It’s an intriguing question, and one that raises fears of Amazon’s rise. While the growth of high-quality, low-priced brands on Amazon seems unquestionably good for consumers, the trend does produce economic losers.
The classic worry about Amazon is that it puts local retailers out of business. Now another worry is that by exposing global brands to the harsh reality of low-priced competitors, it may put them out of business, too. Mr. Wingo said global brands across a variety of categories — electronics, apparel, home improvement — regularly approached his company looking for a way to compete with low-priced rivals on Amazon.
Interesting… We also received some bike bells which were not marked with the manufacturer’s brand at all. I tried returning them, but wasn’t able to. Finally customer service told me to keep them and issued a refund. Very odd though.
“State law entitles employees who work for eight hours or more to 10-minute breaks every four hours. Employees who work a five-hour shift or longer are entitled to a 30-minute unpaid meal break.”
WOW! Only 10 minutes? Ack!
If they don’t want to pay for meals, just book everyone 4 hours at a time and not back to back. Why would Amazon care? Driving to/from work is the employees’ problem.
“The first ripples were pretty obvious: Amazon immediately started lowering prices at Whole Foods, putting the pressure on rivals like Kroger to compete amid sliding share prices. Now that Amazon is hinting at more discounts to come for Amazon Prime members, that pressure will only intensify.”
Really? Gee maybe I’ll go shopping at Whole Foods now. (That said, I do have respect for the farmers who supply stores–so I’ll keep buying direct from them… but still.)
I’m not a fan of the idea. Amazon does do small business loans as part of the FBA program. They are limited to working capital to increase inventory. Working capital is one of the biggest obstacles to growing a small business.
“Amazon going into banking” is just some random guy’s crazy idea. I don’t see that at all. Banks are highly regulated so what’s the upside for Amazon? If they want to follow the playbook of alibaba and Tencent it makes more sense to buy Square or better Stripe and make a splash into payments. Credit card is so Stone Age compared to what everyday Chinese is using already.