Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: craig crawford who wrote (129235)	7/27/2001 6:54:05 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

i'm not so sure i would go that far. if by some strange miracle the economy could be revived to levels seen in the late nineties, amzn could easily survive. I do not want to spend much time on this. I do not have much. No amount of economic activity can make Amazon in its present state viable. It was not viable in 1998, 1999 or 2000. It has never been viable even during some of the greatest about of economic expansion in history. The lack of viability is not the business concept of selling products on-line. There are actually a lot of much small e-commerce players making decent profits retailing products. Amazon's problem started with who started it. Bezos and then his choice of management. The firm has not been run properly as a retailer which is lean and mean. The only possiblity of survival is to jetison without huge charges the DCs except for two. One in the east and one in the west. Also, eliminate all those product lines and stick with what is profitable. There are many other problems currently in effect in the model as it stands. It amazes me to this day that some people, many actually, thought Bezos was a bright man. He was the worst retailer I have ever seen. There may be worse but the firms did not have high enough of a profile for me to see them in action and of course, they would be long gone. Bezos and whomever he has as a CFO talk about business metrics. They do not even know which metrics count for a retailer. Their focus is on metrics that have no meaning and are ignored by good and successful retailers. Retailing is an art that requires experience. Too many people believe someone can hang up a shingle, sell products and turn a profit. That is false. Retailing is no different than having the education and experiece to run an airline, run a software company, be a Physician (a good Physician, etc. It takes education and lots of experience. Bezos literally walks out of a job as a tech person in handling money and believes he can just become a retailer with the wave of a wand. That has never happened in history and never will.