Technology

That's cool. EU?

You need to read The Amazon Anti-Trust Paradox by current FTC head Lina Khan. She argues that the consumer price oriented monopoly definition is old and outdated in the modern setting. Price is not a sufficient proxy for market competitiveness, and in fact, price is often used to kill competitiveness by undercutting new and innovative products.

Many monopolies form by first using a dominant market position to sell at a price no competitor can afford to match. Choice has already been removed before the "competition" folds or pulls out of the market. The consequences don't happen overnight; you feel the squeeze before the "true" monopoly emerges. Amazon isn't going to sell at a cheaper price once their competitors go out of business out of the kindness of their hearts.

Further, high consumer price is just one form monopoly power takes. Reduced labor power, wages, and worse working conditions are other important concerns, in addition to removing product variety and innovation incentive.

OP didn't say it, but Amazon also forces agreements with sellers not to list same items cheaper elsewhere online which is monopolistic.

I get the nuance you are communicating though.

Just because they are the cheapest option doesn't mean they aren't a monopoly. They clearly have the most inventory. One store having all of the inventory of everything and being the leader for selling products of any kind, is a pretty big problem.

If they can put others out of business (pretty sure they have put smaller stores out of business in the past), they can become an even bigger monopoly.

"A monopoly is a market structure with a single seller or producer that assumes a dominant position in an industry or a sector. Monopolies are discouraged in free-market economies because they stifle competition, limit consumer substitutes, and thus, limit consumer choice." ~investopedia

Nothing about needing to jack prices up. I'd say Amazon fits the description perfectly

I am no economist, but don't you think this behaviour of Amazon leads to "carrot and stick" and at that point it is basically a monopoly right?

I believe they are sublimation printers, which require specific inks and papers. I seem to remeber that they produce very long lasting prints, which ordinary inkjets (even pigment) can't achieve.

Canon printers specifically are designed to take Canon specific photo paper. Even the drivers on your Windows PC are programmed to understand what those photo papers are, and you have to match up to them. If you use some generic paper, the prints will never come out right.

I'll say one problem is that for a number of items, there's a technicality in the supply chain that exempts stuff from the price match. I don't know about Microcenter, but have seen it in other contexts.

For example "Oh, Amazon is selling a 120 pack, but we only carry 125 packs, so it's not equivalent". Or in the most egregious, "You have the price for model number 762LAZ, but we stock 762LWM", and you search and find out those two model numbers are absolutely identical, but "AZ" models come in a box with an Amazon logo printed on it.

1/2 the time on eBay (for new stuff) it's someone sending a gift package from Amazon and pocketing the difference.

Micro center does that? Because I asked them about that and they said they will only do it for certain items. That's really strange honestly. I would also feel a little bit bad about it, because Amazon is clearly trying a loss leader strategy to mark down the product prices to ridiculous levels, I'm sure that would not help local small businesses if I can't afford it, so I wouldn't want to exploit that

Services quality is down across all segments of economy tho this ain't retail specific.

We pay more, we get less. Entire life is being rapidly enshitified

Was about to say, the last few times I have bought something, Amazon was actually the more expensive choice. Once we looked at them to buy some grocery type products and they were just absolutely horribly expensive compared to any local grocer.