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Sen. Elizabeth Warren pushes to break up big tech companies like Amazon and Facebook

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WPPCProductions said:
Only problem with Amazon is they are killing the old fashion retail industry and box stores and censoring products from voices from the right
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Amazon isn't killing retail, the consumers are killing retail. They have a choice of buying products in stores or doing mail order, and they choose mail order. If they don't use Amazon, they can use eBay or dozens of other online retailers. They choose Amazon because it's better. Any retailer can pick whose stuff they want to sell. WalMart has very strict rules if you want to get your stuff in their stores. If WalMart can do it, why not Amazon? The fact is that if Amazon gets broken up or shut down, the Chinese have an online company called Alibaba that will quickly take its place. Alibaba will only sell Chinese goods, not American. So if POTUS is really America First, he will support American companies.

Look at Sears. They were terrible. Everyone says they were terrible. Stores like Sears forced consumers to buy online, because they could get what they wanted at affordable prices. If the government wanted to solve the problem, they should have bailed out Sears. Instead, it went bankrupt, and Amazon profited.

The other thing is that for the government to prove anti-trust, they have to show how Amazon is using its advantages to drive up prices and hurt consumers. The fact is Amazon is doing the opposite. It's driving down prices, making goods cheaper for consumers. POTUS attacked Amazon for using the Post Office, so they created their own in-house delivery system that's cheaper for consumers than the post office. The government could save money by following Amazon's systems, but they won't.
 
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WPPCProductions said:
Only problem with Amazon is they are killing the old fashion retail industry and box stores and censoring products from voices from the right .I agree about these companies are getting too big .Big mergers got to stop .
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I disagree. On Amazon, I have a much broader choice of goods than any retailer. I find my exact size in clothes, the exact style and colors in housewares, the precise components I need for a computer build... and so on. And I find many things that are just not available at any local retailer as well as parts for devices I already own.

Seldom is what I want out of stock. The prices are good, and I can always compare with other good online retailers like Newegg, WalMart, Chewy, Wayfair, Costco and the like and pick the best deal with the fastest shipping. I do not have to go out when it's 122° outside, and I don't have to go out when I don't feel great or when I have a better use for my time.

I rather buy my goods in person then buy it online or mail order but at times I go to the store and look at the product in person and go online and find it cheaper and buy it.
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I hate going out to shop. The things I want are never in stock or not even carried. I have an "uneven" size in clothes, which is never available locally anywhere. I have specific needs in electronics (find me a binned 128 gb DDR4 @4000 set locally anywhere!) and in household goods that are never met at retail.

Good to hear that the POTUS is going to look into this and other tech companies with the rubbish they are pulling.
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I think that the test is market share. Other online companies are successfully competing, and retail seems to survive when retailers do what is required. As BigA said, Sears has failed because it began to suck big time, not because of Amazon.
 
Amazon is nothing but a much more sophisticated Sears of old. When the Sears catalog first made its appearance over 100 years ago it set off a revolution in retailing. Slowly over time Sears retrenched into brick and mortar stores and the catalog was relegated to just its rural customers. Then Amazon came along and set up a new distributed retail method and the brick and mortar stores began to go away. Amazon is nothing more than an advanced catalog retailer using today's technology to make buying faster and easier. There is nothing preventing a new company from adopting retailing methods now used by Amazon and eventually eating its lunch by implementing some new methods. It is likely to happen in the near future. Nothing lasts forever.
 
landtuna said:
Amazon is nothing but a much more sophisticated Sears of old. When the Sears catalog first made its appearance over 100 years ago it set off a revolution in retailing. Slowly over time Sears retrenched into brick and mortar stores and the catalog was relegated to just its rural customers. Then Amazon came along and set up a new distributed retail method and the brick and mortar stores began to go away. Amazon is nothing more than an advanced catalog retailer using today's technology to make buying faster and easier. There is nothing preventing a new company from adopting retailing methods now used by Amazon and eventually eating its lunch by implementing some new methods. It is likely to happen in the near future. Nothing lasts forever.
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The technology is so different that the differences overwhelm the similarities.

Sears was faced with retail outlets, particularly in places like Enid, OK or Pampa, TX, that could not stock everything. And they had a delivery system that was faster than the U.S. Mail or the freight carriers of the day. But the catalog was static, and there was no guarantee of stock and no assurance that the item was even available for a week or more. The catalog was a method of offering products while controlling retail space requirements and inventory.

