The corporate greed of Amazon

[phenomlab]

I received an email from Amazon this morning concerning my prime subscription and intended price increases for their “same day” delivery (I’m using quotes here as I cannot honestly recall the last time I had a same day delivery). Before we start, let’s just have a look at their annual profits offer the last 3-5 years

Amazon gross profit for the quarter ending June 30, 2023 was $65.010B, a 18.61% increase year-over-year.
Amazon gross profit for the twelve months ending June 30, 2023 was $244.974B, a 18.22% increase year-over-year.
Amazon annual gross profit for 2022 was $225.152B, a 14.01% increase from 2021.
Amazon annual gross profit for 2021 was $197.478B, a 29.28% increase from 2020.
Amazon annual gross profit for 2020 was $152.757B, a 32.85% increase from 2019.

Source

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/gross-profit

Now, let’s look at the email I received

The most prominent part is here

Eligible Prime orders under £20 will continue to be shipped with free One-Day delivery. Where available, Same-Day delivery can be selected at checkout, but there will be a fee of £1.99 per delivery for orders under £20. The fee for customers who are not Prime members will remain £5.99.

Considering the annual prime membership always increases in price and never goes down, plus the fact that Amazon issues a supply and demand algorithm to set prices (always increases) for items you order often, this same day delivery charge for items under £20 is a bridge too far in my view.

If that charge was being passed down to the delivery drivers (whom Amazon have a bad reputation for treating poorly) then I would actually support that, but this is really only in the name of profit. A billion dollar turnover entity can easily absorb this cost with almost zero impact to the profit margin.

To me, this is nothing more than corporate greed, and completely unnecessary. Sure, Amazon is convenient, and has pretty much killed the high street, but it’s not as cheap a people think. To make it worse, Amazon have set the checkout default to be a regular order rather than one time. For those who don’t necessarily check, you are then signing yourself up for something you probably didn’t want.

Does Amazon really need to increase delivery prices? Given how much I pay currently per year for Amazon Prime, I don’t think so

[crazycells]

@phenomlab said in The corporate greed of Amazon:

Does Amazon really need to increase delivery prices?

definitely not… even if the economy is stabilized and these processes get cheaper, none of us will see a “reduction” in these fees…

a classical example of corporate greed…

[phenomlab]

@crazycells absolutely. Seems once something increases in price, you never see it go back to what it was.

[JAC]

@phenomlab Absolutely agree with this!

[phenomlab]

@JAC You know what? I was looking at buying some Hibi Scrub (it’s a disinfectant and cleaner for use on animals (a bit more about that later ) and previously, for a 500ml bottle, it’s been around £7.50 which in itself was an increase of £2.50. Now on Amazon, that same 500ml bottle is £20.00!

[Panda]

If you don’t mind me saying in a jovial way, this whole thread is illogical! The issue is being looked at in the wrong way.
Amazon is not a charity so therefore the act in their own interest.
If the prices are too high, then someone else will undercut them, and intime grow their business.

If Amazon are making a huge % profit on hibiscrub, then we should set up Hibiscrub Direct and undercut them! haha
Hope you get my point - its economics, Corporate Greed is their AIM. If it wasn’t then they are not maximising their game strategy.

The more productive discussion would be:-
as they dont have a Monopoly on Hibiscrub sales , what competitor can be used, and in the long run incentivise them to offer a better deal.

[crazycells]

@Panda unfortunately you are wrong.

small business owner A creates - battery A
small business owner B creates - battery B
small business owner C creates - battery C

amazon analyzes what people need, love, and buy online, and then watches small business owners collapse and bankcrupt and then they put their branded product against the “winner” of the small business owner on their website and we all know which one will be recommended, bought, shipped fast and then the winner business owner collapses too because amazon undercuts them (since they can)…

the same for napkins, papers, soap, clothes, cables, papers and many more home items and office supplies…

so, they do not spend any money for R&D, no money for initiative, and most importantly, they do not take any monetary risks and in the end, they sell “winner products” and get all (or most) of the profits… this is abuse of power and not good for the general public or businesses.

There will be a lawsuit for amazon monopoly soon… this company should be broken apart into many smaller companies…

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/06/ftcs-antitrust-case-against-amazon-expected-soon-reports.html

[crazycells]

@crazycells said in The corporate greed of Amazon:

this company should be broken apart into many smaller companies…

well, this is my hope but I know it will not happen

we are living in a “company-governed” world rather than a “state-governed” world…

[phenomlab]

@Panda said in The corporate greed of Amazon:

Amazon is not a charity so therefore the act in their own interest.
If the prices are too high, then someone else will undercut them, and intime grow their business.

I think you might be missing the point raised in the original post, which highlighted the greed of Amazon by first having them pay for a prime subscription, then for items under a set price, charge them further for a next day delivery.

Amazon amasses billions in profit each year, and yet, their appalling treatment of drivers is well documented. Sure, they aren’t a charity as you highlighted, but neither are energy companies and yet that doesn’t stop them from raising energy prices to be so high, those on low income have to make a choice to either eat, or heat their homes.

The bottom line here is that Amazon doesn’t actually NEED to charge these prices. The cost of an annual prime membership increases each year above the rate of inflation, so effectively, they have already taken it. Amazon also enjoys numerous tax incentives such as making 44bn sales in Europe in 2020, yet paid no corporation tax?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/04/amazon-sales-income-europe-corporation-tax-luxembourg

So, my initial point is still valid in my view.

[phenomlab]

@crazycells said in The corporate greed of Amazon:

There will be a lawsuit for amazon monopoly soon… this company should be broken apart into many smaller companies…

Out of interest, they did the same with Microsoft in 2000

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/management/microsoft-antitrust-case/

And now, the same again in 2023 because of Teams

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3991

[phenomlab]

And so it starts. Amazon are going to introduce forced ads even for Prime customers on their platform. To remove them, you have to pay more??

https://news.sky.com/story/amazons-prime-video-to-include-ads-from-2024-unless-you-pay-more-12967202