's why so many people are dropping out. It's either lose your customers to Chinese pirates which makes you have to lower your prices along with etsy's fees there's just no room for a decent profit
I stopped buying from amazon four years ago. It was weird at first but everything you need or want can be bought elsewhere and not always dearer. If it does cost more it's not usually much more but yep delivery is rarely as fast so for anything urgent my local stores are the go.
Did she ever explain the surprise Scorpion venom? Was it a "brusher" scam?
No she didn't 🤔
The brushing scam is when you get stuff without ordering anything. They do it so they can leave a fake good review from a legit user(you). What happened here is different, she did order something but the wrong thing was in the box.
She probably was unable to effectively track back to what happened.....so many possibilities...One time something I ordered fro Amazon (Chinese seller).....after waiting for a long time....found out the address it was sent to was someone else entirely...not me
Amazon has been a last resort option for me for years. Often times if I can't find used locally, direct from the company, or some other non-amazon store, I will just decide I don't need whatever it is I'm looking for. This company can get bent.
Billionaires shouldn't exist. Period.
they took risks to get where they are. most of them are billionaire son paper due to stock values in the company that they took the risk to build
stfu with your poverty mindset
Facts
Not just the internet. They stopped selling a lot of stuff at brick and mortar places, too. So you have to buy stuff off Amazon, get stuff that is not really what you wanted, and sometimes not getting your stuff at all.
Make it a worker co-op and allow it to remain monopolistic. That's a new move that would actually make a change in society. I don't want more apps, more subscriptions, etc. I want one high quality service that is the pride of the employees that work for it.
Good idea but impossible.
Good Ole Jeff has bribed most people in government.
isn't that centralization
What irritates me about Amazon is that if you order something today for say $17.00 and then you decide after you get it you want to order another one, the price jumps over $20.00 and stays there.
It is really hard to tell if something is made in the USA versus China.
I needed a part for my 1996 ford truck Nd after searching on Amazon for 20+ minutes I finally found the OEM part for less than I could get it in town and it was here the next day. I learned about 45 years ago, when buying car parts that even then they had like four or five different price sheets depending on who you were and how much business you did with them.
Regular household goods retail like furniture is not much different; 'We are having a big sale, up to 20% off'. 20% off what price? There is no regular price!
I'm not proud of it but I finally canceled Prime a few days ago and I'm gonna do my best to buy what I need at the local-est store possible. This is all so messed up and I cant be supporting it
I had so much trouble getting set up with Amazon that i ended up buying direct from the manufacturer. That is really bad to have long delays on hold from a customer service center out of the country that waste a lot time for anyone that needs to talk to a live person to get certain things resolved.
I stopped using amazon and buy almost exclusively on ebay. Depending on the seller and location you actually get items in 2 days sometimes too.
"...godlike entity..." Godlike in the unlimited power sense, not in any other sense.
9:25 yes!! I had commented about this to my partner the other day. "What the hell is with all these random jibberish brand sellers populating the listings?" Glad it's being addressed
Yep, I'm a former Amazon seller.
They use us to get free products.
They charge us to send it in. They charge us to store it.
They charge us to bring search traffic.
They charge us MONTHLY for the privilege of even existing on the platform, & if the price drops too low, they charge us to dispose of the product, or send it back to us.
Meanwhile, Amazon doesn't have to pay for product, sourcing, shipping, traffic, returns, or product disposal. WE DO.
Would the solution to that be to only buy if it says SOLD BY AMAZON and SHIPS FROM AMAZON ?? (On items im not sure I’ll keep to begin with… ex: clothing I’m not sure will fit)
I may checkout a product on Amazon, but then I look elsewhere if I can & purchase it there. I can usually find it a bit cheaper than Amazon
Haven’t shopped Amazon in years, and I’ll go without before I ever do.
Living in the rural Midwest, there seems little downside to Amazon. No more driving 40 miles each way for items that are delivered to our door on the farm. Purchases that we would normally put off or skip altogether become relatively fast and reliable. Of course, most folks do not live in the country like ourselves.
Remember when Amazon included country of origin for most products? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
"If you can't beat 'em, if you can't join 'em, you gotta break them up."
I like that.
