How Amazon Makes Money or Duh

[forsooth]

Amazon is remarkable.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Exactly, not every business can work with profit margins like drug dealers. And Amazon could make a lot more money now if they wanted. But they choose instead to invest in the future, which should be applauded. And not that Amazon's shareholders were left out in the cold, the stock has more than doubled in 3 years.

The stock buybacks when they were operating in the black suggests Bezos prefers a high stock price to hoarding cash. (Which, given the historically low and effectively negative interest rates of the past few years is defensible.)
They are definitely outliers operating to different goals than retailers or tech companies.

[Rizla]

tab has much lower def but is 1.2 inches bigger and $79 less. plus you can get many other large tablets incl. tab 2 for much less. So my point is that I doubt the fire hdx is being sold at cost. I wouldnt even call it great value. If you want the latest hi-def screen i can see the appeal. But are you sure that is cost price? seems high for cost...sorry bout like of caps. im on a tablet.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Rizla

sorry bout like of caps. im on a tablet.

Wow...does the keyboard on your tablet not allow the use of capital letters or punctuation? Maybe you should get a Kindle Fire

Shari

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by shalym

Wow...does the keyboard on your tablet not allow the use of capital letters or punctuation? Maybe you should get a Kindle Fire

Shari

Lame

[QuantumIguana]

I don't really like buying online, I prefer to buy in stores. I buy online when I can't get what I want locally. This seems to be becoming more and more common. We wanted a popcorn popper, and I just couldn't get one locally, apparently, stores only sell them around Christmas.

So, I bought it online. The thing is, if you're going to buy online, and you have an Amazon account for your books, it's just so easy to make your online purchases through Amazon rather than buy them from some other online vendor.

[Sregener]

Originally Posted by Rizla

So my point is that I doubt the fire hdx is being sold at cost. I wouldnt even call it great value.

If we're going to compare units, the best we can do is compare the Google Nexus 10 to the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9". Because they are very similar units in hardware specifications. The Nexus has a larger screen, and a slightly lower DPI, but they are both large tablets with very-high-pixel-count screens. The Nexus 10, which is over a year old and long in the tooth, is $399.

[Sregener]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I don't really like buying online, I prefer to buy in stores.

I used to feel the same way. But as it becomes more and more effort to drive to a dozen stores trying to find one that has exactly what I want, and then paying an extra 20-30% for the same item I could have found on Amazon.com in about 5 minutes of browsing, I'm happier buying most things online.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Sregener

I used to feel the same way. But as it becomes more and more effort to drive to a dozen stores trying to find one that has exactly what I want, and then paying an extra 20-30% for the same item I could have found on Amazon.com in about 5 minutes of browsing, I'm happier buying most things online.

This.
My phone recently died and I was forced to switch to a different form factor. I could have easily run around town for hours looking for a case that fit my needs and specific phone model and possibly failed or I could have paid the telco for an overpriced case that at least fit the phone.

Instead I searched on Amazon and ebay and found an acceptable solution via the latter in ten minutes. Saved a nice chunk of change *and* a couple extra hours for reading and catching up with Arrow. Of the two, the life span savings matter the most.

The biggest gains from online shopping isn't the money saved (though it is nice) but the availability and convenience.

Life is too short to spend in transit.

[cfrizz]

Nail, hammer, head Fjtorres!!!

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Sregener

I used to feel the same way. But as it becomes more and more effort to drive to a dozen stores trying to find one that has exactly what I want, and then paying an extra 20-30% for the same item I could have found on Amazon.com in about 5 minutes of browsing, I'm happier buying most things online.

That is exactly how I feel.
On occasion when I am in the store anyway, I will browse the racks at Walmart or the grocery or drug store to see what new offerings are available. It is still easier to pick up the book or magazine, read the blurb, glance at a few pages than to do a more extensive search online. I then make a note of the interesting titles and check them out more later.

It has been months if not more than a year since I have been in a large bookstore.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

This.

...

Life is too short to spend in transit.

While you are completely correct, I sometimes feel that there is "life lost" by moving everything to digital and by doing all the shopping online. Yes, it saves a lot of space, time and money, and is more convenient, but still....

1997 (just before I got internet):

- I phoned some stores to find out if one of them had a particular book in stock.
- I went to a store, and bought a book in Dutch at a price of fl. 16.95 (~€7.50) Buying the English book in question was almost impossible as it was prohibitively expensive to import one (1) book from the UK. At that time, English versions of books were not really sold in the Netherlands if there was a Dutch translation available.
- I came home with the item, and read it.
- I archived it into the collection.
- Now I had acquired a book.

