Firestorm
There is, perhaps, no other business as divisive as Jeff Bezo’s Amazon. They are lauded by
many as a costumer-driven market spearhead into the future. Other’s accuse them of being
a mainstream Ponzi Scheme. Jeff Horowitz’s interview with Benedict Evans, on his a16z
podcast, sheds valuable light on Amazon’s business practice.
For those that laud Amazon as a customer driven model of innovation, the evidence to
support their claim is clear and abundant. Amazon has been called the Sears & Roebuck of
our time. While Sears is a mere shell of its’ former self, It was once the very definition of
business success, as defined by the highly respected economist Peter F. Drucker. They
modeled innovation by perfecting the use of the catalogue, the closest thing to a website of
the day. Retailers primarily stayed in metropolitan areas where they were accessible to
more people. The catalogue allowed everyone access to the same luxuries, no matter where
they lived. Knowing demand was largely met in metropolitan areas, Sears & Roebuck
focused on rural farm areas where farmers and others had money for consumer goods, but
their access was limited. The catalogue was key to their ability to tap into this
maladjustment in the market, created by other retailers’ focus on metropolitan markets,
overlooking rural consumers (Von Mises, 2008, p.20). It brought unprecedented
convenience (Drucker, 1986, p.40). Now, Amazon leads the way in convenience. One can
purchase virtually anything they need from the comfort of their own home.
In an effort to create even more convenience for their customers, Amazon released the
