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Comment by legitster | Hacker News Reader

> Amazon has been known to go to their competitor's factories and produce identical products with their brand

Counterpoint: if your whole business model is just doing contract manufacturing with Chinese manufacturers and make your money exclusively from Amazon, it wasn't a very good business plan to begin with.

If you go to Amazon right now and search "Everyday Sling" you get dozens of white label knockoffs. It's hard to feel that Amazon is targeting products when they have already been genericized by manufacturers.

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Even if a company designed, built, and marketed their own product in house, Amazon can take the business data they possess such as detailed sales flows, customer activity and supply chains to swoop in. This data normally unavailable to a competitor gives them the advantage.

Not true at all.

Walmart has all of the sales data on every single product they sell. And anyone who wants to come to Walmart has to provide their sales data.

Or you have Target that is movely heavily into generics right now. Nearly 1/3 of a Target store is stocked with their own brands.

Retail is harsh and it is not unique to Amazon at all. The only difference is that Amazon has infinitely wide isles, and they host a swap meet outside the doors.

Who competes with Walmart in the USA?

Here we have: Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, M&S.

In the UK nearly all towns have at-least 2 supermarkets, and most towns have another 3 within a 20 minute cycle/drive.

The fundamental problem with Amazon is as with Standard Oil. They have no competition, and they have no separation between their logistics/warehouse business & their marketplace. Thus, they are using their delivery business and warehouse arm (which in itself would not be sustainable) to ward-off competition. Just as when Standard Oil bought the railway companies.

Target, for one, which has a similar selection of products.

Walmart is far bigger than the grocery stores you have listed. In fact, the grocery store part of it is relatively new. Can you buy tires or tents or bikes at a Lidl?

There are tons of regional grocery stores in the US. Each region has more different regional brands than national brands.

No single or consortium of companies should have this data advantage over the many small companies to ensure competition.

So what? Why is this inherently bad?

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