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Dropping Profits Sends Amazon In Odd Directions

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the do-you-like-my-song-and-dance dept.

tabdelgawad writes "The Washington Post has a story detailing how Amazon has purchased the rights to turn a recently published book into a feature-length movie. The article also outlines other 'strange directions' Amazon has taken in response to declining profits and a plummeting stock price, including moving into the grocery business and producing original live webcasts and streaming shows."

3 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. I prefer bn.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    At this point I frankly prefer Barnes and Noble to Amazon. B&N has finally caught up with Amazon as far as I can tell in terms of hugeness of inventory for books and DVDs, and all that stuff Amazon sells that isn't books and DVDs... well, who cares? This zshops thing is just a crappy version of eBay, and there are better places to buy used books.

    What I've really found that's interesting lately is that if you order from bn.com from inside of a barnes and noble brick and mortar store, they waive shipping. So if I want something, I can stop at a B&N on the way home from work; and if they have the book I want I can go home with it immediately, if they don't have the book I can just ask them to order it from the website and I get it in a few days without even having to pay for shipping. It's kind of the best of both worlds.

    Plus Amazon's switched to this MSN Live Search nonsense. What purpose does amazon.com serve at this point except as a repository for politically biased book reviews? As far as I'm concerned, screw 'em.

  2. Re:Well by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Funny
    They could always sell their "one click" technology.

    I think you have that wrong. Try they could always sell their one click "technology".

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Third Party Merchants by robklaus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think they've gone terribly wrong in the level of integration they have with these 3rd party merchants.

    There is no way to limit searches for items to be stricly from Amazon. I've had mixed experiences with the 3rd party folks, and really I would prefer to buy directly from Amazon, but hunting through hundreds of search results to find what Amazon ACTUALLY sells is incredibly difficult and a major PIA. This has sent me to others for recent purchases.