[Other Sport] Why I’m finally going to try to boycott Amazon

[Triggaaar]

America doesn't seem to have any employment laws to protect their workers

The land of the free and the home of the slave.

 

[Justice]

I tried selling on Amazon its just beyond ridiculous I really have no idea how people turn a profit.

 

[KZNSeagull]

They should now be paying some tax!

I think the profits must be hidden though by the accountants, Amazon took £5.3billion in sales last year, while founder Jeff Bezos has a fortune of £30.1billion, according to Forbes.

Particularly impressive considering that Amazon rarely makes a profit and has never paid a dividend to shareholders.

 

[beorhthelm]

Particularly impressive considering that Amazon rarely makes a profit and has never paid a dividend to shareholders.

though not surprising if you consider that frtune will be made from the shareholding and disposal of shareholding over the years. its quite possible for someone like Bezos to be fantastically wealthy while their company makes no profit, they essentially print money via shares. (and remember kids, tax is only on profits, not on revenues)

 

[French Seagull]

Quote Originally Posted by KZNSeagull View Post

Particularly impressive considering that Amazon rarely makes a profit and has never paid a dividend to shareholders.

though not surprising if you consider that frtune will be made from the shareholding and disposal of shareholding over the years. its quite possible for someone like Bezos to be fantastically wealthy while their company makes no profit, they essentially print money via shares. (and remember kids, tax is only on profits, not on revenues)

You can also pay yourself very well, company property, expense accounts, cars, perhaps a plane, and all the rest ....

 

[French Seagull]

Quote Originally Posted by KZNSeagull View Post


Particularly impressive considering that Amazon rarely makes a profit and has never paid a dividend to shareholders.

Quote Originally Posted by beorhthelm View Post

though not surprising if you consider that frtune will be made from the shareholding and disposal of shareholding over the years. its quite possible for someone like Bezos to be fantastically wealthy while their company makes no profit, they essentially print money via shares. (and remember kids, tax is only on profits, not on revenues)

You can also pay yourself very well, company property, expense accounts, cars, perhaps a plane, and all the rest ....

This was back in July: Online giant Amazon's shares have closed 9.8% higher after it posted an unexpected profit on Thursday.

The online retailer reported a $92m profit for the three months to 30 June, surprising investors who had expected another loss. Sales rose by 20% to almost $23.2bn.

The results sent shares in Amazon up 9.8% to $529.42, making it worth $246.5bn.

The company's stock has risen by 78% since the start of the year. - Perhaps this is how he makes his money, with the shares, it does not seem fair on 'other' UK businesses that they compete unfairly.

 

[blue'n'white]

They're (relatively) cheap which is why I, and millions like me, buy from them
I try to support independent retailers but always check the price on Amazon and I buy where it is cheapest like (I'm prepared to wager) virtually everybody else

And remember that this was in the Mail which is hardly the bastion of truth and respectability that it thinks it is . . .

 

[KZNSeagull]

They're (relatively) cheap which is why I, and millions like me, buy from them
I try to support independent retailers but always check the price on Amazon and I buy where it is cheapest like (I'm prepared to wager) virtually everybody else

And remember that this was in the Mail which is hardly the bastion of truth and respectability that it thinks it is . . .

I don't know about other sectors but Amazon often sell books cheaper than an independent retailer can even buy them for!

 

[Gazwag]

So if we have to boycott all these massive companies who exploit their workers does this mean everybody has to return their Nike football shirts

 

[goldstone]

The trouble is that Amazon are just too big. It's not healthy to have a company of that size dominating the market. For that reason alone I don't use them. And now, apparently, they're going to get involved in selling groceries online in the UK. Do we need them in this sector? No.
For the same reason I will not buy an Apple phone, and I won't fly Emirates.

 

[KZNSeagull]

This was back in July: Online giant Amazon's shares have closed 9.8% higher after it posted an unexpected profit on Thursday.

The online retailer reported a $92m profit for the three months to 30 June, surprising investors who had expected another loss. Sales rose by 20% to almost $23.2bn.

The results sent shares in Amazon up 9.8% to $529.42, making it worth $246.5bn.

The company's stock has risen by 78% since the start of the year. - Perhaps this is how he makes his money, with the shares, it does not seem fair on 'other' UK businesses that they compete unfairly.

A profit margin of 0.039%, I think! Gosh.

This is what I cannot understand - how is a business like that worth anything, let alone $246bn! Investors have been waiting 20 years for future earnings/profits to kick in - how much longer are they going to wait? Tax wise, they will pay what, $50m maybe tops, from taking $23bn from the economy. I cannot see how that is healthy. Makes no sense to me.