Amazon used technology to create a new form of retail based on an always current catalog and supply chains that could fulfill in a day or two instead of many, many weeks. They started as a book retailer in a field where no store could stock every title, and made book purchases easier than ever; Sears did not deal with ephemera such as "hit books". And soon Amazon did music. Same concept... rapidly changing merchandise that had a short window of peak sales. Again, a category that Amazon innovated in via technology. They introduced the Kindle, allowing downloading and reading of books instantly.

And then they moved into general merchandise, clothing, hardware, electronics, furniture, shoes, and all the other stuff. And now I could get the new i9 9980XE the day it went on sale. Immediacy, delivery speed, and a lot of other things Sears did not think of.

The only thing I see in common with Sears is that both sell stuff. Amazon's concept puts huge inventories within 24-to-48 hour reach and skips the brick and mortar aspect entirely. In fact, it grew out of a "brick and mortar can't do that" concept based on the Internet and previously non-existent delivery options.
 
DavidEduardo said:


The technology is so different that the differences overwhelm the similarities.

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Both companies brought a new way to do retail and were cutting edge for their time (think 1900 for Sears). Sears even sold pre-fab houses. Amazon still can't do that. Both stores were innovators and both were highly successful (again, during their respective times). Sears eventually was "out-technologied" by online retailers and especially by Amazon just as Amazon will probably be overtaken by yet another innovative retailer.

Some things just disappear. What happened to the "Five and Dimes"? Some turned into the "dollar" stores but others just died.
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...t-worse/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e0eeccce04d4

Here is more on how the antitrust issue is going to play out in congress.

After years of operating largely free of federal regulation, our tech overlords are now firmly in the regulatory spotlight. And for them, the worst is almost certainly yet to come.

On Monday, lawmakers in the House announced that they would investigate whether the country’s most powerful tech companies had abused their power over the digital economy. Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.), the head of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, made the motivations clear: Four decades of lax antitrust enforcement and bad case law have failed competition and consumers. It’s now on Congress to determine whether new laws are needed to police the ever-growing power of Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

The announcement of the bipartisan investigation added to what had been an already-awful few days for the tech giants. News broke over the weekend and into Monday that the two U.S. antitrust agencies, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department, had completed their internal process of deciding jurisdiction over the big four tech companies, with the Justice Department landing Google and Apple, while the FTC will oversee Facebook and Amazon. According to reports, the agencies are now on the precipice of opening antitrust investigations into Google at Justice and Facebook at the FTC.
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https://gizmodo.com/looks-like-amazons-practices-have-caught-the-eye-of-ant-1835268900

Here is more on the antitrust allegations

Lately, there’s been a lot of antitrust chatter surrounding the big five tech giants. Earlier this month, Apple was under the microscope for its strict control over the App Store. This week, it looks like it’s Amazon’s turn. According to recent reports from the Washington Post and Vox, it looks like the Federal Trade Commission is keen on investigating whether Amazon’s been unfairly undercutting competition with its Fulfillment by Amazon and Prime services.

On Saturday, sources told the Washington Post the FTC and Department of Justice had struck an agreement to quietly divide responsibilities regarding competition oversight. While the DoJ got Google, the FTC reportedly called dibs on Amazon.

As to what caught the FTC’s eye? Vox cited a source saying the FTC is quietly gathering information from Amazon’s competitors in three areas: Pricing for Amazon’s Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) service, Amazon undercutting its own sellers, and Amazon Prime bundles.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-antitrust-regulation-165844292.html

Here is more on the antitrust investigation on Google/ Alphabet inc.


The U.S. government has indicated that it’s stepping up its antitrust scrutiny of America’s biggest tech giants — but Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) may have the most to fear from regulators.

Earlier this week, multiple reports emerged that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission had divvied up responsibility for handling investigations of big tech — with the DOJ taking on potential probes into Google and Apple (AAPL) and the FTC agreeing to handle any matters related to Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN). Congress is also launching a bipartisan investigation into competition in digital markets.

But Google’s wide-reaching influence — it has over 90% market share for search — and arguably questionable business practices in online search, advertising, and mobile puts it at particular risk with regulators, several legal experts say.

“We know Google is dominant in search, and we know that they've done certain things to keep their search engine [on top] and with search results, so we know there’s smoke there,” explains George Hay, a professor of law and economics at Cornell Law School.
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DavidEduardo said:


I disagree. On Amazon, I have a much broader choice of goods than any retailer. I find my exact size in clothes, the exact style and colors in housewares, the precise components I need for a computer build... and so on. And I find many things that are just not available at any local retailer as well as parts for devices I already own.

