Will Amazon Become the Wal-Mart of the Web?
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Also, there's no Amazon Prime for international customers, which is a total shame. I understand that it's not cost-effective to give free international shipping for $75 a year, but I'd happily pay double, maybe even triple for it. The shipping costs are what kill me on Amazon -- it's the only thing that stops me from buying everything (literally, everything) from Amazon.
I don't fare well as I used amazon for nearly everything while in the UK, but now in Canada I'm stuck with CrapBuy and Shit-Mart who sell everything at hiked prices.
Anyone knows if they've announced plans to do that?
In Canada no bookseller can be majority owned by a foreign company, (they can only own something like 25%, it's seriously screwed up). Amazon doesn't operate foreign subsidiaries and so it can't legally own property in Canada for it's business. Canada Post however essentially gave Amazon a permanent lease of one of their large distribution warehouses in Mississauga right on the Canada Post's own central distribution point for all Ontario post and the central hub for all post travelling through Canada.
Indigo/Chapters/Coles (the same company) cried foul in court and to the government, however the Judge ruled (IIRC) that as Amazon didn't own any property in Canada they were exempt from the ownership laws. Obviously when the laws were originally set in place they didn't realise how easy it would be for a company to operate without its own property.
I doubt Amazon.ca will come to mirror the US site any time soon. They're in a tough situation and until the laws change, they likely can't afford to jeopardise their position.
An idea that I've been thinking about for a while is an Amazon for perishable commodities. At least here in Western Europe, fresh produce has ridiculous markups. It seems obvious that producers and consumers get abused by distributors. I have the feeling that there's an opportunity in delivering to the customer's home, offering competitive prices in exchange for predictability (repeat orders, preorders, orders with flexible delivery dates, machine learned purchase patterns) that would let one move high volumes without keeping much stock.
To begin with one could focus on organic produce, which (again, in my area) has trouble finding shelf space.
I haven't discarded this idea yet, but I wouldn't mind if someone out there gave it a go first :).
The above links go to the Grocery, Natural + Organic, and Gourmet Foods departments at Amazon. These mostly sell non-perishable items, but do include some frozen foods.
Amazon Fresh is a pilot program, currently in the Seattle area only. It features just about everything you can get at a grocery store, plus a partial selection of items from regular Amazon departments (books, music, electronics, etc.). A lot of companies went bankrupt trying to do this; Amazon seems to be taking baby steps to make sure it can be profitable.
Anyway, I am with you on ordering everything from Amazon. I live in the US and have Prime, and it's just amazing. Going to the store is just not necessary when you can have something show up at your house the next day for $4 extra. (I still buy most food in real stores. But that's about it.)
To me, it seems like it's in Amazon's best interest to use a delivery service that is more convenient for the end user than the current model, like picking from available delivery dates and times.
You don't really need one for every room because not everybody is going to get a delivery every day. One for every 10 rooms would be enough most of the time.
So when Amazon misses me, I just walk over with the DSL slip that says a package is there and scan the barcode on it and grab my package.
You can also supposedly send packages from them.
In Germany too. Did not try it yet, though.
"Competitors, like the low-cost chains Aldi and Lidl, continue to grow and succeed in Germany. In fact, the competition from a surge of low-cost chains is attributed with keeping average food costs as much as 40% lower in Germany than in France or Great Britain." (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/07/walmart_leaves.php)
And:
"Wal-Mart, which entered the German market eight years ago, struggled against the might of the discount retailers already operating in Germany, including the no-frills Aldi and Lidl." (http://www.intuitive.com/blog/walmart_sells_off_german_store...)
or: "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. boasts that its discount pricing attracts more than 127 million visits to its American stores each week. In Germany, however, its prices apparently weren't low enough." (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115407238850420246.html)
Wal-Mart is expensive compared with Aldi. And Aldi has a reputation for treating its employees well, bargaining hard but fair with its suppliers and delivering great value to customers. (My own opinion, but you can read something at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi#Reputation)
[Sorry, I am a fan.]
is still there. In fact my team just launched a new feature on it a week ago. Amazon is far from dead in Germany.
My comment was purely about retail and Wal-Mart.
PS: I work for Amazon and have a friend that works for walmart.com
I've ordered lawn mower parts, (kid's) toys, a laptop, a Kindle, hard drives, etc, etc from Amazon this year.
My local hardware store didn't have the lawnmower parts I needed but Amazon did.
You will...
Amazon lost a lot of credibility in my eyes. Next time, I'll go to each supplier and make separate purchases and skip the middleman that is adding so little value.
I am absolutely certain each item I put in my shopping cart said it was "in stock", yet days after the purchase, I received emails from the various providers telling me the real story. I am also certain that even though I tried hard to find out prior to the purchase, it was not possible to see the breakdown in shipping costs. Only seeing one shipping cost line item is one reason some might believe its all being bundled together from a big amazon warehouse somewhere. Especially with widespread business articles like the OP educating the world that's what Amazon has become. Otherwise, why not show me 4 different shipping charges, maybe I want to send one priority and the others not.
I also filled out feedback on these purchases after I received the shipments to state what my complaints were about the shopping experience, but never heard back from anyone. This part of course, doesn't surprise me. Simply pointing out that if I were to do something like this again, I may as well buy direct from the real supplier so that if I did have a problem, I wouldn't be complaining through a middleman.
IMHO, both sites will continue to serve their respective niches. I don't think either juggernaut is going anywhere anytime soon. :)
shipping is getting faster and better as well. i was going to order an OEM hard-drive and in the reviews someone complained about the poor packaging. someone else replied and said to take a picture and submit to amazon. one day later another reviewer said that their packaging was fine. trusting amazon, i placed my order (free shipping). i just got my hard-drive today (2 days later), and packaging was on par with the retail version.
[edit] link: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2Q6A3WHMIDISG/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt...
http://www.amazon.com/packaging
You can always submit feedback on past orders here, it's easy and quick, and helps us fine-tune things a lot. Like parent said, you can take pictures of how we packed your stuff and submit it, we do go through the feedback religiously :)
Edit: Correction IRS => State agencies (thanks shrughes)