 

[blue'n'white]

I don't know about other sectors but Amazon often sell books cheaper than an independent retailer can even buy them for!

That's very true - I do like the second hand books for a penny plus p+p as well

 

[Gwylan]

They're (relatively) cheap which is why I, and millions like me, buy from them
I try to support independent retailers but always check the price on Amazon and I buy where it is cheapest like (I'm prepared to wager) virtually everybody else

And remember that this was in the Mail which is hardly the bastion of truth and respectability that it thinks it is . . .

It wasn't: the article that the Mail lifted was originally in the New York Times, which has a pretty good reputation. I'm sure similar articles could be written about many US companies though.

If you want to buy books from non-Amazon sources, there's a Chrome extension that helps you locate the best places to go. It's called Bookindy - I use it and it works well

 

[beorhthelm]

Tax wise, they will pay what, $50m maybe tops, from taking $23bn from the economy. I cannot see how that is healthy. Makes no sense to me.

taken? nothing has been taken from the economy, companies are part of the economy, they have revenues and costs, money in and out. profits will be disbursed amongst either shareholders or spent on future investment. if they leave it in the bank, the bank will loan it out. i dont know where the idea comes from the companies sit and horde money away from everyone else.

 

[RandyWanger]

I read an article yesterday on LinkedIn written by someone who's been at Amazon for 18 months and dismissed 90% of the Times article. Obviously written from a different bias, but get both sides of the story and then make your mind up.
I'm not too fussed about Amazon, I do have an account, but over the past 10 years I'd be surprised if I've spent more than £250. I'll be getting Amazon Fire TV once the new Clarkson, May and Hammond show is ready.

EDIT: This article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/amaz...ideas-nick-ciubotariu?redirectFromSplash=true

 

[sten_super]

A profit margin of 0.039%, I think! Gosh.

This is what I cannot understand - how is a business like that worth anything, let alone $246bn! Investors have been waiting 20 years for future earnings/profits to kick in - how much longer are they going to wait? Tax wise, they will pay what, $50m maybe tops, from taking $23bn from the economy. I cannot see how that is healthy. Makes no sense to me.

It's not a question of 'waiting for future profits' - I'm sure they could turn a very decent profit at the moment if they chose to. Amazon's (Bezos') strategy is to re-invest all profits into the company, with the aim of further growing the business. I think the shareholders are either chasing short-term gains (through increased revenues which will further boost the share price, at which point they can trade out) or are in it for the long-term, when those revenues are allowed to be profitable.

 

[Notters]

FFS it's the Daily Mail.

 

[carlzeiss]

These are claims from the USA. If this type of management was in place within the UK, I would like to think that many (if not all) of the affected employees would be starting legal proceedings against Amazon for breaching a whole raft of employment and discrimination laws.

While in many large organizations you can always find a number of employees where for whatever reason there is a tension between the employee and their manager, this doesn't usually leak out. it must just be the American way.

I certainly wouldn't be dealing with work emails at midnight.

[yt]F4aRz7NqTOo[/YT]

 

[KZNSeagull]

taken? nothing has been taken from the economy, companies are part of the economy, they have revenues and costs, money in and out. profits will be disbursed amongst either shareholders or spent on future investment. if they leave it in the bank, the bank will loan it out. i dont know where the idea comes from the companies sit and horde money away from everyone else.

What I am actually trying to get at is how much of the money that Amazon get from the UK economy (8bn or something in 2013 I think), gets recirculated into the UK economy? The globe is now one big high street as it were - in the old days money would circulate around and everyone was happy. Now, a huge chunk is going to a company outside of the UK that pays little or no tax inside the UK. I understand that the money goes to the companies who circulate it around suppliers etc, but how much of it comes back to the UK? I cannot see that it is healthy for this to happen in the long term, particularly when that company rarely makes a profit - they minimise losses by squeezing everybody that supplies them and if you want to deal with them, you have to cut your margins. How is that healthy?

 

[Gwylan]

It's not a question of 'waiting for future profits' - I'm sure they could turn a very decent profit at the moment if they chose to. Amazon's (Bezos') strategy is to re-invest all profits into the company, with the aim of further growing the business. I think the shareholders are either chasing short-term gains (through increased revenues which will further boost the share price, at which point they can trade out) or are in it for the long-term, when those revenues are allowed to be profitable.

Amazon has also invested heavily in the cloud business, which has an estimated 80 to 85% of the public cloud market. That side of the company is certainly making serious money - it's just started putting out figures and the cloud business is on course for $6 billion revenue and $1 billion in profits