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

To: CookiePuss who wrote (29042)	12/5/1998 11:13:00 PM
From: llamaphlegm	Respond to of 164684

Mike You're new here. We love to have contributions, but it might behoove you to read other posts first to see what has been posted. That way when you post links to articles which actually do a decent job cataloging the reasons why amzn is a bloated stock, people won't think that you're on hallucinogenic drugs or simply trying to pull a fast one on us by implying that the articles are all, or even mostly, positive. lp

To: CookiePuss who wrote (29042)	12/5/1998 11:28:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

By pioneering the art of selling online, Amazon has earthbound retailers worried This is an opinion and one with which I strongly disagree. Each employee generates three times the revenue that Barnes & Noble employees do This statement inaccurate. Actually, 71% of AMZN's fulfillment is done by Baker and Taylor and Ingrams. The employees of these firms place books in boxes and drop ship them to customers of AMZN at a considerably higher price that buying the books in bulk frokm the publisher. The reason for the higher price is the labor and the profit required by the above wholesalers. The author of the business week article should count many of the employees of these two firms when making a comparison to BKS. BKS does all their own fulfillment. I have read too many misleading articles about AMZN and its so called advantages. Each "advantage" is inaccurate as stated. I find it frustrating that the media people do not do adequate research and that people read these articles and believe these numbers. There are so many false claims about AMZN that the situation is ludicrous: 1. AMZN would be profitable without marketing expense. False; fulfillment costs exceeds gross margins. Marketing just makes the losses greater. 2. AMZN is losing money due to their development of their site and infrastructure for distribution. False; R&D costs are mimimal now on their P/L statement. The distribution centers are leased and the size of these centers need increased so these costs are increasing. 3. AMZN turns over inventory much faster than a "traditional" bookseller. False; AMZN is only turning over their best sellers because that is what they inventory. The other books are supplied at a premium from Baker & Tayler on Ingrahms. The cost again for these books is a premium because the abvove mentioned firms are inventorying them for AMZN. Compare the best sellers at BKS and AMZN and you will find the inventory turn rate on these specific books are about the same. 4. AMZN does not have to pay rent in a high rent district. True; however, every book shipped from AMZN either through Baker & Taylor or Ingrams or direct from the AMZN wharehouse is shipped in a heavy cardboard shipping box. How much more does that box cost compared to a shopping bag at a retailer store? Multiply this difference by millions of boxes in a year. 5. AMZN only has one store as stated in the article. False; AMZN has one location at which orders are taken. There are four locations from which the majority of books are shipped. 6. Having many retail outlets is expensive and BKS is sattle with this expense. False; each retail store has thousands of people go by it producing free advertising. Also, if there is a bad snow storm in the Northwest, a few BKS stores may do little or no business that day. However, AMZN's employees may not make it to work and AMZN will do no business. The entire company is closed. This is true for the Northeast due to a distribution center there too. This is just a start<G> Glenn