Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
Imagine that. Someone can actually dominate a market if only they have enough money to sell a product below wholesale.
Surely there's nothing but good to come from such a practice.
Lee
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Ever heard of loss leaders?
Amazon sold a very small selection of books below wholesale (specifically, NYTimes bestsellers). They made the difference up (and then some) on other books not sold below wholesale. Amazon, famously, makes most of its sales from the backlist/long tail. This is not a new strategy; it's a well-worn retail strategy that grocery stores have used for decades.
And my overall point was responding to the contention that agency pricing helped Amazon and that publishers should go back to the wholesale model to get an edge over Amazon - a point that I don't think makes sense given how Amazon had an even greater edge during the pre-Agency period since they were able to compete on price.