Comments on: Stop Freaking Out About Amazon's Price Check App

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:39:02 +0000

I read your article on the new Amazon “Price Check” app and I
totally agree that this is making it even harder for small
businesses to compete in today’s market. Our app is designed to
help small businesses stand out and drive traffic to their stores.
In order to compete with Amazon and help small businesses get over
this burden we are launching a campaign that will help counter the
effect this app is having on small businesses. ”Amazon is not so Amaz-ing. Small businesses are
important to us #occupyamazon #10bucksoff”.

By: YupYup

YupYup — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:23:16 +0000

tradition? Like covered wagons and cassette tapes and blood-letting?

Capitalism is what it is. I don’t like to watch people “suffer” any more than the next guy but really, what is everyone supposed to do? Show me the rule book, please. Seriously, if anyone has a rule book on free market economy, I would absolutely love to read it.

By: mamamando

mamamando — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:01:29 +0000

You obviously do not work in a physical store. You have not watched you fellow employees get laid off with management saying it is due to Kindle like products and the online marketplace for lack of in store sales. They also use that as a reason to eliminate full timers and only hire part time staff to save on health insurance. You could have a deeper sympathy towards the people who fear for their livelihoods on a daily basis. Watching potential customers ask for a book, you get it for them, they like it, buy it on their phone in front of you and leave, is as damaging as it gets. So while this app may not directly affect books,the psychological damage which has already been done is only intensified. Amazon is teaching a culture to undermine itself with the idea of saving money by losing tradition.

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:18:57 +0000

Speaking as a publishing professional, perhaps some of the outrage from the book community stems from the fact that we’ve seen what Amazon has done to our industry and we just don’t want to see the same thing happen to others. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. There’s honor in that.
But since this is business and speaking from a more self-interested perspective, every dollar that Amazon makes in profit comes from products other than books…meaning every dollar Amazon makes off promotions like these is one more in Amazon’s arsenal….meaning one more that can go toward poaching authors, developing Kindle-lending-like programs, and so on and so forth.

By: TheBrett

TheBrett — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:32:06 +0000

I agree that it’s pretty silly to get outraged over this. Places like Wal-Mart already price-match if you bring in proof, so Amazon’s price-matching is just a faster and easier way of doing that for a number of products.

The “predatory pricing” claim bothers me as well. Lots of businesses deliberately take either no profit or even loss on products in order to sell something else (it’s called “loss leading”, or in other areas “cross-subsidization”). Apple, for example, doesn’t make a lot of money off of iTunes, but iTunes is just a tool to sell devices that can use it. Movie theaters don’t make much money off of ticket sales (in fact, I doubt they cover their expenses), but the movies are a means through which they can sell concessions (where they make their real money).

Most whining about “predatory pricing” usually amounts to people complaining that the Big Bad Retailer is driving businesses they feel nostalgic about (such as independent bookstores) out of business.