Originally Posted by
PurpleToolBox
Walmart has a bad name because they put mom and pop stores out of business.
For Amazon, they're killing major brick and mortar retailers of all types. They're also getting into food/groceries. Their goal is to handle nearly any SKU.
The question that must be asked, are we willing to watch Amazon take down so many sectors of the US economy while they in turn are hellbent on growing aggressively showing very little profit, thus paying very low taxes?
There's a lot of issues going on here and you don't have to be in the freight business to be a bit worried about Amazon.
Pretty funny hearing a FDX pilot decry the death of Mom & Pop businesses wrought by all those evil Amazon boxes.
Mom & Pop businesses only existed and thrived in the US in the post-war era because they've been structurally/informationally protected from competition by geography, logistics, and price transparency.
Those barriers to competition have been broken by the internet and by the development of highly-efficient/fast parcel delivery networks (key players being UPS & FDX).
FDX & UPS represent the rapid shipping backbone enabling sellers from all over the planet (including Amazon) to compete with those darling Mom & Pop/Bricks & Mortar businesses on a cynical, cut-throat, price-only basis...your employer helped to destroy all of those little no-competition zones within which Mom & Pop businesses thrived for decades/centuries before.
Don't get me wrong--I'm one of those guys who still loves buying my shoes/clothes in person at a shop. I hate waiting for something to arrive even if it takes 2 days via Amazon Prime. I have my shoe guy, my car guy, my pest control guy, my local barber, etc.--I love the Mom & Pop shops in my hometown...just saying Amazon isn't any more or less responsible for the death of Mom & Pop retail than FedEx or UPS or the company who made the computer any of us are using to shop for xmas gifts this weekend.