Or, the next Safeway? Try buying another grocery store's brand of milk at Safeway! The bastards only sell theirs.
No wait, the next BMW! I tried to buy a Toyota and no BMW dealership would sell me one, can you believe it?
No wait, the next BMW! I tried to buy a Toyota and no BMW dealership would sell me one, can you believe it?
- Safeway and BMW aren't known as "The Everything Store"
- You can buy Toyotas at a BMW dealership. They will be used, but they're there.
If I were to guess at what companines might rival Amazon in having the biggest selection, my top 3 would be: eBay, Alibaba, Rakuten.
To what extent would you say this eating you alive?
(BTW: that marketing claim comes from the "Everything"; a collection which is "biggest" isn't necessarily exhaustive; just bigger than others.)
Nobody requires them to; they probably do that because it's profitable to them not because they are worried that someone will regard them as the next Microsoft in the pejorative sense.
The fact that Amazon sells their device that is similar to Google's and not Google's is perfectly sensible, if they regard that as a strategic thing which is reasonable given what it is.
It'd be more like Safeway refusing to sell Mission brand tortillas because they have Safeway brand tortilla chips and that's basically the same thing, right? It's made from flour into thin layers and you eat it.
While that is true, more importantly, they are their respective purveyors' spyware devices using which they intend to claw their way into people's lives to an even greater extent.
Amazon is more than happy to sell you other brands of USB cables or clothes, despite having their own "Amazon Basics" brand.
But they draw the line at other brands of eBook readers and media players.