• 731 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 731 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 733 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 1,133 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 1,138 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 1,140 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 1,143 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 1,143 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 1,144 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 1,146 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 1,146 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 1,150 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 1,150 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 1,151 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 1,153 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 1,154 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 1,157 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 1,158 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 1,158 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 1,160 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
How The Ultra-Wealthy Are Using Art To Dodge Taxes

How The Ultra-Wealthy Are Using Art To Dodge Taxes

More freeports open around the…

Is The Bull Market On Its Last Legs?

Is The Bull Market On Its Last Legs?

This aging bull market may…

Another Retail Giant Bites The Dust

Another Retail Giant Bites The Dust

Forever 21 filed for Chapter…

  1. Home
  2. Markets
  3. Other

Amazon "Basics" Well Beyond the Basics: World Domination?

 
 Amazon keeps expanding its market share. Its "Basics" program and Amazon "Prime" explain why. Time to bust up Amazon?
 

Amazon launched a house brand, called AmazonBasics, in 2009. It was originally a way for Amazon to sell low-cost, generic versions of electronics accessories, like cables and plugs. Over time, Amazon has expanded its offerings dramatically, to the point where it’s difficult to see how the brand still refers to “basic” products.

Quartz trawled through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, which archives websites throughout the history of the web, to see how many products Amazon has offered on its AmazonBasics landing page. The earliest archived result is for Jun. 8, 2013, when 252 products were listed for sale. Four and a half years later, there are currently 1,506 products for sale.

Amazon now offers a private-level version of just about everything it sells, from jeans and bathroom supplies, to bedsheets and lingerie—even books and movies. Amazon is on a path to be able to offer anything anyone wants for the lowest price possible, and with an integrated delivery network, as quickly as possible. Some consider that world domination; others, possibly a monopoly.

 

World Domination?

My Take

  1. If it's good for the consumer, then its good for the economy and I am happy with it.
  2. Lower prices and faster service are both good for the consumer.

For the same reasons, we should abolish all tariffs and subsidies effective immediately, whether any other country does the same or not.

Fair Trade is Free Trade

Regardless, the same parrots protesting free trade will soon be all over Amazon.

Strange Advocates

Praise for free trade comes (or rather once did), from the strangest of places: Paul Krugman.

Once Krugman took up the liberal left cause, he lost his mind on many things.

The best position paper supporting free trade that I have seen comes from Ana Eiras, Senior Policy Analyst on International Economics, Center for Trade and Economics (CTE).

I discuss her article in Will Globalization Survive Trump?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment