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

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (135082)	11/25/2001 10:18:50 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Respond to of 164684

Amazon invented the category. What category would that be? Nothing new here except the magnitude of the losses and gall.

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (135082)	11/26/2001 12:40:25 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 164684

You act like there's some course on e-tailing that these guys didn't master. Sheesh, Glenn. There's no handbook. Amazon invented the category. Bill, There is a course on "e-tailing" which is not different than catalogue retailing except less paper. Amazon did not invent anything. They are slackers based on a growth basis, a customer service basis, especially inventory and cost management. All growth that they were ever able to create in revenue was purchased. The numbers show it. I would like to point out a significant comparison. My on-line operations only (meaning brick and mortar stores excluded) did six figures today. All orders will be shipped tomorrow and will arrive on Wednesday. No exceptions no excuses and no errors. No free shipping because shipping costs us money. No below cost selling. No customer acquisition costs. No such real metric in the real world. Net profit (not proforma) will be coming in at 5.5% of gross revenue. Our customers come to us not because we "buy them." Apparently, that is what the analysts and Amazon management love to talk about when they speak of customer acquisition costs. We earn our customers. We earn it by providing a product they want and at a reasonable and fair price. We have all knowledgeable people that understand our product and we have developed and automated direct payment system from our web site. Patent is pending at the moment on this concept. Total investment in capital equipment and marketing beyond exisiting infrastructure is now $150K. This will be more than paid off by profits from operations during the first real ramp up year. We have customers in 31 different countries. Sounds really impressive. I have heard press releases to that affect. In som cases, we only had one customer from a certain country. Don't let that out in the press release. Just tell them in prepared remarks at a conference call we are a world wide operation with customers in 31 countries. Let's finally cut the crap about Amazon and the "land grab." Their important customer base. Their brand. It is all crap. Customers buy when they are treated in a manner that makes their purchasing enjoyable, convenient and reasonably ecomomical. The fact remains Amazon actually believed customers could be bought and that they would stay loyal when they are no longer bought. There are a few books Amazon management should read. The books are on retail marketing. Simply what motivates the customer to buy? How does one handle a problem for the customer? How to keep expenses less than the gross margins from revenues. Finally, price elasticity and inventory control. These people took billions of dollars out of th equity market so they can spend it on themselves. These people should be ashamed. In my opinion they lack ethics and beyond having made a lot of money for themselves only, are handicapted when it comes to business. It is time for me to get back to work. I plan to retire within the year. In my case, I earned it!!!!