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Amazon Starts Flexing Muscle in New Space (reuters.com)
A cargo plane emblazoned with "Prime Air" descended from an empty sky at Lehigh Valley International Airport on Tuesday, ninety minutes from the bustle of New York City, loaded with crates of goods during the peak holiday shopping season. From a report on Reuters: It's one of 40 jets leased by Amazon.com Inc for a new cargo service to meet delivery demand from the retail giant's customers. Exclusive payload data reviewed by Reuters and interviews with airport officials around the country show that Prime Air planes are flying nearly full, but with lightweight loads, taking away valued business from FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service Inc. Expanding into transportation, from trucks to planes, is one of Amazon's most important endeavors as it strives to lure new customers with fast shipping while keeping costs under control. The world's largest online retailer is sending more packages, more often, and later in the day to serve its estimated 35 million to more than 50 million U.S. members of Amazon Prime, a service that promises two-day shipping for $99 per year.
Sooner or later Amazon has to start paying dividends...
No, they don't. They just need to keep their share price afloat. Dividends are not a requirement of any company, and there are plenty out there that don't pay them. They are a nice perk, for sure, but not some sort of "you must do this or go out of business".
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
I tried to order something from Amazon to deliver to a local Amazon Locker. No can do. It's full. As are the half-dozen Amazon Lockers in the surrounding area. No space, no delivery. Oh, well. I'll my business elsewhere.
I live in western Washington state. We've had the Amazon delivery people for quite some time now - and I don't share your rosy opinion of the company's priorities. I think they've saved money by hiring people who wouldn't make the cut for other businesses, on the cheap.
Amazon-delivered packages often end up in puddles or dropped over the front yard fence. We have a big sign saying "please deliver to back door", with an arrow pointing towards the (non-fenced) door maybe 15 feet away... and Amazon drivers have left packages, exposed to the elements, right below that sign. Either they just don't care, or they can't read English (my daughter has interacted with a couple Amazon drivers, and she suspects the latter).
I've never had an issue with FedEx or UPS drivers like that. The only people who seemed as bad as the Amazon crew were the USPS folks, back when they were doing Sunday deliveries for Amazon.
#DeleteChrome
Amazon Starts Flexing Muscle in New Space
New Space: When Flexing Muscle in Old Space just isn't going to cut it anymore.
I mean... you gotta Flex Muscle somewhere...
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
They just need to keep their share price afloat.
Amazon is still pretending to be a tech stock when they should be a dividend-paying blue chip stock?
Amazon is still pretending to be a tech stock when they should be a dividend-paying blue chip stock?
To pay dividends you need to be kicking off lots of spare cash. Amazon has never fit that description once in their existence. They reinvest pretty much all profits back into growing the company.
Amazon + ten years = Buy n Large?
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
FedEx and UPS hire the dregs, mostly ex-cons and wanna-be criminals.
Apparently they are "dregs" who at least have been screened for literacy.
It's funny how these pro-Amazon-delivery comments here are being posted anonymously... I take it Bezos lets you browse the web while you're on the clock?
#DeleteChrome
Sooner or later Amazon has to start paying dividends...
No, they don't. They just need to keep their share price afloat. Dividends are not a requirement of any company, and there are plenty out there that don't pay them. They are a nice perk, for sure, but not some sort of "you must do this or go out of business".
Coming soon: Amazon Shareholder Prime -- "now with dividends"
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
They have time pressures so they don't want to walk that far. hell some just pitch them out over the fence
My issue with Fedex is that up here, they show up during my working day, discover I'm not home and then demand that I drive across town to pick up my package. UPS at least has up locations but they randomly refuse to send packages to it and demand I drive across town. Really, I wish they would just ship Canada post instead. At least in that case, the pick up point is 2 blocks from my apartment.
They'll just air-drop it from 35,000 ft..
I've always thought Amazon's strategy was: "Let's buy another company to distract the shareholders from the fact that we don't have any profits to our name."
Amazon could have fairly substantial profits today if they really cared to. But that would be rather short sighted of them. I've done the analysis on their financial statements. The company actually kicks off a fair bit of free cash flow but they are plowing most of it back into various investments. Some sensible, some not so much. They are no longer some fly by night dotcom.
