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Amazon's Monopoly of the tech industry is ruining the US economy (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

183 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I wanted to get printer photo paper for my printer, a Canon. I went to Walmart, They had nothing. Went to Target, they had one pack of photo paper and it was crazy expensive, so I went to micro center. That one was just as expensive. So finally I went back to Amazon, which I was trying to avoid, and saw the price 25 to 40% lower than anywhere I had been. Literally everything that I was looking for, I could find within seconds. Not even Best buy has even close to the amount of inventory or variety, even when you're shopping online....

Therefore, I think Amazon has a literal monopoly in the tech industry right now, you're literally forced to buy from them, because unless you have the money and financial fortitude to protest with your wallet, you're going to be buying from them. There's no other choice. They have so aggressively and dominantly taken over the supply chain market that no other tech company can currently compete with them in any aspect at all. You will be paying 40 to 50% more on everything by cutting out Amazon, and no one has the money for that anymore unless you're upper middle class or above

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[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 33 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Not just tech, all over the product spectrum. They started by selling books.

A large problem is payment system and accounts. I hate going to a new shop and create a new account, a new password, bla bla bla. I hate it. And wiring with online banking is still a pain the ass, you have to enter some password into your shitty phone keyboard and then wait for an SMS... paypal and amazon payment make shopping convenient.

So part of the problem is banks who have been sleeping on the job for decades. At least here in Europe. You finally can wire money so it arrives immediately from your bank account at a shop! (without having to waste some tax on a payment provider either). But 2 factor authentication is still a pita. Where is my online bank with easy to use FIDO2?

There are now alternative popping up because amazon has become so enshittified (high prices for many smaller items and reviews etc). And of course I'm a fan of aliexpress but shipping from China is stupid too.

We definitely need to avoid a monopoly by a corporation like amazon.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 4 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Books have always been a tool for power.
Guess even in our times that's true.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago

Y'all havemt even broached Amazon Web Services market share.

[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 22 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

And then amazon, a book seller, bought IMDB and eventually burned down the discussion section - which contained so much "secondary literature" about films. I'll never forgive them for that.

[–] sneekee_snek_17@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I'm completely unfamiliar with this, can you elaborate?

[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 8 points 13 hours ago

IMDB used to be independent and have a pretty amazing forum for movies. Like people would have lots of debate and discussion and insight. I loved going there after watching a movie. It was sort of "secondary literature" and nothing like this existed before. Then they just decided to delete countless contributions and shut it down. Instead of paying for moderation for the few trolls.

Of course there are plenty of other movie forums, some even copies the old posts and there is r/movies, but it's much more fractured now. There are certain network effects for social media that need to reach a critical size.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 6 points 19 hours ago

I always forget about that. Makes me sad.