[0xy]

You cited Amazon's vertical integration as a reason they need to be broken up, however Amazon retail's margins vary between 0 and 5%. Walmart on the other hand is more like 25%.

Amazon is the best middle man that customers could ever want. They clip the ticket an almost imperceptible amount.

The stores you'd probably promote, small mom and pop stores, generally have 50%+ margins.

Who exactly is gouging customers? It's not Amazon retail.

[danaris]

> The stores you'd probably promote, small mom and pop stores, generally have 50%+ margins.

Let's assume this is true, along with your other margin numbers (I honestly have no idea one way or the other offhand).

Where does that money go?

It goes to Mom & Pop buying stuff at other stores in the area.

It goes to improving the small store (by paying contractors, vendors, and other people in the area).

It goes to Mom & Pop improving their house (by paying contractors in the area).

In short, it goes back into the community.

Where does Walmart's 25% go? At best, Bentonville, Arkansas. At worst the Waltons' offshore accounts.

Where does Amazon's 5% go? It gently gilds the top of Jeff Bezos' staggeringly and increasingly titanic fortune.

High margins, on their own, are not a bad thing that we should automatically seek to squash. They are one datapoint among many, and must be taken in context.

[piva00]

I feel we are entering seriously dangerous territory when someone is defending monopolistic practices because during the time of a monopoly consolidating itself the customers get a brief period of lowered prices that the monopolistic forces use to undercut all competitors.

[0xy]

Amazon is not a monopoly, and the second they raise margins they'll lose business to eBay, Shopify, Walmart, Target and others.

Do you think Amazon has 0-5% margins because they're generous or because it's a deliberate strategy to attract and retain customers?

Customers would scramble if Amazon margins were 50%.

[piva00]

Monopolistic practices is the term I used, exactly to not call Amazon a monopoly because they are not one yet. They are engaging in monopolistic practices though (price dumping causing stifled competition, etc.).

[adwn]

> The stores you'd probably promote, small mom and pop stores, generally have 50%+ margins.

Yeah, no, they really don't.

[0xy]

https://www.statista.com/statistics/887938/convenience-store...

[adwn]

First, that's gross profit, which doesn't include the cost of paying the employees that work in the store, or the cost of paying "mom and pop" for the work they put in, or the cost for rent, electricity, heating, garbage collection, insurance, etc.

Second, judging by what little I can see without paid access, the "50% gross margin" refers to "health and beauty care products", not to all products sold by small shops in general.