Seldom is what I want out of stock. The prices are good, and I can always compare with other good online retailers like Newegg, WalMart, Chewy, Wayfair, Costco and the like and pick the best deal with the fastest shipping. I do not have to go out when it's 122° outside, and I don't have to go out when I don't feel great or when I have a better use for my time.


I hate going out to shop. The things I want are never in stock or not even carried. I have an "uneven" size in clothes, which is never available locally anywhere. I have specific needs in electronics (find me a binned 128 gb DDR4 @4000 set locally anywhere!) and in household goods that are never met at retail.




I think that the test is market share. Other online companies are successfully competing, and retail seems to survive when retailers do what is required. As BigA said, Sears has failed because it began to suck big time, not because of Amazon.
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1 Got a point there David.I bought 3 cameras and some microphones on Amazon .Like you said .Who in the heck wants to go out in 122 degrees or an icy 20 below zero temps to that matter.
My friend uses Chewy all the time for his 2 cats and loves it.

2 I see that issue with clothes at Walmart.Their size range is odd and never have my size there.Picked up 3 CDs there last week for $5 bucks a piece...About two years ago the sales person said their were going to phase out CD's there.

3 Yes Sears. The people that first had mail order failed around when the internet was a little internet in the 1990's.
Poor upper management there and also killed Radio Shack because they did not keep up with the times.......
 
TheBigA said:
Amazon isn't killing retail, the consumers are killing retail. They have a choice of buying products in stores or doing mail order, and they choose mail order. If they don't use Amazon, they can use eBay or dozens of other online retailers. They choose Amazon because it's better. Any retailer can pick whose stuff they want to sell. WalMart has very strict rules if you want to get your stuff in their stores. If WalMart can do it, why not Amazon? The fact is that if Amazon gets broken up or shut down, the Chinese have an online company called Alibaba that will quickly take its place. Alibaba will only sell Chinese goods, not American. So if POTUS is really America First, he will support American companies.

Look at Sears. They were terrible. Everyone says they were terrible. Stores like Sears forced consumers to buy online, because they could get what they wanted at affordable prices. If the government wanted to solve the problem, they should have bailed out Sears. Instead, it went bankrupt, and Amazon profited.

The other thing is that for the government to prove anti-trust, they have to show how Amazon is using its advantages to drive up prices and hurt consumers. The fact is Amazon is doing the opposite. It's driving down prices, making goods cheaper for consumers. POTUS attacked Amazon for using the Post Office, so they created their own in-house delivery system that's cheaper for consumers than the post office. The government could save money by following Amazon's systems, but they won't.
Click to expand...

Yes I see where you are saying here.Later in life Sears went down the drain with Radio Shack and other box stores....
I'm glad that some of us older people are catching on with online buying then getting left out in the cold..
 
WPPCProductions said:
3 Yes Sears. The people that first had mail order failed around when the internet was a little internet in the 1990's.
Poor upper management there and also killed Radio Shack because they did not keep up with the times.......
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A good part of Radio Shack's failure is also the reason behind the end of magazines like Radio TV Experimenter, Popular Electronics, Electronics Illustrated and many more: the decline in home "workbench" electronics building and experimenting.

No longer do people go to places like Radio Shack to buy resistors and capacitors and transistors and switches and other components to assemble into a doorbell chime or intercom. Everything is now on a robot assembled, wave soldered board with parts so small you can barely see them.

Radio Shack was part of the dawn of personal computing with the Trash 80, but they did not last long in the IBM standard PC world. Same with toys and games... and nearly nobody sells radios and stereos today.

Their style of technology was a window that closed, and in most areas they were no longer relevant to changing needs and lifestyles.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Their style of technology was a window that closed, and in most areas they were no longer relevant to changing needs and lifestyles.
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The profitable side of their business seems to have been picked up by a chain called Batteries Plus. They sell all forms of batteries for watches, phones, alarm systems, computers, video recorders, or even cars. That became one of the only reasons I went to Radio Shack in their final days. I'm a watch collector, so I often need to replace batteries.
 
TheBigA said:
Still if your browser knows you visit political sites, political ads will find you.
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And, OMG, will they follow you. Some of them will find out enough to get an address or a phone number, too.
 
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