Evil Apple caves; agrees to pay almost $1 billion in book price-fixing scam

| | On the other hand, the people who frequent Amazon are
| | helping to eliminate choice with their short-sighted focus on
| | cost. Just as with CVS, Home Depot, and all the other chains
| | that have successfully used a strategy of monopoly saturation,
| | eventually there will be little competition against Amazon and
| | their prices will go up. (Their shareholders are counting on it.
| | people As far as I know, Amazon hasn't actually made a profit yet.
| | Their current business model is untenable.) When Amazon prices
| | do go up, their customers will be angry and feel betrayed,
| | despite the fact that they shop at Amazon precisely because
| | they have no loyalty to local businesses.
|
| It's hard to call CVS a monopoly when there is so often a competitor
| (Walgreen's) store just down the street.
|
| In my town there are in a two-block radius a CVS, a Rite-Aid, a
| Walgreens, a Stop&Shop with pharmacy, and a Big Y with pharmacy. So
| it's hard to claim that CVS has any kind of "monopoly" here.
|

That's true. And there are usually Lowes stores near HD
stores. I'd be interested to know how that works. Do they
illegally cooperate? Do they all race to buy the storefronts
that the other wants? Why didn't one chain open all the
stores? I'm guessing they tolerate each other to avoid
monopoly regulation, Especially given that they're so
evenly distributed. But I don't know.

How many private home improvement stores do you
have? How many private drug stores? Have you not noticed
bookstores closing, assuming you used to have bookstores
in your area? Even some of the big bookstore chains have been
driven out by Amazon.

Home improvement centers that are privately owned and
decide on their own stock have nearly disappeared. I don't know
of any non-chain drug store that I can drive to. They've been
systematically driven out by the chains. The strategy is always
the same: Come in with big sales and cheap prices; drive the
small stores out; raise the prices once the competition has been
removed. Take a look at Amazon's financial stats:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/26/bu...ares.html?_r=0

Their business is not tenable. They never intended it to be
tenable. Their profit has always been miniscule, when there's
been any profit at all. It's a house of cards built on stock
inflation. Their plan has to be to remove choice and then
raise prices. There's no other feasible option for them. They
*eventually* have to somehow raise their prices to a normal
profit level while making that work through some combination
of attractiveness (quick shipments, easy ordering, customer
addiction, etc) and elimination of competition.

You might have 3 drug stores to choose from, but they're
the same as a monopoly if they all have basically the same
products and prices. And in all cases they're using computer
analysis to order constantly changing stock, so you can't
even depend on them carrying replacement parts for what you
buy there. And they're probably all selling your personal
information to drug and insurance companies. Have you
noticed that doctors now want you to be signed up with
one particular drug store? Tracking. (Search "CVS selling data"
for that story.)

I try to support local business and have yet to buy anything
from Amazon. I also avoid Walmart. To me it's just common
sense: Support humans, morality and personal relationships rather
than amoral, computerized corporations whose only purpose is to
profit and expand. If you don't care about any of this it's your
choice, but if you think having a Walgreens across from a CVS
is a healthy business environment then I'm afraid you're fooling
yourself.

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

How many private home improvement stores do you
have? How many private drug stores? Have you not noticed
bookstores closing, assuming you used to have bookstores
in your area? Even some of the big bookstore chains have been
driven out by Amazon.

bookstores are closing due to ebooks more than anything else.

Home improvement centers that are privately owned and
decide on their own stock have nearly disappeared. I don't know
of any non-chain drug store that I can drive to. They've been
systematically driven out by the chains. The strategy is always
the same: Come in with big sales and cheap prices; drive the
small stores out; raise the prices once the competition has been
removed.

if the smaller stores can offer something the big chains don't, then
they can prosper. some do exactly that.

if they can't, then they go away.

and since there are multiple big chains, the prices remain competitive.

On 6/19/2014 11:42 AM, nospam wrote:
In article , Mayayana
wrote:

How many private home improvement stores do you
have? How many private drug stores? Have you not noticed
bookstores closing, assuming you used to have bookstores
in your area? Even some of the big bookstore chains have been
driven out by Amazon.

bookstores are closing due to ebooks more than anything else.

Home improvement centers that are privately owned and
decide on their own stock have nearly disappeared. I don't know
of any non-chain drug store that I can drive to. They've been
systematically driven out by the chains. The strategy is always
the same: Come in with big sales and cheap prices; drive the
small stores out; raise the prices once the competition has been
removed.

if the smaller stores can offer something the big chains don't, then
they can prosper. some do exactly that.
Yes


if they can't, then they go away.

yes

and since there are multiple big chains, the prices remain competitive.

wrong.

--
PeterN

In article ,
Whisky-dave wrote:

if the smaller stores can offer something the big chains don't, then
they can prosper. some do exactly that.

But that's a pretty tall order for small stores.

not really, but if they can't offer something to justify their higher
prices, they go away. if they can, then they don't. it's very simple.

A friend owned a tool store I asked him to get me a drill but it was cheaper
from a big store I asked him why he couldn;t match it, and he said that the
bboig store price offered to me was only slighty more than he has to buy
thekm for unless he orders 20+ . What extra could the shop offer free sex ;-)

that's one way to attract customers.

On 6/19/2014 12:08 PM, Whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 19 June 2014 16:42:40 UTC+1, nospam wrote:
In article , Mayayana

wrote:



How many private home improvement stores do you

have? How many private drug stores? Have you not noticed

bookstores closing, assuming you used to have bookstores

in your area? Even some of the big bookstore chains have been

driven out by Amazon.



bookstores are closing due to ebooks more than anything else.



