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Amazon's Monopoly of the tech industry is ruining the US economy (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

222 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I wanted to get printer photo paper for my printer, a Canon. I went to Walmart, They had nothing. Went to Target, they had one pack of photo paper and it was crazy expensive, so I went to micro center. That one was just as expensive. So finally I went back to Amazon, which I was trying to avoid, and saw the price 25 to 40% lower than anywhere I had been. Literally everything that I was looking for, I could find within seconds. Not even Best buy has even close to the amount of inventory or variety, even when you're shopping online....

Therefore, I think Amazon has a literal monopoly in the tech industry right now, you're literally forced to buy from them, because unless you have the money and financial fortitude to protest with your wallet, you're going to be buying from them. There's no other choice. They have so aggressively and dominantly taken over the supply chain market that no other tech company can currently compete with them in any aspect at all. You will be paying 40 to 50% more on everything by cutting out Amazon, and no one has the money for that anymore unless you're upper middle class or above

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[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I was thinking about this recently after a frustrating trip to a brick and mortar store that was missing the specific item I wanted to purchase which should have been easily available.

Has it always been this bad and we just accepted it until Amazon came around and carried most everything, or have stores significantly reduced the inventory they carry to the point where they have become practically useless except as a showroom? It extends to things I only want to purchase in store. Why do clothing and shoe stores never have my size in stock of the item I want? Clothing has become so poor in quality (even expensive stuff) and I'm hard enough to fit that unless it is an item I already have and need to replace I only want to buy stuff I can try on first.

As much as I'd like to avoid Amazon, the lack of inventory at other retailers really pushes me towards them. Why would I pay more for slow shipping from the East coast because the local store doesn't carry anything when Amazon delivers in 1-2 days for free?

I've also been really struggling recently when trying to buy items that are less than $15. Amazon often charges double what it should cost for the items, but at the same time, local stores don't carry what I'm looking for. I can find it for the right price online, but then the shipping cost makes it more expensive than Amazon.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

the shipping cost makes it more expensive than Amazon.

There is a lesson there folks

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That lesson/related lesson:

We cannot accept capitalism’s conception of economic relations as “free and private,” because contracts are not made among economic equals and because they give rise to social structures which undemocratically confer power upon some over others. Such relationships are undemocratic in that the citizens involved have not freely deliberated upon the structure of those institutions and how social roles should be distributed within them (e.g., the relationship between capital and labor in the workplace or men and women in child rearing).

https://www.dsausa.org/strategy/toward_freedom/

[–] TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

It's a mix of both. When Amazon came around, stores got less traffic and had to get rid of niche products, and because shelf space was so important, there could only be so many products carried by a store.

[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 1 points 3 months ago

The American consumers worship of convenience/price above all else is precisely what got us here. Just like how everyone discusses how toxic twitter is........ On Twitter.

In regards to twitter - Of course it's where everyone is, nobody will leave.

In regards to Amazon - Of course everyone else is struggling, nobody will pay $3 more to buy it from them instead of Amazon.

I'm not saying there aren't times it does end up having to be amazon or that you can't be lazy and use amazon occasionally. I have prime myself and do use it on occasion (probably wouldn't if I didn't split it with my ex though.) I AM saying nothing will ever change so long as people REFUSE to even consider their habits for a second.