Amazon Inc. Hits a New Low

brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,514
edited February 2012 in A Moving Train
Now before you jump on me and say, "Well of course you're unhappy about this, you're a bookseller," let me tell say this- I used to shop Amazon. I figured if they have a book which I'm out of stock on, I'll buy it from them if I can't get it elsewhere. I generally don't make much (if anything) on those books- they're more for customer service. But this spying on other stores, going and and scanning our merchandise to steal sales- that's just wrong. We and other small independent book sellers have a hard enough time keeping afloat. Amazon's practices are bad for small business, they're bad for local economy. Besides that, many people like having a small local store and are sad to lose those businesses. I've seen it happen far too many times.

So please, support your local businesses! Thanks.

http://www.amiba.net/resources/news-arc ... s-discount

"Amazon Inc. Hits a New Low: Recruits Customers to Spy on Competitors

A collection of tactical responses from retailers follows our commentary.

Update 2 (February 27, 2012): Amazon is also fast making enemies among publishers. Melville House reports on reactions to the corporation delisting thousands of books sold by independent publishers after they refused to slash their margin as deeply as Amazon executives wanted. Also, authors contracting directly with Amazon are learning the dangers. According to some, they include having agreed-upon royalties cut without the author's consent.

Update 1: Melville House publishing company has gathered additional examples of retailer responses; in NY Times, Amazon's Jungle Logic; and Forbes' Janet Novak says Amazon's Price Check Flap Is No Strategic Blunder (we agree). For those who saw the anti-indie bookstore jab in Slate.com, Jarek Steele of Left Bank Books in St. Louis came back with a knockout punch. Lastly, Der Spiegel reported on Amazon scamming Germany's job incentives program.



Even for critics of Amazon.com's corporate practices, and we're certainly among them, it's jolting to see the corporation announce a promotion overtly encouraging people to spy on local stores while turning those businesses into showrooms for Amazon's profit. Lest this sound like exaggeration, on December 10, Amazon offered up to $15 in discounts ($5 per product) to anyone willing to scan UPC codes using Amazon's Price Check App at a local retailer and then purchase the product from Amazon.

For Amazon, it's a scheme to get more people downloading its bar code scanning application, collect intelligence on what local stores are charge for a wide range of products and drive up sales. Amazon asks users to input the product prices while their location tracking is enabled, stating, “With every in-store price you share, you help ensure our prices remain competitive for our customers.” Actually, Amazon could easily use this data to raise prices by ensuring a local user sees a price that is just low enough to make buying from Amazon attractive, without discounting more than necessary to maximize its margin.

For storefront merchants, it's an added insult to Amazon's years of avoiding the sales tax collection duties physical stores must fulfill. The promotion comes just as two leading legal scholars published an article for Sales Tax Notes opining that Amazon's tax-avoidance deals with the States of S. Carolina and Tennessee may be unconstitutional (pdf)."

Read more: http://www.amiba.net/resources/news-arc ... z1njggNiHB
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"

"Try to not spook the horse."
-Neil Young













Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Interesting way to run a business... Don't sell on Amazon.
  • I'm not sure checking your competition's price is anything new, I just think Amazon has brought that tactic into the 21st century.

    I will say, however, Amazon avoiding the collection of sales tax makes it almost impossible to compete with them at the local level.
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,514
    bgivens33 wrote:
    I'm not sure checking your competition's price is anything new, I just think Amazon has brought that tactic into the 21st century.

    I will say, however, Amazon avoiding the collection of sales tax makes it almost impossible to compete with them at the local level.

    Re. your first point: Yes, but Amazon doesn't do the checking. They get a large number of people doing it for free- customers. How do we compete against that sort of thing????

    Re. your second point: Yes, especially when we are faced with this kind of dirty pool (and note- the correction at the end of the article is what is known as "fine print"):

    http://gawker.com/5865612/amazon-launch ... ocal-shops

    Amazon Launches Christmas Attack on Local Shops

    Apparently concerned that it's not already doing enough to undermine local physical retailers across the country, Amazon.com announced it will pay customers up to $5 to go into a local store, scan an item, walk out, and buy the same item on Amazon. Please don't do this cheap, sad thing.

