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Why Amazon Wants To Pay Sales Tax
Maximum Prophet writes "A while ago, Amazon caved on paying individual states sales taxes. Now we know why. Amazon is setting up same-day delivery warehouses everywhere. They will put most normal retailers out of business." If that's a bet, I'll take it.
Amazon bought Kiva Systems last year - a company that specializes in pick and pack robots. If I remember my dot.com history correctly it was the picking and packing aspect of the business that killed on-line grocery WebVan. (Which Amazon was an early investor in. I wonder f Amazon has any of the old WebVan stuff around.)
I have a prime membership with them. main app on my phone is the Amazon store and code scanner, go into Wal Mart see an item touch and play with it. if i like it then i check how much on Amazon and then buy it, it is then at my home with in 2days (1day on most things). My wife is disabled and can not drive, so Amazon has been a wonderful thing for us and our kid.
You could. Walmart has free shipping. Even to Alaska.
That's completely insane - they are undercutting local businesses by 20 - 40%. Don't know how long they're going to keep this up but watching it is entertaining.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Robotic warehouses are not the nirvana that so many claim they are. The problem comes when demand falls off (all demand is cyclical) and your competition lets people go while your left with the same fixed costs. This is happening right now in the industry I work in, where the former leader is plunging out of control from large infrastructure costs, particularly their very sophisticated warehouses, that their competition doesn't have.
The strategy also seems to overlook that thing where, you know, people don't wanna' pay sales tax. Here in California that amounts to an almost 10% savings for those consumers who violate state sales and use tax laws (of course, I don't).
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
I wouldn't. Amazon as a system of getting goods makes sense, and if done right would cut down on gas consumption with everyone driving to the store separately. I happen to live in Seattle and have used AmazonFresh (grocery delivery) and have automatic monthly diaper delivery with AmazonMom and it's awesome. I look forward to a future where I don't need to drive anywhere to do my shopping, and can spend that time out hiking and having fun with my kid. Only thing that might be cool is an Amazon "try it" store where you can go check something out before getting it. Just drop the stuff off with my hose robot and it'll unpack, stock things in the fridge and elsewhere, and recycle the packaging, or better yet start using re-usable packaging and I'll just give it back in the AmazonFresh bins.
On the topic of local distribution centers, I'm sure that this will not be a full selection of Amazon products available for same day deliver, just a selection of the most popular items, which will still be nice to get faster.
The sooner capitalism gets destabilized due to increases of productivity resulting in a lack of work to go around for people to earn a living, the quicker we will start investigating and experimenting with how to build a post-scarcity economy. Progress does not apply to technology alone, it works on society as well.
America is still the #1 manufacturer of all globally produced goods. We manufacture 60% of all globally produced goods and China/Japan account for the majority of the balance. The difference is that the scale of manufacturing has shrunk from 10,000 person factories to small shops that employ under 50 people. The real issue I see is training. If you open the want ads you will see many, many worker wanted ads for machinists, CNC operators, lathe operators, CAD detailers etc .... The problem is that the small shops don't have training facilities or do apprenticeship programs or journeyman programs anymore.
While the US doesn't do large scale industrial widget manufacturing anymore, we still do lot's of manufacturing for the military, oil/gas industries, medical industry, auto and aerospace industry. Many companies are now pulling out of China as the cost benefit is vanishing as the Yuan has been allowed to float. These companies are creating automated assembly lines and pulling as much labor out as possible to produce goods here that are higher quality and at the same cost (or lower) as manufacturing in China. Additionally, companies are finding they can have much more agile supply chains and can cut lead times tremendously.
My advice to the 300 million people is find something that you like to do and get good at it. Competency is a rare commodity these days. And if you can't find something you love to do, then find a field and specialize in something that can't be outsourced, examples: pipe-fitter, welder, electrician, plumber, amazon warehouse picker robot repairer, physical therapist... and the list goes on.
Let me give you a brief list of the items in my home (purchased in the last 2-years that are Made in USA) * Garage Doors * Garbage Disposal (InSinkerator) * Entry Doors * Lumber to Construct Split Rail Fence * Roofing Shingles * Insulation (for Walls) * Drywall * Craftsman Tools (with lifetime breakage guarantee) * Spatula (for cooking, yes I found one made in USA) * Ford Mercury Mariner * Step2 - Playground Equipment * Open Sprinker Valve Controller * Paint * Various adhesive products * Worktables * Furniture * Mattresses * Toothpaste/Shampoo/Deodorant/BandAids and the list goes on and on. While the USA is not producing electronics (which is really stupid for national security reasons) we still produce lots and lots of stuff.
If I remember my dot.com history correctly it was the picking and packing aspect of the business that killed on-line grocery WebVan.
Kiva Systems was founded by a former WebVan exec. He saw that Webvan was very popular with customers, but they couldn't deliver the service at a low enough cost. If they could eliminate the people...
Webvan's real problem was botched expansion. They had 3% market share in 30 cities, when they needed 30% market share in 3 cities. Too much truck mileage per shipment.
Safeway does grocery delivery now, but not very well. They just use order pickers picking from retail store shelves. So their systems don't really know what's in stock. Most orders thus lack some items ordered. A more automated system knows what's in stock, so the customer gets to decide when ordering how to handle out-of-stock conditions. (Ordering a different brand or size or item is an option then. Safeway doesn't do that.)
Delivery uses less energy than shopping. There's some whining about the "thousand mile salad", but moving a 45,000 pound truckload of lettuce a thousand miles uses less energy per head of lettuce than the 5 mile trip in the 2 ton SUV that moves 20 pounds of groceries.
A few more years, and automatic driving will meet up with automated warehouses.
after a long while, i've come to agree. small stores that are worth going to for whatever reason (friendliness; reliability; or even just an interesting gimmick) tend to make it, though not always. the reason so few do, is that they really have nothing going for them.
on the other hand, i went to an art and art supply store and after i complained about the price of his poster hooks, he showed me the books; he was paying more, wholesale, than wal*mart was charging retail. that was an amazing insight into economies of scale. he still made it by reputation and selling a diverse array of weird stuff (e.g. tubs of dmso; essential oils; and vintage softcore pornography).
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
They also get good tax breaks from local governments who naively think they're going to attract jobs and thus a larger tax base. Or else if the local government doesn't play ball then Walmart builds the store just outside their jurisdiction (counties generally tax less than cities in most places). Walmart stores are always build large, they never start small and then expand if business picks up. They already know business will pick up as soon as the competition goes bankrupt. So they're willing to build the stores at a loss, even offering to pay for all city infrastructure improvements. This is not a free market.