As always short and sweet and riveting. Thank you More Perfect Union and all the Meagan Days and Shay Mitchells out there who are keeping an eye out ( for, mostly, all of the crooks) for all of us.
yo also local govs and federal gov is subsidyzing amazon themsekves, amazon pays no taxes and gets susbsidies ;)
This is simply not true becareful for propaganda. They paid no taxes while growing because they didn't make a.profit. like any other business....recently they have started making profits and are being taxed. At one point people need to.learn how taxes work because a lot of people are being fed lies.
Walmart does exactly the same thing. WMT hits manufactures with price. Lower the price or we wont carry your product!
I like the info. I am approaching 2 years working for Amazon. My facility handles a plethora of products, which gets restocked from other Amazon locations near location. I am currently, as well as others at my location, working 11.5 hour shifts, and will continue past christmas. A few of my friends I started with nolonger work there. I miss them. I continue to work and hope to be fiscally better after all this work, except for the cost of everything.
I want to know how much they have increased the strain on the environment because of the fact that everyone returns 40% of everything they buy and IT ALL GOES IN THE LANDFILL. The impact must be immense.
"Who is benefitting from all this chaos?"
I'll give you a hint. It starts with a Capital.
Huh?
This crucial information is sorely needed. We are getting ready to launch our business and your presentation has shed a brighter light on many of the pitfalls we face. (As a consumer, I don’t buy on @ma$on for these same reasons.)
The link to scorpion venom didn't really add to the story or make sense as a diving board for the rest of the story.
Basically it is literally the next level walmaet and it looks like temu is then next. This video is almost the same as "the high cost of low prices" back in the day
I try to avoid amazon, but i'm not well off enough.
Amazon also used machine learning in a VERY sneaky way to gather data on competitors pricing. It took YEARS. And when I realized what they were doing, my jaw hit the floor.
This is why I only order from official stores and not private sellers or Chinese knockoffs.
Never bought anything on Amazon and never will
"Wake the fuck up Samurai"
*Que cyberpunk music
I use Amazon a LOT, and in just the last few weeks on 2 occasions I have had the price of an item I was looking at go UP as I was looking at it! I thought that was against the law. A brick and mortar store certainly cannot get away with this crooked tactic. Why can't Amazon be forced to charge the posted price of an item? A third instance of the price going up: I was looking at an item I had just received, on Amazon's site. There is a "buy again" button you can press. Out of curiosity, I pressed the button, and sure enough the price of the item was DOUBLE what I had just paid for the same item! THIS HAS TO BE ILLEGAL. COMMENTS WELCOME
Until you actually buy it, they can change the price all they want. The only reason it doesnt happen at a brick and mortar store is because it would require changing price tags in real time. It's definitely not illegal, sorry. A shopping cart is not a contract, the legal term for it (online or offline) is "invitation to treat".
You might be thinking of the retailer code of practice regarding barcode scanners, which they voluntarily give the item for free if the scanned price doesn't match the tagged price. Or bait and switch in advertising which IS illegal, but for different reasons.
@@GamesFromSpace Regardless of what you call it, it is extremely UNETHICAL, the same as having a price tag on an article in a store (I don't care if it is online or in a brick and mortar store) and when the cashier rings it up it is a different price from the price marked. I don't know you, but I know I would never patronize any business you own. If you think it is OK to cheat a customer. You sound unethical to me.
@@mrmusiclover4178 I'm just describing what the actual law is. WTF does that have to do with my ethics? I regret answering your question if you're gonna be a dick like that.
who needs the black market when you've got amazon
These practices also explain Amazon's inability/reluctance/refusal to allow Boolean searching. Now we know exactly why it's such a PITA to search for the exact product you want.
If you argue that the items on Amazon have become junk, then they will counter that they do in fact have competition... Temu.
Lol, Temu is 1000 times worse than Amazon with ALL of the stuff in this video.
I've found AliExpress to be as good as or better than amazon (as it is in 2024) in all but delivery times.
Been seeing alot of 'sponsored' results on Amazon lately. There are a few extensions that either hides those or highlights them in a different color so that you can tell right away; best to do the latter. Hopefully this nullifies their ads program because if more buyers do this, then sellers won't have to buy this extra tax from them anymore
This is terrific. I'll make an effort to look beyond the buy box
Why should Amazon compromise its financial goals for a seller's margin ambitions? Amazon at its center is convenience. You don't monopolize convenience; you have a better idea of it.
Peeps i know amazon is convenient but we all have to buy at other places, amazon is not always the cheapest either. It pays to shop around.
I've noticed that if you don't have Prime, Amazon seems to artificially slow down their shipping, almost to force to buy Prime. But it just makes buying elsewhere more attractive.