    To get 5 percent off, up to a max of $5, you're supposed to use Amazon's "Price Check" iPhone and Android app to scan in the bar code of certain qualifying items and then indicate what price the item is being sold at. This gives Amazon valuable intelligence on how various retailers are pricing various items. "We scour online and in-store advertisements from other retailers, every day, year-round," an Amazon director said on All Things D. But now Amazon won't have to work so hard in the future, since hordes of consumers will (theoretically) sell out the merchants who pump sales taxes into their localities, all to save a measly five bones.

    By all means use Amazon - they have amazing selection! - but there's no need to be a tacky jerk to your neighborhood store in the process. Unless that store is a Wal Mart, Target, or American Apparel, in which case go to town (by which we mean, go out of town).

    Correction: As some readers pointed out, you have to spend $100 to get the $5 discount, and certain items are excluded. We originally said the discount was always $5 and have updated our wording accordingly.
    "Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!"
    -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"

    "Try to not spook the horse."
    -Neil Young













  • 8181 Needing a ride to Forest Hills and a ounce of weed. Please inquire within. Thanks. Or not. Posts: 58,276
    you know the biggest problem with amazon?

    i can't get a coffee to drink while i read whatever.

    :x
    81 is now off the air

    Off_Air.jpg
  • satansbedsatansbed Posts: 2,139
    I think the indie book shops have to change their tack abit, just like record stores, for example the type of people who still come in to book stores want to browse, in general are middle aged and up so you have to target that market. my automatic thought is a coffee and book shop, but im not sure that will work.

    it would be interesting to see someone make something like that work
  • cowboypjfancowboypjfan Posts: 2,453
    I love Amazon. So glad I bought their stock 5 years ago :D

    Also, they are awesome with shipping, packaging and customer service. This company is not going away. Get used to it.
  • 8181 Needing a ride to Forest Hills and a ounce of weed. Please inquire within. Thanks. Or not. Posts: 58,276
    satansbed wrote:
    my automatic thought is a coffee and book shop, but im not sure that will work.

    have you been to a barnes and nobles lately :lol:

    i can't think of an independent shop around me....maybe in the city, but not out here...

    but coffee is a winner for sure...i don't buy books, but i do buy coffee and read magazines. :lol:
    81 is now off the air

    Off_Air.jpg
  • redrockredrock Posts: 18,341
    satansbed wrote:
    I think the indie book shops have to change their tack abit, just like record stores, for example the type of people who still come in to book stores want to browse, in general are middle aged and up so you have to target that market. my automatic thought is a coffee and book shop, but im not sure that will work.

    it would be interesting to see someone make something like that work

    Not all middle-aged (though I do fit in there now)!. I love independent bookshops (and so does my daughter) - not those 'chain' ones. Sadly, there aren't too many around and, as we know, it's made difficult with the internet and chains, and whatnot. When I lived in Brussels, I always used to go to the same place. He had masses and masses of books, most on shelves (and in some kind of order) but lots just stacked up like little towers on the floor! Loved the smell of the paper, the dust... It seemed he had read every single one of his books! If you didn't know what you felt like reading, he would have a lil' chat with you and then make a couple of recommendations. If you wanted to discover new authors, same thing. Never did I not like a book he picked out for me and made me discover and love so many different authors whether 'new' ones or more established but a bit more obscure (foreign ones).

    Like all indie shops, it's the service and the knowledge of the people in the shop. For that you need people that LOVE what they sell (and not just a 'shop assistant'). Need the passion!
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,514
    crazypjfan wrote:
    I love Amazon. So glad I bought their stock 5 years ago :D

    Also, they are awesome with shipping, packaging and customer service. This company is not going away. Get used to it.

    Gee, from an independent bookseller struggling to get by... thanks for the support. :(
    "Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!"
    -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"

    "Try to not spook the horse."
    -Neil Young













  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,514
    redrock wrote:

    Like all indie shops, it's the service and the knowledge of the people in the shop. For that you need people that LOVE what they sell (and not just a 'shop assistant'). Need the passion!

    Exactly why we do it! And (so far) enough people in our community love what we do such that we can carry on. :)
    "Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!"
    -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"

    "Try to not spook the horse."
    -Neil Young













  • dont make me cry about the destruction of small business or GET ME STARTED! The big box store near my home alone derives and sends back to Arkansas 12 million dollars a year, which could keep a small town thriving with plenty of small business owners. Now I will stop here.
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