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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (64788)	6/27/1999 11:30:00 AM
From: Cap_Loss_Cfwd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

>> These are the areas in which I believe AMZN can excel since they have developed such a large group of distribution centers.<< Glenn, I had to smile when reading your post and reflecting on how the arguments for the excellence of AMZN's business model have evolved. It used to be that the bulls extolled the benefits of the virtual company, unencumbered by the inventory, overhead and lack of flexibility inherent in bricks and mortar. Now, the argument seems to be that AMZN's bricks and mortar and truck fleet will be better than anyone elses. Somewhat ironic. I can hardly wait until AMZN has to develop a real customer service organization (read - oven and refrigerator repair people) to service the people who buy its appliances. But on the other hand, at $60 minimum per service call they might actually make money on it and really screw up their long term strategy.

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (64788)	6/27/1999 1:02:00 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

Glenn, it just happens I am reading a book on Buffett right now and one of the things he looks for in management is "candor". Sure would be nice if we had some candor here from Bezos, then we would know whats going on! Of course the other side is they don't want the competition to copy their biz model, so there you go. My take on what amazon is doing .... (a guess).... they will separate their products into heavy goods and other. Heavy goods are appliances and high $$ value... furniture, electronics etc. Other are cheap things like books and toys. Books and toys get one warehouse in one part of the country and whatever you order comes from there. This is the most efficient system for inventory. Heavy goods also go to one warehouse but it is the regional warehouse closest to their manufacturing facility. So say, all maytag appliances on east coast somewhere, Whirlpool tennessee or whatever. This approach will save them from moving Whirlpool to Nevada for shipping and then back to Tennessee if a customer orders one. When the customer orders it, the product gets shipped directly from there which is expensive but that cost is already being absorbed in the logistics model for appliances today. What amazon is saving is shortage and multi-hop from warehouse #1 to warehouse #2 and then transfer to some other warehouse because a customer wants it and it is out of stock. OK, that is my guess as to how to attack the heavy goods.... if thats what they are doing of course!