Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckieTigger
@fjtorres: So you are basically saying it was a political publicity stunt on Amazon's part? I don't disagree. Not sure how Amazon used to handle the bonus for not missing work which is also now gone, but I would complain about that. For me personally it is worth an extra dollar per hour for not missing anything in a month.
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Not necessarily a stunt.
Remember, they got the Sanders mob to take credit for forcing the move.
So it's more of a bottom line decision that they let them shut up the IdiotPoliticians™ at little net cost and put the squeeze on other competitors for whom going to $15 is a big added cost since they have no offsetting perks to kill.
They are, as I keep saying, a tricky bunch.
They operated like a tech company--stock options, generous perks, etc--and all it bought them was grief. Well, they figured out how to give the mob with the torches and pitchforks what they wanted without hurting their competitive positioning on the retail side. Since their bottom line isn't seriously impacted by the swap, and it pressures other big players to follow suit while, as I said, reducing the stock options (which helps existing stockholders) they get a three-fer. A win-win-win.
By the time the dust settles and the stock goes past $2000 Bezos will have another couple billion to put into Blue Origin courtesy of the rabble rousers.
(And since Amazon is boosting its warehouse automation, any employees quitting will simply save them from doing formal layoffs. A fourth, longer term, win.)
It reminds me of the the four hour price war and the launch of the "Special Offers" K3. Nook moved to near cost pricing, thinking they could undercut Amazon and Amazon not only matched them, but used ads to stay lower and offset the lost revenue. And then they used the Kindle ads to start ramping up an ad business that is currently running at $4B a year and growing ridiculously.
https://www.businessinsider.com/amaz...in-2018-2018-1
Think of it as making premium lemonade when life (and competitors/enemies) give you free lemons.