Home improvement centers that are privately owned and

decide on their own stock have nearly disappeared. I don't know

of any non-chain drug store that I can drive to. They've been

systematically driven out by the chains. The strategy is always

the same: Come in with big sales and cheap prices; drive the

small stores out; raise the prices once the competition has been

removed.



if the smaller stores can offer something the big chains don't, then
they can prosper. some do exactly that.

But that's a pretty tall order for small stores.
A friend owned a tool store I asked him to get me a drill but it was cheaper from a big store I asked him why he couldn;t match it, and he said that the bboig store price offered to me was only slighty more than he has to buy thekm for unless he orders 20+ . What extra could the shop offer free sex ;-)


They offer service, and can come pretty close in price when they form
buying co-ops.



--
PeterN

On Thu, 19 Jun 2014 11:42:40 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

How many private home improvement stores do you
have? How many private drug stores? Have you not noticed
bookstores closing, assuming you used to have bookstores
in your area? Even some of the big bookstore chains have been
driven out by Amazon.

bookstores are closing due to ebooks more than anything else.

They have been dying and closing in this part of the world for many
years. The primary cause seems to have been the ability to buy books
over the Internet more quickly and often more cheaply than you can get
them from a local book store.

Home improvement centers that are privately owned and
decide on their own stock have nearly disappeared. I don't know
of any non-chain drug store that I can drive to. They've been
systematically driven out by the chains. The strategy is always
the same: Come in with big sales and cheap prices; drive the
small stores out; raise the prices once the competition has been
removed.

if the smaller stores can offer something the big chains don't, then
they can prosper. some do exactly that.

if they can't, then they go away.

Exactly.

and since there are multiple big chains, the prices remain competitive.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On Thu, 19 Jun 2014 12:17:18 -0400, PeterN
wrote:

On 6/19/2014 11:42 AM, nospam wrote:
In article , Mayayana
wrote:

How many private home improvement stores do you
have? How many private drug stores? Have you not noticed
bookstores closing, assuming you used to have bookstores
in your area? Even some of the big bookstore chains have been
driven out by Amazon.

bookstores are closing due to ebooks more than anything else.

Home improvement centers that are privately owned and
decide on their own stock have nearly disappeared. I don't know
of any non-chain drug store that I can drive to. They've been
systematically driven out by the chains. The strategy is always
the same: Come in with big sales and cheap prices; drive the
small stores out; raise the prices once the competition has been
removed.

if the smaller stores can offer something the big chains don't, then
they can prosper. some do exactly that.
Yes


if they can't, then they go away.

yes

and since there are multiple big chains, the prices remain competitive.

wrong.

It's right in this part of the world.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 6/19/2014 5:56 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Thu, 19 Jun 2014 12:17:18 -0400, PeterN
wrote:

On 6/19/2014 11:42 AM, nospam wrote:
In article , Mayayana
wrote:

How many private home improvement stores do you
have? How many private drug stores? Have you not noticed
bookstores closing, assuming you used to have bookstores
in your area? Even some of the big bookstore chains have been
driven out by Amazon.

bookstores are closing due to ebooks more than anything else.

Home improvement centers that are privately owned and
decide on their own stock have nearly disappeared. I don't know
of any non-chain drug store that I can drive to. They've been
systematically driven out by the chains. The strategy is always
the same: Come in with big sales and cheap prices; drive the
small stores out; raise the prices once the competition has been
removed.

if the smaller stores can offer something the big chains don't, then
they can prosper. some do exactly that.
Yes


if they can't, then they go away.

yes

and since there are multiple big chains, the prices remain competitive.

wrong.

It's right in this part of the world.


Good for you. I have the old fashioned belief that service is a
component of competition.
Try and get an after hours delivery from a chain.
Try and get a chain to stay open for five minutes longer, because you
are caught in traffic, and the script is urgently needed.
If they don't have what you need in stock, a chain may make you wait for
several days. My local pharmacist understands the downfalls of timely
delivery of med, and acts accordingly. If two generics I take are
similar in looks, he will make sure that he gets them for me from a
different source. The local CVS & Walgreens charge the same price for
OTC, in many cases more than my local guy, in other cases not
significantly lower.
--
PeterN

In article , Eric Stevens
wrote:

How many private home improvement stores do you
have? How many private drug stores? Have you not noticed
bookstores closing, assuming you used to have bookstores
in your area? Even some of the big bookstore chains have been
driven out by Amazon.

bookstores are closing due to ebooks more than anything else.

They have been dying and closing in this part of the world for many
years. The primary cause seems to have been the ability to buy books
over the Internet more quickly and often more cheaply than you can get
them from a local book store.

online shopping affects all stores.

book stores are *also* affected by ebooks, just as record/cd stores
have been replaced by online music sales, both songs and streaming, and
video rental stores have been replaced by online video sales/rentals.

real stores need to offer services or products that can't be had online
or they go away as many already have and there's nothing wrong with
that either.

In article , PeterN
wrote:

and since there are multiple big chains, the prices remain competitive.

wrong.

It's right in this part of the world.

Good for you. I have the old fashioned belief that service is a
component of competition.

sometimes it is, but most of the time it doesn't matter.

there is no service needed to buy most products. you grab it off the
shelf and pay the cashier, the latter of which is also going away with
self-pay.

Try and get an after hours delivery from a chain.
Try and get a chain to stay open for five minutes longer, because you
are caught in traffic, and the script is urgently needed.
If they don't have what you need in stock, a chain may make you wait for
several days. My local pharmacist understands the downfalls of timely
delivery of med, and acts accordingly. If two generics I take are
similar in looks, he will make sure that he gets them for me from a
different source. The local CVS & Walgreens charge the same price for
OTC, in many cases more than my local guy, in other cases not
significantly lower.

not enough people want that to matter.