Amazon allegedly took $200 million in losses to stop the growth of diapers.com.

[sugarwood]

This week's anti-trust hearings have been interesting

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/07/emails-detail-amazons-plan-to-crush-a-startup-rival-with-price-cuts/

[GH85Carrera]

Wal Mart has done the same thing for years, only worse. One guy I know made vinegar at his factory. He made a presentation to them and labeled the bottles to their brand. They wanted more vinegar than he could produce and he had other clients.

So he took out loans and expanded his operation with the long term contract with them. About the time he was in full production, the pulled the contract over some made up dispute. Suddenly he had a factory to make vinegar that was way more than he needed, and bank loans to repay. Wal Mart bought some other vinegar production plant, and make it themselves.

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Wal Mart has done the same thing for years, only worse. One guy I know made vinegar at his factory. He made a presentation to them and labeled the bottles to their brand. They wanted more vinegar than he could produce and he had other clients.

So he took out loans and expanded his operation with the long term contract with them. About the time he was in full production, the pulled the contract over some made up dispute. Suddenly he had a factory to make vinegar that was way more than he needed, and bank loans to repay. Wal Mart bought some other vinegar production plant, and make it themselves.

WM did the same to Crest Foods in Okla. Predatory pricing to drive Crest out of business and they targeted new Crest store in Edmond. Crest sued and WM settled out of court.

[asphaltgambler]

The power of influence and money in the marketplace. No different than the mob, just 'legally done.

[Zeke]

Sears was famous for that.

[epbrown]

It's a pretty common business practice. If you've got deeper pockets, you can eat the losses until your competition goes under. Back in the 80s, this is how tv manufacturing was wiped out in the US.

[mattdavis11]

When I was in sales, we had one competitor against the wall. They had two local warehouses, then one, and it was bare bones holding on for dear life. Some one fudges, our franchise was terminated, and corporate bought out the competition.

The competition was already dead, but they didn't consult me. Waste of capital.

[sc_rufctr]

You guys would know better than me but is this legal in the US? If it is, it certainly seems shady...

Basically Amazon are paying people for a 5 star review.

[epbrown]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

You guys would know better than me but is this legal in the US? If it is, it certainly seems shady...

It does seem shady (though they specifically say if you're happy with the product), but that doesn't look like it's from Amazon themselves. Indeed, Amazon could typically care less about product reviews, since most of the stuff sold through them comes from someone else. Looks like some sort of marketing company to me.

[sc_rufctr]

Yes I think you're right. The email address "Giveaway_Service@outlook.com" is probably not an official Amazon Company email.