2002 (I had internet for some years and started online shopping)
- I went to a site, and bought one (1) book in English at a price of €7.50 (And €1.95 shipment.)
- I waited 7 days for the book to arrive. Acceptable, as it was the original English version. Had I ordered it at a bookstore, it would take 2-3 weeks and would be more expensive than the Dutch version. Sometimes, I'd buy a series of 3, if it was one story anyway, to save on shipping.
- I read the book, and archived it into my collection.
- Now I had acquired a book.

Since 2012 (when I got into e-reading again):
- I stay home, and buy 50 books in English at a price of €0.75.
- Within 5 minutes I download all of them onto my computer.
- I sort them, fix the metadata and layout where necessary and stash them into Calibre.
- Someday, I'll read them, but I don't know when.
- I have now acquired... uh... 50 files.
- That would not have been fully mine had I not stripped the DRM off of them.

Now I can get MUCH more books (files), MUCH cheaper, and MUCH faster, but still I have a feeling that a bit of the experience of acquiring a book and reading is being lost. Would I go back to 1997? Probably not, as the advantages of the new way of doing things outweigh the disadvantages. However, I can still be of the opinion that the complete experience we have now may not be better than the one back then.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

- I have now acquired... uh... 50 files.

Look deeper.
Those files are containers of story.
Before, dead tree pulp and ink was the container.
It's much the same difference as buying beer in bottles or beer in cans. Some people prefer one or the other, some collect the containers, and some just want to enjoy the taste and *effect* of the booze.

Me, I buy stories. Each story is a visit to another world and the best are filled with interesting people and ideas. The nature of the container the story comes in is not something I dwell on: hardcover, paperback, comic book, DVD, or streamed video online. Occasionally, even a live performance at the theatre...

The experience is what matters.

(Unless, of course, you are collecting containers, which is a separate hobby.)

Anyway, Amazon is pretty good at delivering experiences in many ways. A lot of people appreciate it.

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

https://socialreader.com/?chid=70644.../content/44NxI



I am sooo surprised. Yup. I am. This is my surprised typing tone. Very, very surprised. And my surprised face. Yup. I had no idea that is how Amazon worked.

Wow. Just... wow. And here I thought all this time that Amazon made its profit from massive sales of saffron, free apps, and banana slug shirts.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

While you are completely correct, I sometimes feel that there is "life lost" by moving everything to digital and by doing all the shopping online. Yes, it saves a lot of space, time and money, and is more convenient, but still....

1997 (just before I got internet):

- I phoned some stores to find out if one of them had a particular book in stock.
- I went to a store, and bought a book in Dutch at a price of fl. 16.95 (~€7.50) Buying the English book in question was almost impossible as it was prohibitively expensive to import one (1) book from the UK. At that time, English versions of books were not really sold in the Netherlands if there was a Dutch translation available.
- I came home with the item, and read it.
- I archived it into the collection.
- Now I had acquired a book.

2002 (I had internet for some years and started online shopping)
- I went to a site, and bought one (1) book in English at a price of €7.50 (And €1.95 shipment.)
- I waited 7 days for the book to arrive. Acceptable, as it was the original English version. Had I ordered it at a bookstore, it would take 2-3 weeks and would be more expensive than the Dutch version. Sometimes, I'd buy a series of 3, if it was one story anyway, to save on shipping.
- I read the book, and archived it into my collection.
- Now I had acquired a book.

Since 2012 (when I got into e-reading again):
- I stay home, and buy 50 books in English at a price of €0.75.
- Within 5 minutes I download all of them onto my computer.
- I sort them, fix the metadata and layout where necessary and stash them into Calibre.
- Someday, I'll read them, but I don't know when.
- I have now acquired... uh... 50 files.
- That would not have been fully mine had I not stripped the DRM off of them.

Now I can get MUCH more books (files), MUCH cheaper, and MUCH faster, but still I have a feeling that a bit of the experience of acquiring a book and reading is being lost. Would I go back to 1997? Probably not, as the advantages of the new way of doing things outweigh the disadvantages. However, I can still be of the opinion that the complete experience we have now may not be better than the one back then.

You're still only looking at Amazon as a book store. That is NOT what the article is saying. The article is saying that people who own Kindles buy more of EVERYTHING from Amazon. Books, ebooks, toys, games, diapers, furniture, pet items, car parts and accessories, electronics and accessories, food, toilet paper, silverware, dishes, soap, towels, sheets...and just about anything else that you can get in any other store.

Incidentally, everything listed above is either stuff that I personally have bought from Amazon, or that someone I know has bought from Amazon in the past year. And just about every item cost less buying from Amazon than if I had gone to a brick and mortar store. With free shipping, even if it costs a dollar or so more from Amazon, I'm saving the gas money that I would have spent going to the store and back.

Shari