How Amazon Makes You Pay More For Everything

It’s great that you’re teaching people about how terrible Amazon is, but you never explained why you got scorpion venom instead of the hats you ordered.

"When someone's that wealthy, someone and some loophole is being exploited." Billionaires shouldn't exist.

This video pretty much sums up why I shop on Amazon as little as possible, and try to buy directly from a company's own website instead whenever I can. Fingers crossed that Amazon is found guilty in the FTC suit.

7:50 Amazon imposing an effective FIFTY PERCENT TAX while at the same time rarely paying any REAL TAX is REALLY rich! 😤

Honestly, I've stopped ordering on Amazon... at least to the extent that's possible. But unfortunately, sometimes, there is no alternative anymore. And i think that's the point, they've killed so many specialty store that you need to buy from them. Down with monoplies, support small and local!

The thing I find most annoying with Amazon is when you search for something specific, it doesn't show that to you. It shows you the items that paid for priority even if it isn't what you searched for. For example, I was searching for AMD GPUs and CPUs. Amazon kept giving me results for Intel chips that I had no use for. Or when searching for something that is compatible with other equipment they show you things that are not compatible when you didn't ask for that. You really never know if you are getting the lowest price because when you try to sort that way it still gives you 5 or 6 items ahead of it. It really is a horrible system to have to search for anything.

Greed is not the desire for more, it's the desire for more at the expense of others.

Proud to say that I canceled my prime 5 years ago and never looked back. I only shop there when I absolutely have to. Things are not "cheaper" there anymore. Often actually more expensive than other places.

I feel like there was an interesting story to be told about the prevalence of shipping illicit products via fake listings that was missed here.

We look back on the big oil, steel, meatpacking, etc. companies from the Gilded Age (1920s) with immense disdain... can you even imagine how people will look back on Amazon (and other tech giants) that is many times more powerful than those monopolies ever were?

Those random looking brands aren't just there to swamp the search results. It's because you need a legal trademark to sell your stuff on Amazon, and random strings of letters are unlikely to have already been trademarked. Therefore Amazon encourages sellers to offload their anti-counterfeiting efforts to the government, and this single-handedly puts enough strain on the trademark office to slow down the processing of paperwork for legitimate startups.

The best 12 minute commentary I have seen about Amazon and their dominance. And she didn’t delve into the deeper point of private brand labels further punishing the small biz owners.

Every dollar Amazon takes in comes from us the consumers. The "inflated seller fees" that sellers have to pay Amazon, simply means we are paying a higher price for that item. Amazon is shafting us!!!

I used to be sad, that in my country Amazon doesn't really work (you can buy there, but it is more expensive than local eshops) - even tho they have an infamous big warehouse here - but lately I am happy, that they didn't really get that big here.

We don't get "free" shipping because we Prime members don't get great deals anymore. And more and more, my deliveries are late.

Yup. I had a small business 5ish years ago that used Amazon to sell products I made. It's way worse than you reported. Start a business and sell a product to learn more and report what you find. Amazon looses a package or ships the customer the wrong package, the seller pays that. Not Amazon. There was no way for me to make a living wage due to Amazon and the American consumers. I love creating but I'll never make anything again for sale. I blame Amazon and the consumers. I just wanted to create quality products and earn a living wage.

I moved to the Philippines and amazon does not deliver here. For two years I've cancelled my account several times and still get billed for the prime service. The antitrust act law is has been suspended since Reagan. Along with workers rights in the US and across the world.

You mention that the FTC suit might possibly break Amazon up. All I can think is, "So... the management and owners that participated in breaking laws with very real and significant consequences for millions of people world wide, get to walk away more or less unpunished."

I enjoy using Etsy, when I can. I may be getting deceived, but I feel like I’m buying from small businesses. I’ve definitely bought some very nice, hand made, and even custom made items.

Bravo! We teach our kids a few things,.like never use a self service check out. We support cashier service. Same with Amazon. We literally never buy via Amazon platform. Even if this means to pay a little more (in Europe we don't live from pay check to pay check as often). So in the moment we can afford it we have the obligation to behave responsible. Buy local, never use any Amazon branch.