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by crazygringo 73 days ago
> Do we ever see "oil prices are down 3.5%, we are lowering our prices by 3.5%"? Never.

Companies lower prices all the time. It's the competitive market at work. They just don't tend to say why, because nobody cares about the reason, so it's not necessary.

E.g. snack prices are coming down, to pick one recent example: https://www.npr.org/2026/02/03/nx-s1-5697941/pepsi-prices-ch...

But it's human bias to notice when things get worse, but not when things get better.

1 comments

Absolutely in a competitive market.

There’s an argument to be made that Amazon has so much of the online buying market that’s it’s not competitive and can likely get away with increasing price. And I tend to agree with that

Walmart.com is a major competitor to Amazon, including for third-party vendors. So are brands choosing to sell direct. Lots of people regularly compare prices like that. And tons of people use Google Shopping for price comparison.

Amazon is in an extremely competitive market. They can raise prices for fulfillment because everybody has to because everybody's fuel prices are going up.

I disagree. There are many other sites to buy anything you find on Amazon. If they raise prices and don't drop them, but other online retailers either don't increase or lower after they do, Amazon loses.

People Google things they're going to buy. Or at the very least they go to other places they're familiar with like Walmart (for the US).

There is an argument to be made yes, but not a particularly good one.