Hardly surprising when you consider the fact that Amazon will send out a pack of AAA batteries in a 36"x24"x6" box with 2 more boxes inside it.
You're paying for that shipping through the product, Prime products are almost always a few dollars more than any one with free shipping, but you don't get it in 2 days with the savings of a couple bucks.
>I've never had an issue with FedEx or UPS drivers like that.
We have that issue all the time. Business downstairs with big sign declaring that the business is right there. We live upstairs. Packages to the business usually get taken upstairs and packages to the home usually get taken downstairs. It's frequent enough that it has to be deliberate. On the other hand, when the Amazon van comes around (as has happened a few times in December) they always look at the label and take it to the right place.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
I'm an Amazon prime member in rural Montana. FedEx and UPS get my 2-day shipments to me in 2 business days from the time they get the package almost every time, barring bad weather. I rarely have any problems with either service.
Amazon, however, has within the last year been failing to get 2-day air out within 24 hours (and sometimes quite a bit longer) of when the item is ordered. So "Prime 2-day" delivery can be 3- or 4- or 5-day delivery. It used to be that if I ordered early in the morning, say 9 AM my time or earlier, they'd get the package to the shipper that day. So I could order Monday morning, and the goods would arrive Wednesday. Since this is the main reason I have Prime — I shop a lot on Amazon, and the free 2-day shipping means (used to mean) a lot less waiting on this end — I'm considering dropping Prime this year. Ordering Monday morning, and receiving the goods Friday or even the next Monday... that's not worth $99/year. Or more.
Prime membership was great for me for years in a row; not so much any longer. Plus a lot of items are now "add-on" items, so I don't get the shipping advantage unless I buy things I wasn't planning to buy, or coincidentally was buying anyway.
Like most corporations, Amazon seeks to trim costs because shareholders aren't satisfied with just doing well, they require constant growth, or at least, the appearance of growth. Those costs will be trimmed at the expense of customer service if the corporation thinks they can get away with it. It's one of the faults with the "invest in shares for increase in share value" model as opposed to the "invest in shares to receive dividends" model. I'm pretty sure this is exactly what I've been seeing in the last year or so.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Sooner or later Amazon has to start paying dividends...
No, they don't. They just need to keep their share price afloat. Dividends are not a requirement of any company, and there are plenty out there that don't pay them.
Well, sure, in one scenario a company never turns a profit. In fact, many sole proprietorships and other small companies do just this, they just "zero out" by paying the principals the remaining profit as a bonus each year.
If, on the other hand, a company makes a profit, that profit must either be reinvested in the company or returned to shareholders in the form of dividends or stock buybacks. That extra money has to go somewhere, if only into the company's bank account (or embezzled by the CFO to pay for blow, but I digress). In Amazon's case, it's being spent expanding the company into new market areas. That process of reinvesting profits, however, is necessarily bounded -- they cannot become infinitely rich* or control infinitely many market sectors. So one of two things need to happen eventually: either they stop making a profit or else they start returning the profit to the shareholders. Any other state is transient -- although if they go through a number of profit/loss/profit/loss cycles, I suppose it could just wash out for a very long time.
So yeah, dividends are not a requirement. But they are a logical outcome of long term profitability because the opportunities for expansion are finite.
Canada Post is the worst of the bunch. They absolutely REFUSE to knock or ring a doorbell, instead leaving boxes in plain sight on my front porch next to a busy road for anyone to see. Additionally, despite having a post office 2 blocks away, they refuse to send any packages there instead preferring to send them to a much further one. Not to mention that packages can sit for multiple weeks sometimes with no accountability (I had one sitting at the sorting centre a few blocks from my house for 2 weeks at one point, nothing I could do but wait)
FedEx, UPS, and even Purolator (despite their Canada Post association) have all been willing to ring doorbells and/or hide packages from view, and their pick up points, while further than my closest post office, are all much closer than the post office Canada post decides to actually use.
