

Amazon Not as Unstoppable as It May Appear - urish
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/technology/personaltech/amazon-not-as-unstoppable-as-it-may-appear.html

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xnull2guest
If you look at where Amazon decided to build it's headquarters (South Lake
Union in Seattle), and how it decided to significantly expand it, you'll see
how much of a gamble they are making as a company. South Lake Union was never
meant to be a tech sector (historically it has been a center for biomedical
research, but the influx of computing solutions has challenged the need of
space in biomed research labs) - and is known for grid lock and poor traffic
patterns. But Amazon is going full forward: they are building more cafeterias,
more offices, more parking.

It is my opinion that Amazon will live or die by this decision. Seattle is the
fastest growing (per capita) city in the United States and already has had
(for decades) a housing, traffic and parking problem. The plans that Seattle
has to expand public transportation do not include plans which will help the
chokehold situation in SLU.

Currently Amazon only works because: the cost of housing versus the income
from Amazon is balanced with the insane hours they demand of their employees
and the traffic that is only helped by the odd hours that employees end up
working. As the price of housing increases, especially in those areas with
easy access to Amazon HQ, and as the traffic situation becomes worse, and as
Amazon burns out both its reputation and potential long term employees, the
long term prospects of Amazon's HQ IMHO are not very good. The more employees
are squeezed and the less they are compensated, the more the pressure to work
must come not from compensation but from political pressure - but I think
other opportunities in the area will drastically outperform Amazon in terms of
compensation and work-life balance in this world, so I expect Amazon to
falter.

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jimnutt
The article may apply to heavily urban areas, but in more rural areas, Amazon
is the only game in town besides getting in the car and heading to the local
Wal-Mart. I can't see most of these localized delivery services getting
national traction simply because it doesn't make economic sense in
rural/suburban areas, the population density isn't high enough.

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mreiland
More than that, I've never had a bad experience with Amazon. I'm not saying
they don't happen, I'm saying I personally have _never_ , in all the years
I've been using Amazon, had a bad experience.

I have nothing but praise for Amazon and as time goes on I find myself more
and more simply ordering things from Amazon even if they're available locally.

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xiaoma
It's worth pointing out that many of these startup "threats" use AWS,
including Postmates ([https://angel.co/postmates/jobs/44964-software-engineer-
infr...](https://angel.co/postmates/jobs/44964-software-engineer-
infrastructure)).

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shalbert
I don't think anybody can predict Amazon's future. There still isn't enough
competition. Once another brand can be recognized as equally trustworthy as
Amazon is, maybe there will be a chance for it's demise. However, the Fire
Phone fail will definitely not expedite that potential process

