I’m in the middle of reading “The Everything War” by Dana Mattioli. It’s about how Amazon has become the conglomerate that it is.
I just finished the chapter on “Venture Capital or Corporate Espionage” and it made me positively ill. Most, if not all of Amazon’s products (Echo, Alexa, clothing) have been stolen from companies that Amazon pretended to want a deal with, then renegged and took their products. The smaller companies can’t fight in court against Amazon, so they either settle for a pittance or go out of business.
There is also the case of Diapers.com which Amazon put out of business. Amazon started offering free Prime memberships to moms and dropped the price of diapers to almost zero, until Diapers.com went out of business, then upped the price again. They can do this b/c their other businesses can support the loss until the competition is removed.
So what is the endgame for Amazon? They become the American company store?
While I do buy from Amazon, I try to find an alternate vendor if I can. I do use Amazon’s reviews to compare products, but then I’ll buy from Best Buy, Target, eBay, etc.
Sadly, what I do or don’t do won’t make a difference. But I hope more people, businesses, and government become aware of the issues of Amazon. The convenience of fast, free shipping comes at a great price, which we will realize too late.
Here’s the book, on Amazon (I bought from a local bookstore)
Amazon.com: The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power: 9780316269773: Mattioli, Dana: Books