Of course I've also had issues with many other couriers. UPS, don't bother with their next day guaranteed service, the guarantee is worthless, they won't even reimburse the shipping cost on a package that's delivered over a week after the "guaranteed" time. I also had DHL "accidentally" ship a next day overnight air package by ground adding a 4 day delay, (they were also unwilling to reimburse anything, even the premium paid for the next-day service). I recently had a FedEx package do an extra lap of the country (tracking info showed it arrive in my city the day before delivery was scheduled, over the next 2 days the tracking info showed it go back out and visit 3 other cities, some over 1000km away, before returning to my city for a late delivery)
Honestly, the only shipper I have never had issues with is Greyhound, but they don't do express overnight, so their use is limited, I also don't know any online retailers who use them.
I went to retrieve a package from a UPS truck that had pulled up in front of my house. It was remarkable to see that nearly every box in the truck had an Amazon logo.
FedEx is definitely among the worst.
Twice in the past year or so I've had a large-ish packages arrive that required a signature. FedEx left a note and required that I go to their office (about 20 minutes away) to pick up the package. There was no option to schedule re-delivery for a time that I'd be home (without paying extra) or to sign to let them leave it at the front door or with a neighbor (I work during the day, like most of us). UPS in comparison has multiple pickup places within minutes of my house, and never has a problem leaving a signature-required package with a neighbor or on the front door if I sign the notice for them (and sometimes even if I don't...).
Another fun experience with FedEx, though this was over 10 years ago (I feel old saying that ...) I had ordered a bunch of parts for a new computer. Tracking number showed that it was delivered and left with the super (I was living in an apt building at the time). That normally would be fine and normal behavior. Except for the fact that they left it with the super of the WRONG BUILDING. Two weeks later, getting nowhere with either the retailer or FedEx's claim process, my package magically showed up on the door (and yes, the address was correct on the box). I was lucky that the super from a block away was a nice, honest guy otherwise I would've been out a lot of money (and this was back when I was still in HS).
USPS isn't perfect either ... or at least my postman lacks common sense. They love sticking small-ish packages in the regular mailbox (I don't blame them...it's closer than the dedicated package box). The problem is that they ALWAYS try sticking it in the mailbox first. Even if it requires stuffing the rest of my mail into a messy ball. Even if the package just barely fits into the box from the postman's side. On occassion I've had to wait several days to get my package because it wouldn't fit out the front, and it took several days of pulling out all other mail and replacing with a sticky note before the postman realized that the package was stuck and removed it for me. On several other occasions I've actually resorted to cutting the box open inside the mailbox so that I could get the contents out without waiting...
I guess USPS and FedEx have annoyed me more than I thought given how much I just wrote . . .
Canada Post is the worst of the bunch. They absolutely REFUSE to knock or ring a doorbell, instead leaving boxes in plain sight on my front porch next to a busy road for anyone to see.
So whats the problem? Claim every package left like that as missing and collect insurance.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
this " opportunities for expansion are finite" is somewhat true. the is an absolute upper bound on available land to build, and cash flow. but in practice, they are growing and re-investing. the could push out fedex,walmart, bestbuy, other grocery stores, samsclub, costco, barns & noble, and many others. oh, and clothing stores, transportation sector like trucking, whoever makes corrugated boxes and bubble warp. then they start buying out the producers, so no more proctor & gamble, just Amazon store brand. the practicle amount of growth they could potentially sustain seems nearly unbounded, to the point of being almost infinite, within the constrains of time and space here on earth.
Sooner or later Amazon has to start paying dividends...
No, they don't. They just need to keep their share price afloat. Dividends are not a requirement of any company, and there are plenty out there that don't pay them.
If, on the other hand, a company makes a profit, that profit must either be reinvested in the company or returned to shareholders in the form of dividends or stock buybacks.
No, that is not a requirement at all. Just look at Apple. They could have built their new headquarters out of literal stacks of cash they were sitting on before they finally started to pay a dividend. Ditto with Microsoft. These are not non-profits, they are allowed to accumulate cash if they wish.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
No, that is not a requirement at all. Just look at Apple. They could have built their new headquarters out of literal stacks of cash they were sitting on before they finally started to pay a dividend. Ditto with Microsoft. These are not non-profits, they are allowed to accumulate cash if they wish.
Both stock paid dividends this year buddy.
The $5 credit can only applied once per order, their food prices are normally more costly and then you pay for the box. You aren't saving anything.