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

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (28432)	11/29/1998 9:48:00 AM
From: C. K. Humphries	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

The net is a great place to find products and comparison shop. Internet trade like AMZN is a great way to place an order and no doubt saves on the order taking side as well. When you get beyond the one-click purchase it is basic mailorder. Mail order has been around for a long time and has not destroyed local businesses to an appreciable degree. Why then should internet based mailorder be different? Up until the internet, people bought by mail usually to get the best price. It was usually tax free which offset the cost of shipping entirely and sometimes the tax savings were more than the shipping. Then the cost was still 15 to 25% less. Pick up the phone, call an 800 number and the package arrives within a week. Why didn't people do all there shopping that way before the net? One, if there is a problem with the product or you don't understand how it works, there is nobody local to help you. Two, As cost of an item increases, people are less trusting in buying from merchants far away. Three, if the product breaks or doesn't work, you have to return it and wait or deal directly with the product manufacturer for service. Four, if you're buying something as a gift and the person doesn't like it, you usually won't even consider returning it if purchased by mail-so your stuck with it. Five, the item is often out-of-stock yet the mail order company will take your order, charge your card, then notify you (or sometimes not) that it will be shipped later; you have to be willing to put up with potential big delays and Five, returning anything by mail is a pain, period. All of the above applies to internet mail order too. We are now expected to believe that the internet will suddenly change all the negatives of mail-order. I'm skeptical. First, the state tax breaks are disappearing rapidly. So now you will soon have tax plus shipping. The discounts are not as great as they were in plain old mail order days. If you want it today, you can't have it. If you want it tomorrow you pay to the point you might as well buy it locally. So forget instant gratification purchases-Patient people only unless you're purchasing downloadable software. Once burned, twice shy will hit internet mail order in the same way it hit plain old mail order. The first time a person has to return something or waits 3 weeks more than promised is often the last time they will buy by mail. The projected growth of this sector is silly. In the end this is just mailorder-all of the negatives still apply. Americans like to shop as a past time. I don't see people foregoing the trip to the mall so they can spend the day on-line shopping.