Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I'll never understand Amazon's domination in the US.

Its like everyone not Bezos chose to completely ignore the internet.




Free shipping. Most other retailers still don’t offer it and if they do, there are absurd limits like you have to spend $100.


Hell, Borders had Amazon running their website at one point.

I can only imagine Bezos had to leave the room during negotiations because he was laughing too hard.


Possibly. It was an incredibly stupid move. I was a manager at Borders during its mid-90s rise, and I told them at that time that Amazon was going to eat their lunch. They didn't believe it and didn't listen. While Amazon was focusing on developing their supply chain and getting consumers accustomed to buying online, Borders was building massive stores everywhere that couldn't turn a profit. They were also going into debt to do this. They were simultaneously not conservative enough (finances) and not innovative enough (the Internet).


Unless you know what you are buying and have a sense of what quality you are buying, its impossible to buy online.

There is a reason why most people get a touch and feel of things at places like Target and then buy it online.

In India where large retailers like Target are absent and people have no way of getting the 'look and feel', the trend is its getting very hard to sell things, unless you throw impossible discounts at customers.


Unless you know what you are buying and have a sense of what quality you are buying, its impossible to buy online

That's what Borders upper management said in the mid-90s and at the company's peak, and they were wrong. Showrooming didn't make people buy elsewhere when Amazon had the lower price, either.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: