Why Amazon Isn’t Good For Us

Amazon is a convenient way to shop online but their “take no prisoners” approach is bad for consumers in the long run.

Amazon is a convenient way to shop online but their “take no prisoners” approach is bad for consumers in the long run.

It’s not hard to understand why Americans love Amazon. An estimated 60 percent of households subscribe to Amazon Prime and almost half of all online dollars are spent on Amazon’s platform. Hitting Amazon’s “buy now” button kickstarts a cascade of complicated algorithms that deliver products to millions of American households in less than two days, sometimes in less than two hours. No other online retailers can match Amazon’s combination of product selection, price and delivery speed.

How is Amazon.com Possible?

Amazon’s entire business model is to lure consumers in with very low prices, establish market dominance and crush (or buy out) competition and once competition has been eliminated, raise prices as much as they want.

Here’s how it works:

Aside from well-established merchants, everyone else basically has to either use Amazon Web Services or the Amazon storefront in or…