
Amazon’s Tactics Confirm Its Critics’ Worst Suspicions - panarky
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/23/amazons-tactics-confirm-its-critics-worst-suspicions/
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revelation
So it is better for customers when Amazon accepts whatever prices the
publisher dictates and does not use its _customer base_ to get better prices
for its _customers_?

This line of argumentation wasn't exactly seen through here. The fear was that
Amazon, having crushed any online shopping competition, would increase prices
on their customers. Nobody loses sleep if they devour some publishers margin
to decrease prices.

~~~
panarky
What if we were talking about Walmart instead of Amazon, and shoes instead of
books? There are many brands and styles of shoes that Walmart doesn't carry
because they can't get a low enough price to make it worthwhile.

Of the brands and styles of shoes that Walmart does choose carry, some they
may promote by placing them on an end cap, and others can be hard to find, or
even stuck in the stockroom and not displayed for customers.

Nobody thinks Walmart is being unfair. Walmart can choose what merchandise to
carry and how to display it.

So what's different with Amazon? Is it their infinite shelf space? Is their
industry dominance and market power?

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dollaaron
Am I the only one who doesn't really have a problem with this? A store
increasing prices and not offering pre-orders does not seem like much of a
problem. Increasing shipping times is a little more questionable, but assuming
they aren't slowing already ordered books' shipping times, then again, what's
the problem?

~~~
Nacraile
It isn't a problem when one store among many decides to increase prices /etc,
because business can shift to other stores. The problem arises when there is
only one store. I think the comparison with ISPs refusing to upgrade transit
links is much more apt than the comparison with a book store raising prices.

Of course, Amazon is not techincally the only store. But they are large enough
to have substantial market power (and, indeed, the current dispute proves it:
it would make no sense for Amazon to embargo a publisher if Amazon had no
reason to believe this would do any harm to that publisher). You also need to
take into consideration the prevailing trend in the market (power accruing to
Amazon) and what this says this about how Amazon will behave in the future
(use of power to benefit itself).

As much as I dislike publishers: replacing multiple old publishers with a
single high-tech publisher does not seem likely to be a happy ending for
either consumers or authors.

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001sky
The main issue is that selective-delay in order fulfillment is the essence of
what comcast and the cable companies want to do (and the opposite of Net
Neutrality). Amazon is one of the comanies that supports the Net Neutrality--
because if comcast did this to Amazon make no mistake they would be fucked. It
would be much better (for everyone) if AMZN stuck by its principles, and did
not just revert to being a bully (when they think they are in-vulnerable).
There are plenty of other ways for them to negotiate and exert leverage with
their business partners.

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dang
Not exactly a dupe, but covered by
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7789753](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7789753).

~~~
001sky
the underelying stories are being added to and re-written. this story (for
example) is a supplemental piece. even the eiarlier story has had its headline
changed (by the publisher) and had extensive revisions to its text/body.

Problem is--the comments--aren't going to reflect this.

So, the issue is this becomes a corner case. By banishing all articles besides
the first one, the comments get locked into a single worldview--one that is
less informed.

Its sort of a catch-22 of actively moderating a #hot-topic

~~~
dragonwriter
A better idea than submitting a near dupe might be to post a comment to the
active thread addressing the update, in which case the comments may all be in
one place, but it will no longer be less informed.

~~~
001sky
This would be good if it was stickied at the top.

But that's not how HN comments, as a default, work.

(Mod's might be able to sticky a reference comment, tho)

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smoyer
I don't know Hachette at all but if they behave anything like Pearson then I'd
say they probably _NEED_ to be taken down a notch (or two or three).

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click170
I'm shocked I tell you! Shocked!

Sarcasm aside, honestly I would be more shocked if they hadn't behaved this
way.

I'm happy to continue to not buy anything from Amazon. Especially when there's
folks like NewEgg around who are quite the opposite.

