The Party Is Over for Amazon: The retail giant was unstoppable—until this year. What happened?

New Republic ^ | December 2, 2014 | Danny Vinik

[C19fan]

At Business Insider’s annual Ignition conference Tuesday, CEO Jeff Bezos explained why Amazon's stock price keeps rising despite almost zero profits: The company continues to invest in new businesses, and Amazon’s investors are OK with that. "If you're going to take bold bets, they're going to be experiments," he said. "And if they're experiments, you don't know ahead of time if they're going to work. Experiments are by their very nature prone to failure. But a few big successes compensate for dozens and dozens of things that didn't work.”

But Amazon hit a road bump in 2014: Its stock is down 18 percent, and investors are no longer optimistic about the company’s outlook. This year has exposed the limitations of Bezos’s business strategy.

[C19fan]

Find it hard to criticize slower growth in revenue when it is a maturing company. With Amazon being so dominant and big hard to maintain 40% annual revenue growth.

[ShadowAce]

Internet sales tax

[TexasFreeper2009]

boom! beat me too it!

[Cowboy Bob]

Has Amazon ever made a profit?

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

The folks over at New Republic showing once again why one should read some Adam Smith before speaking publicly about anything dealing with commerce.

[skeeter]

Seems like shipping costs have gone way up, too.

[Slyfox]

I remember when Amazon started out just selling books, and people said that would never catch on and make any money.

[txrefugee]

Walmart ate Amazon’s lunch this shopping season. Walmart’s a step ahead in mobile shopping, as their Black Friday success showed. People shopped from their phones, some from the parking lot, and then picked up their purchase at a drive-through window. Amazon can’t deliver faster than that.

[kenmcg]

Just saved 20 bucks by going from Amazon to Barnes and noble. Amazon pops up first on web sites with deceptive advertising. Shop around.

[moehoward]

WAY up. UPS..........don’t get me started.

[Vendome]

I have never understood investors love of Amazon.

They don’t frickin make money but, investors continue, for 20 years, to reward them with new investment confidence, over and over.

Why?

Any other company would have been BK YEARS AGO.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

No, Bezos reinvests all capital into expansion, infrastructure, and development. He is upfront about that to investors.

[Vendome]

Couple times, barely...

[ohiobuckeye1997]

I have found half.com to be way cheaper than amazon.

[moehoward]

“Internet sales tax”..

So if I find an out of state business on-line, then call them to place an order, would the tax apply?

Rhetorical question.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

He should invest in more Godzilla movies, we need more Godzilla movies!!!

[bigbob]

Is anyone doing as well this Christmas as expected?

[Vendome]

And???

How would “The Wealth of Nations” precepts apply to Amazon?

They make no money and are somehow a $70 billion crap shoot.

[ViLaLuz]

I bought a vacuum cleaner recently from Amazon. When it arrived, it was broken. I was charged over $40 to return it.

[Macoozie]

As a business model, Amazon is all about FREE CASH FLOW.
Not much else.
In some ways it's like a glorified Ponzi Scheme

For consumers, I love my Amazon Prime.
Saves a bundle everyday.