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

To: Mark Fowler who wrote (4449)	5/18/1998 8:48:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

You say there's no brand loyalty in retail, tell Coke and Pepsi that and they would laugh you right out of the offices as i'm right now. Mark, The laughing statement is an insult. Something I do not do to others. You do have confused what is brand and what is product. There is product loyalty. Amazon only sells commodity products. They are all the same. There is no loyalty to Amazon and none to a specific book. There is no loyalty to Pepsico but there may be to their product pepsie. Pepsie and coke are perceived as a different soft drink. The companies could matter less to the consumer. Glenn

To: Mark Fowler who wrote (4449)	5/18/1998 4:40:00 PM
From: Don Westermeyer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Mark, There is little brand loyalty in re-sellers of books, CDs, or practically any other commodity driven market. Even in the brand name products like Coke and Pepsi, loyalty is 'bought' with continuous and expensive advertising campaigns. Even McDonald's wouldn't last long without spending the big advertising $$$. No one investing in AMZN now is obviously looking at profits through the year 2005. By then maybe their P/E will be only 80 or so.

To: Mark Fowler who wrote (4449)	5/19/1998 12:10:00 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Hi Mark Fowler; Regarding the discussion about "retail" and brand loyalty. You mention Coke and Pepsi as being examples of brand loyalty, but neither company is in retail. I've got a copy of The Value Line Investment Survey in front of me, and it has three industry divisions under retail: Retail Building Supply (i.e. Home Depot, Eagle Hardware, etc.) Retail Special Lines (i.e. BKS, BGP, BBBY, ANN, etc.) Retail Store (i.e. Costco, KMart, etc.) Coka-Cola comes under the classification of "Soft Drink Industry." Clearly AMZN would go in the Retail Special Lines division, with their direct competitors BKS and BGP. Regarding the Retail Special Lines Industry, Value Line has this to say: Tough Competition Prevails Shoppers appear more price conscious, despite today's more sanguine economic times. P.S. My Value line is dated Aug 22, 1997, surely I have a more up to date one around here somewhere... When I find it I'll post quotes from the BKS and BGP analysis. -- Carl