Hacker News Reader

Comment by bootlooped | Hacker News Reader

Isn't this essentially what they're doing with Amazon Basics and probably almost every other Amazon-owned brand?

They will let sellers scout products, and then squeeze them out after they have a product that's proven to move. It's better for Amazon this way, you can externalize lots of risk while still making a fat commission + assorted fees.

View on HN

Moreover they have the data (which product sells/returns and where) to optimize the priorities of entries that no other seller has.

They do the same thing at Whole Foods with their 365 brand.

and at Costco with Kirkland and Wal-Mart with great Value and Target and something

I'd say the difference is inventory costs.

Most box retail seems to clone high-sales-volume items.

Amazon can afford to clone the long tail, because they'll still make profits off it.

One of targets brands is “up and up” which always gets a lol because like...trust me, these garbage bags are on the up and up. Who are you trying to convince?!

Agreed, I have seen Great Value things in food isle popping up after few months of something else; my personal observation was Uncle Rice ready made rice.

Whole Foods was doing that before Amazon bought them, and so was literally every other supermarket or retail chain

Which is also what Walmart, target, Kroger’s, publix, Safeway, Costco, kohl’s, and every other big box retailer does.

It’s not a new paradigm.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com