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Amazon's Monopoly of the tech industry is ruining the US economy (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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I wanted to get printer photo paper for my printer, a Canon. I went to Walmart, They had nothing. Went to Target, they had one pack of photo paper and it was crazy expensive, so I went to micro center. That one was just as expensive. So finally I went back to Amazon, which I was trying to avoid, and saw the price 25 to 40% lower than anywhere I had been. Literally everything that I was looking for, I could find within seconds. Not even Best buy has even close to the amount of inventory or variety, even when you're shopping online....

Therefore, I think Amazon has a literal monopoly in the tech industry right now, you're literally forced to buy from them, because unless you have the money and financial fortitude to protest with your wallet, you're going to be buying from them. There's no other choice. They have so aggressively and dominantly taken over the supply chain market that no other tech company can currently compete with them in any aspect at all. You will be paying 40 to 50% more on everything by cutting out Amazon, and no one has the money for that anymore unless you're upper middle class or above

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 32 points 1 month ago (13 children)

OP, I dislike Amazon and there are definitely plenty of things to accuse them of, but you're literally describing the opposite of a monopoly. Generally the problem with monopolies is that they don't need to compete on price so they'll over charge. You're saying Amazon is a monopoly because they're the cheapest option though. That doesn't follow.

Again, to be clear, I dislike them and believe they're worthy of criticism. I'm not trying to "defend Amazon" here.

[–] firadin@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (5 children)

You need to read The Amazon Anti-Trust Paradox by current FTC head Lina Khan. She argues that the consumer price oriented monopoly definition is old and outdated in the modern setting. Price is not a sufficient proxy for market competitiveness, and in fact, price is often used to kill competitiveness by undercutting new and innovative products.

[–] Buttons@programming.dev 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I agree. Price is important in a classic "free market" where people compete to sell goods and services for cheaper and whoever does it best makes a profit and grows, etc, etc.

This ain't a classic free market. We frequently see companies become market leaders without ever earning a profit. That's not a classic free market.

Succeeding as a company because you make customers happy sounds nice, but the most powerful companies today succeed by gaining favor from those already in power (venture capitalists, etc), and the customers are just a bargaining chip to be tossed around on the bargaining tables of the wealthy.

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