>>Amazon is part Wal-Mart, part Dell and part AOL
A cynic might comment about part Alice in Wonderland, too ... Bezos ate the part of the mushroom that makes you larger, that's for sure.
I'm pretty dense sometimes, so my assessment of Amazon's future is not worth much. The only thing I go on is my dumb intuition: I get a surprising amount of satisfaction out of hunting down bargains, and the web makes it very easy to do so. Easier than making phone calls, and far easier than driving around from store to store.
For example, I bought a gourmet coffee grinder the other morning. I researched the decision, partly using the shopping bot mysimon, and found the product I was looking for at $125 (I told you it was gourmet), free shipping, after comparing the prices at four different online retailers. I did all this in about fifteen minutes, between breakfast and getting in the shower before going to work.
I don't know how much money the seller made off me, but I imagine they made less than the sellers that had it for $139 + S&H.
Now it's probably a mistake to extrapolate from me to the population at large, but still ... doesn't it give you pause?
Of course, if I find that grinder for less at my local Starbucks, I'll really be pissed. |
