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

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (116711)	2/1/2001 3:20:44 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

I think men are more likely to shop on line. Women are more touchy-feely. It is true that often the meaning gets lost with just words and no vocal tones, etc. Let's start here. Women are now the dominent on-line shoppers and by more than 12 percentage points. That is just a fact which has no bearing on the article. I only posted that as trivia. My point is there are certain groups in certain industries that surely are fighting tooth and nail to prevent the internet from making their services worthless. This brings up the point that likely their services really are worthless. The most evident to me are travel agents. For years they would have access to a database that anyone could use and receive 10% for booking a flight, etc. Then it went to 7%. Then to 5%. I am not implying these are bad people but I am saying their services are not value added. The only service that is value added is one that requires a special education and talent to perform. Therefore, maybe some money managers are of value to some people. In non service industries, the sales people that sell commodity type products such as books, music and video are not value added. The article was too general and classified too many industry groups into a class against providing services on-line. That is just plain incorrect. All I did was post an article I thought was relevant to AMZN's business model. However, with all the warehouses AMZN has built across this country, they can't claim to be an e-business only - they have plenty of bricks & mortar. I had nothing against you posting the article nor was I in anyway attacking you. I attacked the article for the above mentioned reasons. The study and writer had other reasons than facts to arrive at the conclusion in my opinion. I just want to point out that the retailers of all products do a provide a service. The manufacturer has enough problem handling inventory control, just in time buying, accounts receivable, etc. The last thing a manufacturer really wants to do is sell directly to the public. This even goes for Dell because they really are an aseemble. I am too wordy here ot make my point so in short, on-line services are very efficient except for products that are not commodities. This includes goods and services. The "middle man" is always providing a value added service in a non commodity product. Please never think I dislike some thing that is posted. Glenn