New shipping charges at Amazon

What's interesting is they have killed off the competition so there are few comps in their space, but look at the margins at ebay for instance:

http://ycharts.com/companies/EBAY/profit_margin

Of course, ebay doesn't sell products, but a service, which is a completely different model. But if one wants to take pot shots there are better places then Amazon to aim at.

Look at Wal Mart, the preeminent mass market retailer, which has not been fairing too well, they also maintain much higher margins:

http://ycharts.com/companies/WMT/profit_margin

My view is quite different. I believe that Amazon has actually pushed down prices almost across the board for many commoditized items, much as Wal Mart did. I don't really know if that's a good thing though. They left a lot of carnage in their wake.

Viridian, if I follow your reasoning, I think your comment is very insightful and is something that has occurred to me as well. We all seek low prices, but in the long run, our interests may not be well served by driving prices to the lowest possible point. Unintended consequences = carnage.

"I believe that Amazon has actually pushed down prices almost across the board for many commoditized items, much as Wal Mart did. I don't really know if that's a good thing though. They left a lot of carnage in their wake."

I believe that. But by their recent price increases, I think they'll soon learn that there are other players in the market. I'm sure I'm not the only one looking for alternatives.

Thanks, Brownsfan. Presto looks to be cheaper than Arkiv.

Look at what happened to Netflix when they got greedy.

I just noticed that myself and I do ( did ) buy allot of disc's through Amazon. I was averaging about 3-5 per month....the overall increase is $1.01 so it is now a $4.00 charge to ship a single disc. They are no longer competitive and I will find somewhere else to buy my music