Comments on: Amazon Dot Com IS a different kind of thing.

By: Village Talkies

Village Talkies — Sat, 30 May 2020 14:06:01 +0000

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By: Rich Wilson

Rich Wilson — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:46:38 +0000

I don’t know much about this football thing. I wouldn’t even recognize that Bret Favre guy if I bumped into him at Sears. But isn’t it a team game? And even head to head, wouldn’t measuring one person’s ability in a multi faceted skill set be kind of like measuring their intelligence? Don’t they have a single number kinda like IQ to tell us how good a QB is? And if so, why the argument? And if not, why not?

And can we link average racial cranial capacity to QB skill?

By: Phillip IV

Phillip IV — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:33 +0000

Amazon has caved, and will allow Macmillan to sell their e-books at the prices Macmillan want:

http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref=cm_cd_tfp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx2MEGQWTNGIMHV&displayType=tagsDetail

But of course they’re all whiny and good-bye-cruel-worldish about it. I love how they say that they suspended Macmillan’s sales for “expressing the seriousness of our disagreement” – I can’t help but imagine that line read by Marlon Brando in his Don Corleone voice.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:06:02 +0000

Charlie Stross:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/amazon-macmillan-an-outsiders.html

For those who are slow.

By: Aussie Pete

Aussie Pete — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:26:13 +0000

Moo: I’ve been in publishing for 30 years and I think that was a pretty good point. Book stores do not set the price of books any more than gasoline stations set the price of gas.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:23:23 +0000

#8:

Be sure to bring an actual argument in your next comment.

By: Moopheus

Moopheus — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:42:30 +0000

I’ve worked in publishing for 20 years, and you clearly do not have a good grasp of how the business works.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:18:52 +0000

Bookstores do not determine the price of books. They set the price they sell a book for in relation to the wholesale price. There is a huge difference …. huge! … between what is going on with Amazon and e-books and what has ever happened before in retail book sales. They are different beasts. And perhaps that is appropriate. The publishers are not providing squat in the areas they usually do in production, and they also provide squat to the writers. In fact, the publishers could be totally cut out of the process.

None of which is really arguable. My point here is that Amazon is a bookstore at the table in ways bookstores have never been before. Seriously, no kidding.

Amazon is not a utility in any way that anything we think today of as being a utility is. But neither are any of the utilities.

By: Moopheus

Moopheus — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:38:38 +0000

I still disagree with your original post. Amazon is not a public utility. It is not indispensable. Every Macmillan book is still for sale at other retailers. A $12 trillion economy does not depend on a $20 billion company. It is in Amazon’s best interest to be perceived that way, because otherwise their stock price couldn’t support the PE ratio of 70 or so. In case you hadn’t noticed, Amazon decides what the price it sells books at will be, and always has. Every bookstore does this. A book ships to the store with a price marked on it; the bookstore is under no obligation to actually sell the book at that price. The manufacturer can’t actually force the issue because of the Consumer Goods Pricing Act of 1975.

Are you arguing that it is not possible for any other retailer to compete with Amazon, that no one will make a device to compete with Kindle? If you say that they are a “utility” that means not just regulated, but also protected. Do you really want that? I certainly don’t.

What does Amazon do that was not also done by the Sears Roebuck Co. 100 years ago? Or by Wal-Mart today?

By: Abstruse

Abstruse — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:56:28 +0000

Comment moved to here:

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/01/the_true_meaning_of_the_super.php#c2240258