Posted on 06/20/2017 3:38:34 PM PDT by MrExplorer70
“Amazon just bought Whole Foods,” my friend texted me seconds after the announcement of the proposed acquisition. “It’s over. The world.”
This unease is widespread, and has raised new calls for breaking up Jeff Bezos’s impending monopoly by force. Surely the company, which now generates 30% of all online and offline retail sales growth in the United States, and already controls 40% of internet cloud services, has reached too far. The 3% hike in Amazon’s share price since the announcement—which would alone more than pay for the acquisition—may attest less to the deal’s appropriateness than to investors’ growing fear that missing out on Amazon means missing out on the future of the economy.
Whatever you may think of Jeff Bezos, and whether or not antitrust regulations can justifiably be applied to a company whose expansion doesn’t raise but actually lowers costs for end consumers, may be beside the point. Many of us get that something is amiss, but are ourselves so deeply enmeshed in the logic of last century’s version of free-market industrial capitalism that we can’t quite bring ourselves to call this out for the threat it poses to our markets, our economy, and even our planet.
(Excerpt) Read more at fastcompany.com ...
Life is not “fair”. First there was Sears, then Wards, then K-Mart, then Wal-Mart. Now Amazon.
Big business has been putting little business out of business since the beginning of time. Someone will come along to best Amazon.
Meanwhile, why would I want to drive 45 minutes to town, visit several stores and then settle for something less than I want when I can spend five minutes on Amazon, find exactly what I want and have it shipped to my front door in days, free of charge most of the time?
It’s not the job of the government to break it up if there’s no crime.
Amazon is too big. It will become too much for the boss to manage.
Welcome to Free Republic.
DAMN. Never thought of that!!
I still don’t see full tax prices when I shop for groceries.
Maybe 40 bucks and tax is 2.
Monopolies are short lived.
Write a book!!
It’s a book I would find worth the money and then some.
Douglas Rushkoff - “He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture” - Wikipedia
I say break it up. While we are at it we should tax Bozos 100% of everything he owns except for one suit of clothes.
It wouldn’t be a tax - but rather an investment....
They did it to Standard Oil.
I need to show you my self-made Cookbook and my self-made Gardening Book. Both of them cut through the cr@p, LOL!
The Grocery Tips have been done to death and STILL few listen, but, THANKS!
Someday. :)
Cool!
Stupid... Amazon an American company is leading the market revolution on the entire globe. Not to mention everything else they are moving into and running at full efficiency. Amazon Prime and Amazon Studio bring me all the entertainment I need and they deliver anything for free INCLUDED! #AWESOME
Monopoly = Software Patents
It disadvantages other businesses severely by granting monopoly on natural processes.
I patented the first 5 letters of the alphabet, so please do not use those. Thanks.
Are you kidding? I have Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh, I watch Amazon videos all the time, I’ve had over 100 deliveries last year and saved God knows how much on shipping.
It’s great. Hate the politics, and what it could develop into, but it’s great.
Amazon isn’t a monopoly in my opinion. It has just provided a large tent for thousands of venders. You can shop online at Walmart, COSTCO, Lowes - hundreds of places. Amazon just has a bigger tent.
Like EBay or Craigslist. They aren’t the only option for buying and selling online, they are just the biggest in their particular niche. They are not monopolies, just the best of their kind.
No one is forced to use any of them or go without goods or services. There are still plenty of other options available.
Me too. Until now. Amazon tightened its return policy - very few are now free. My recent return cost me 30% of the total cost. I had to return it because it was of no use. It’s customer service, if accessible, is poor. Been a member since 2006, but I am moving to Jet.
These commies need to get a life.
Yes.
Is that for all customers, or just those who return a high number of items?
Recently, several of the online giants have started to revoke memberships for people who return too many items in a given period of time.
30% to return something sounds like a corporate death wish.
The average consumer, who rarely returns anything, will never do business with a company like that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.