The World’s Biggest Non-Profit
(or is that, “No-Profit For-Profit?)
“Pred·a·to·ry pric·ing” (noun): pricing of goods or services at such a low level that other suppliers cannot compete and are forced to leave the market.
–Wikipedia
“Meager as Amazon’s 2013 profits were, they represented a small improvement from 2012, when it actually lost money. Even with the slight uptick last year, Amazon earned substantially less profit than it did back in 2008. Over the past five years, in other words, the retailer of the future managed to more than triple its sales while slicing profits by more than half. It’s a business success story like no other in the world.”
–“The Prophet of No Profit,” Matthew Iglesias; Slate (Jan. 30, 2014)
Yes, Amazon has millions of satisfied customers — why wouldn’t they be, given Amazon’s rock-bottom prices?
And yes, doing something now would very much be a classic example of “closing the barn door after the horse has escaped” (make that, “after thousands of small retailers have disappeared”).*
But, isn’t Amazon’s strategy of selling anything and everything — essentially at cost — in a relentless drive for growth and market share a textbook example of predatory pricing?
Just asking . . .
P.S.: As opposed to the world’s biggest “no-profit for-profit,” the world’s most profitable non-profit would be . . . the NFL (see previous post).
*So, why didn’t the U.S. Justice Department act against Amazon in the 1990’s before it grew into a juggernaut?
My theory: it was preoccupied with Microsoft.
