Amazon Continues A March Toward A 21st Century Montgomery Wards

Here's the article (click here). The sub-heading catches attention.

Separate from the Amazon connection ... there is a thrilling nothing-burger of a merger statement in the article ... "many in the industry have anticipated this transaction and the benefits it would drive for customers, partners, and employees." That is filthy nonsense. Please, describe the benefits. Fewer employees? How do customers benefit over what is currently being done? Partners without money when this ship goes down in ten or fifteen years? How exactly does a customer benefit?

Meanwhile, the best thing that happened to my time consuming practices in the past two years has been my gradual move from the increasingly toxic waste-dump formerly known as Twitter to Reddit. The past month has been something to behold. Across the subreddits I follow, somebody always finds a way to say this:

I'll restate the comment here:

• "Those prices are ridiculous cuz I seen a Vader for $15 on AliExpress."

Somebody posts a screen dump of prices of iems on Amazon, and the first comment is from somebody saying they've seen one of the items cost 1/5th as much on AliExpress.

Do you see what is happening? Venture out to Reddit and you'll see it.

• Amazon is playing a non-competitive role in the consolidation of previously proud mall-based retail brands. Exciting!
• Customers are comparing prices on Amazon with a hundred-billion-dollar-a-year overseas brand and finding Amazon to be (checks notes) ... uncompetitively expensive.

Commerce rhymes over time. It's unavoidable. You reach the mountain top only to find somebody else climbing a taller mountain and you end up trapped on your mountain, with no way off. It's coming, it's unavoidable, it isn't a near-term issue, and it is something you should be thinking carefully about if you call yourself a "strategist" or "strategic thinker" or a "thought leader" on LinkedIn.