
Former Walmart US CEO says Congress should consider splitting up Amazon - dsr12
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/former-walmart-us-ceo-congress-consider-splitting-up-amazon.html
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heisenbit
> He said the e-commerce giant has operated its retail segment at a loss for
> decades, subsidizing the retail portion of its business with profits from
> other areas, such as web services.

Amazon made losses for a long, long time. At that time AWS was not
significant. Amazon's expansion was financed by investors.

> "That's because Amazon sells below cost and continues to do that," said
> Simon, who serves on the board of directors for Darden Restaurants. "It's
> destroying jobs, and it's destroying value in the sector," he said on
> "Closing Bell" on Thursday.

Right, Amazon is selling at scale at loss. That would be a recipe to go
bankrupt real fast. Not true.

> "Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments,
> use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the
> U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!" Trump
> wrote on Twitter.

Incremental revenue to the postal service will only improve their bottom line.
Effects on other retailers is result of a more competitive business model.

The sales tax argument is moot, Amazon has changed a lot here in the US
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_tax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_tax)
) and in Europe.

Abuse of market power is a concern indeed. Big players can bulldoze markets
e.g. Walmart squeezing suppliers. Amazon's power is a concern here but
Amazon's power vs. their suppliers in a lot of places is be still way smaller
than Walmart's. For some items (and I suspect higher paying items) Amazon may
have taken over the leadership position.

Amazon is causing problems for cities, this is truly a big concern. But
listening to someone who brings false and outdated arguments is not wise.

~~~
voidwtf
I don't think we'd have a USPS at this point if not for Amazon and other
online retailers.

Anecdotally I haven't bought a stamp since I was a child, I pay all my bills
online and opt-in for paperless billing, and at this point 95% of my mail is
direct-to-recycling spam mailers.

If I'm understanding the USPS FY 2017 Revenue & Weight report
([http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/revenue-
pieces-w...](http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/revenue-pieces-
weight-reports/fy2017.pdf)) properly, it would appear that shipping packages
is their only area of growth with nearly ever other parcel type going the way
of the dodo.

------
totalZero
Gluttonous fox suggests farmer should consider removing fence around chicken
coop

~~~
fwgwgwgch
He's former ceo. And what's wrong with splitting up amazon? Assuming the
selling business remains a single entity?

I'm not in favor of splitting, I want them taxed fairly but that's it.

~~~
dkoston
He has a massive conflict of interest because he was compensated heavily in
Walmart shares, a direct competitor to Amazon.