I almost always find lower prices at brick and mortar stores.
Great piece, thanks.
A good lesson. Thank you.
Soooo we never find out what scorpion venom has to do with amazon's monopoly haha
The presentation allows for you to make your own mind up, discuss, and decide what factors in Amazons buisness practices lead to scorpion venom to be sold as hats.
Just saw a test of the highest rated amazon automotive fuses. A two amp fuse didn't pop till 30 amps. That's your car on fire, period. And it was the best recommended product.
B.S..
There is one common phrase that's in every video I've seen about Amazon: it's a race to the bottom.
Amazon is now a marketplace for cheap, dangerous, knockoff crap, just sold at a higher price.
You know who is copying Amazon's business model? It's Walmart.
22 years now I have boycotted Amazon. And even longer boycotting Walmart. And now it had reached the point where I cannot get some technology or watch shows I like. At least Amazon will never demand hosing rent or food monopoly. I can live a long time on Oatmeal and Spirulina Algae. Even longer living in Saskatchewan where most brands and stores don't even come or ship because there is not enough profit for them.
once I ordered a bon iver vinyl and got barbecue skewers. both items were originally $19.99 and on sale for $14.99 and started with b. not as dramatic of a mix up but it was wild
Company loyalty just never pays in the long term
It sure would be nice if the FTC would've kept Amazon from becoming a bloated monopoly in the first place.
7:15 they say that customers only search for Prime because they want things to arrive in a day. Well, that isn't the whole story. I don't care if it takes 3 days or even 5 days. But I don't want to see prices that don't include shipping. With Prime, the re is no extra cost for shipping.
Thank you
I cancelled prime at the start of the pandemic when 2 day shipping became a week. It hasn't xome back in my area so no need to pay for something i buy from a few times a year. Free shipping after $35 anyway
Amazon's shipping has never been free. It hasn't been fast for a couple of years.
I tried to casually sell on Amazon. The fees would effectively force me to give away stuff. Absolutely rigged. Break'um up real hard!!!
New York Times also did a podcast episode on this.
I hope the lawsuit succeeds. Walmart will be next.
Cory Doctorow's enshitificastion! For a non-vulgar term, read Marx and Engel's critiques of capitalism. Also, every time I see Meagan Day I think of Michael Brooks and how amazing Michael's segments on More Perfect Union would've been😓
Ive slowed down significantly on amazon. I still have a membership but now I GET OUT THE HOUSE & walk to either Target, Foodtown or Ctown. I got tired of paying $7 tip & $7 charge for ordering under $100 of food.
You really have to do your research because some merchandise is not returnable even if it's defective. I suppose you could dispute it with your credit card.
Amazon is loathsome. One of my life goals is to never purchase through them. It still irritates me that there’s no way that I can avoid AWS.
10:25 ... can we just stop and admire that genius marketing name for that hot sauce. 🤣😂😆
This is really informative. I've seen videos on Amazon's bad practices but i wasn't aware of all this
See also, Etsy.
Dive even deeper and you will find that many of the servers the govt runs on are also owned by Amazon as well
The easy part of dealing with monopolies is the political part. Once we got that on lock, the massive undertaking of unwiring alot of corruption out of the economy can begin.
I've been skimming over "sponsored" listings and searches for years. It tends to fodder the results I seek with more in-depth research taking precedence.
Amazon is more expensive than other sites too. I was buying hats that were $35 on Amazon and $27 on the company's site. I need amazon only once a year so I use my friends' accounts. Its gotten so bad. Counterfeit products, inflated prices, missing deliveries... their service honestly sucks.
They won't face a fine of $44 billion. They only have to pay a few million to prevent it.
I get a kick out of my progressive friends that won't shop at Walmart but will shop at Walmazon.
No one can be perfect, and we shouldn't allow perfect to be the enemy of Good.
Right Wing NPC bots like yourself don't understand that you all sound identical; you didn't make some snappy point here, you just outed yourself as not very intelligent. Go back to watching Carlson.
Makes no sense, because those same store cancellers shop somewhere....target, department store, etc. Nobody is a complete live off the land minimalist.
Thanks for this explanation!
_"Accusing"_ Amazon of being a monopoly? We passed that go so far back now we'll never see that $200.
There were two un-skippable advertising videos that I had to allow to finish (one quite long) before I could see the More Perfect Union video. The MPU video was good -- Thanks.