Amazon: Walmart of the Web or Evil Empire?

I read a pretty interesting article this morning on Amazon and how they're taking over the market place. They brought up a lot of good points, some of which I was already aware of, and some I hadn't thought of yet.

Regardless, it inspired me to write an article in response. I certainly recommend reading the original article.

http://bit.ly/nOp7p0

The big question it brought to my mind was whether Amazon's cheap prices could become too much of a good thing. I'm not sure.
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Master Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 4416 Location: Korriban

For a broke college student Amazon's cheap prices are a lifesaver in terms of textbooks and movies/books/games/music for dirt nothing. Its amazing. I know its hurting private sellers, but I can't afford to do the "pay a little more to support the underdog" thing right now so if I decide to splurge on something it has to be through the cheapness of Amazon.
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Perfection is a lifelong pursuit requiring sacrifice. The only way to get it quicker is to sacrifice the most.

For the record, your title is a bit of a fallacy: it assumes that Wal-Mart is not an evil empire Smile

I love Amazon, but I still buy from Chapters/Indigo and my LCS as well. Balance is key, to keep all businesses open.
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Do you ever get the feeling that amazon is turning into facebook? Now, I'll leave it up to you to decide whether facebook is evil, but I've often wondered whether people just want facebook to be evil, or more evil than it actually is.

I think the same's happening with amazon. According to the article(s), the publishing companies think amazon is evil because they're doing better than them. That's hardly an act of evil, but rather one of making profit. Trying to survive in such a market. But because it's becoming so successful, it's become the top dog in the buying/selling world. Thus, it has become the biggest target. I don't know about you, but I tend to root for the underdogs during sports events, and that's something I have a tendency to do in other aspects, too. Maybe that's what others are doing: making themselves think amazon is evil, just because they're the big company.
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I am a Star Wars fan. That doesn't mean that I hate or love Jar Jar. That doesn't mean I hate or love Lucas, or agree or disagree 100% with him. That doesn't mean I prefer the PT over the OT, or vice versa. That doesn't mean I hate the EU, or even love all of it. These are not prerequisites. Being a man is not a prerequisite. Being a geek is not a prerequisite. The only prerequisite is that I love something about Star Wars. I am a Star Wars fan.

I've never been one to accept the whole "Walmart is the Evil Empire" analogy. Cool

But with Amazon, on one hand, I love the fact that I can get books cheap there. Plus I don't have any sympathy for the publishing houses who are holding on to a decaying, dying, archaic system that no longer works. Like they said in the original article "innovate or die."

That said, I was struck by the thought that Amazon is selling books for next to nothing in an attempt to sell more TVs and other goods. It's an interesting ploy if it's true. Would it be ethical for McDonalds to sell their hamburgers cheaper than everyone else in order to sell more french fries and sodas? Seriously, I think it's just really crafty marketing and it shows how good Amazon is at the game.

The publishing houses are the dinosaurs, and if they don't shape up, Amazon is going to make them extinct.
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True, but they can't use the same ploy. They're selling books, and only books. They can't lower the prices on those in the hopes that customers will buy TVs, simply because they're not selling TVs. The best they can hope for in that strategy is to lower prices on soft- and hardback books, while keeping their prices on ebooks up, and I'm not convinced that'll work when others can get theirs online for cheaper, and I don't think such a thing would be able to sustain itself. But I confess I'm not all that interested in the market-place, so I don't know of any other practices they can engage in to compete successfully.
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I am a Star Wars fan. That doesn't mean that I hate or love Jar Jar. That doesn't mean I hate or love Lucas, or agree or disagree 100% with him. That doesn't mean I prefer the PT over the OT, or vice versa. That doesn't mean I hate the EU, or even love all of it. These are not prerequisites. Being a man is not a prerequisite. Being a geek is not a prerequisite. The only prerequisite is that I love something about Star Wars. I am a Star Wars fan.