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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2011 > December > 13 > Entry
Republican senator takes a shot at Amazon…
The outrage over the financial incentive that Amazon.com offered shoppers this past Saturday for relaying prices at “brick and mortar” stores has now reached the hallowed halls of the US Senate. Republican senator Olympia Snowe has made an official statement on the matter. Here’s more from The Guardian:
“An Amazon.com promotion, which offered customers a discount if they let Amazon know the prices of items for sale in traditional shops, has provoked widespread anger, drawing a rebuke from a senator and seeing it compared to Dr Seuss’s Christmas-stealing Grinch.
The deal, which ran on Saturday, gave customers a 5% discount (up to $5) off Amazon.com’s price on up to three products if they used the retailer’s price check app while shopping in physical stores. Although books were not included - the eligible categories were DVDs, electronics, toys, music and sporting goods - the promotion prompted a furious response from beleaguered independent bookshops and from the American Booksellers Association, as well as from senator Olympia Snowe, who called it “an attack on Main Street businesses [and] anti-competitive behaviour that could shutter the doors of America’s small businesses”.
“Small businesses are fighting everyday to compete with giant retailers, such as Amazon, and incentivising consumers to spy on local shops is a bridge too far,” said Snowe, a Republican and member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, in a statement.”
Information, especially pricing information, is power. Amazon provided an incentive for millions of shoppers to voluntarily provide pricing info on Amazon’s competitors from all around the country. More brilliant but now controversial Amazon marketing savvy was on display here.
To read the entire article click HERE:
Some prominent writers are also perturbed…CLICK HERE:
And here’s another viewpoint from someone who thinks that we should buy all our books from Amazon: click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: in the Amazone
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By Mark from St. Paul
December 14, 2011 2:25 PM | Link to this
If they change things so that online vendors have to charge sales tax, it will put all but the very biggest online outfits out of business. How on earth is a mom’n’pop business supposed to track sales tax rates and reporting requirements for all fifty states and Puerto Rico?!
By null
December 13, 2011 5:16 PM | Link to this
a unethical business is obama in office!!!and a unethical person is its” great in dayton” cause he is dumb
By Steven Howell
December 13, 2011 5:00 PM | Link to this
I dont understand why the big deal. best buy wally world etc price match, car dealers do this all the time. I buy everything online and dont care if I have to pay tax’s or not. Amazon did it for one day, brilliant marketing! Amazon creates more high paying jobs than all the 10hr jobs these other stores pay, u ask how, think about it, who del. the products, ups, fed ex etc, warehouse’s pack the orders, plus alot of mom and pops use amazon to move products, all pay high wages, and u cant beat there cust. svc. Kudo’s to amazon!
By Dave Combs
December 13, 2011 4:46 PM | Link to this
Those who are unable to drive love Amazon.It’s like everything else-if you don’t like it,mind your business and move on.
By brick and mortar
December 13, 2011 4:27 PM | Link to this
I didn’t know there was such a thing as an unethical business practice.
By Jim
December 13, 2011 10:26 AM | Link to this
Amazon was giving incentives to shoppers to use their app while shopping in brick and mortar stores. Definitely an unethical business practice.
By Sage Thrasher
December 13, 2011 10:04 AM | Link to this
Perhaps this will finally result in online retailers having to pay taxes like their brick & mortar competitors. It has certainly inspired me to do what online Xmas shopping I do from anyone BUT Amazon.