Buy out is a strategy to reduce headcount on payroll w/o saying lay offs. Jeff B. must be preparing for the days ahead with the iron curtain lowering on Chinese products. Walmart is going to need their plan B.

"The dispute has dragged on for seven years, with a number of proposals and counterproposals. Last year, Amazon.com offered $5 million worth of Kindle e-readers and various hosting services as part of a proposed compromise."

Soooo.... what about a handful of crapy locked plastic chunks and a free we-have-your-data-hostage plan for your subcontinent sized rainforest? It's not like you use it or whatever, it's just idling there soaking water and breeding pests.

I saw a news report yesterday, in the USA they are offering employees a buy-out upto $10,000 & "several months pay" to leave their jobs. They want them to become independent contractors with their own delivery van, and make 1 day delivery the new prime standard.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/13/amazon-will-pay-employees-thousands-to-quit-and-become-business-owners.html

According to Amazon, almost any entrepreneur can start a business with its Delivery Service Partner program with an initial investment as low as $10,000 to hire drivers and lease up to 40 vans to deliver Amazon packages from a warehouse to a person’s home.

Amazon has said that for “successful owners” operating between 20 to 40 vans, it estimates potential annual profits will range from $75,000 to $300,000 (although it can vary depending on city and the individual business’ costs).

And while associating with Amazon “is extremely powerful,” according to New York University Stern School of Business professor Anindya Ghose, no business is foolproof. Participants shouldn’t expect to suddenly make $300,000. Even Amazon provides a broad range of potential profits per year — and lots of fine print.

Plus the branding connection and incentive will mean business owners will be beholden to Amazon in some ways, Jeremy Kagan, an adjunct professor of marketing at Columbia Business School and the managing director of The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center previously told CNBC Make It. And that can limit the ability to scale.

“When you go through all of the trouble of setting up a business, usually it will be in the later years when you’ve gotten established, you’ve got your employees, you’ve got your business, that you start really reaping the rewards of growing it, and maybe ultimately selling it,” Kagan said. But with a business that depends on another brand as its primary (or only) customer, “I don’t know that you have a lot of ability to grow from there.”

As for the incentive program, this isn’t the first time Amazon has paid its own employees to quit. The e-commerce giant also has a Pay to Quit program, in which once a year, the company offers to pay full-time associates at Amazon fulfillment centers up to $5,000 to leave the company. The company says it only wants employees who want to be there. Those who accept the offer can never work at Amazon again.

It's a race to the bottom! The hidden cost is insurance/accident claims on a delivery van and the inevitable accidents that will happen, especially if it takes running 20 vans & drivers to be profitable.

I personally know of one case where a guy appeared to have been hit while on a bicycle by an Amazon van and the insurance companies laid out a lot of money for legal fees in a "he-said/she-said" accident with dubious circumstances from both the driver (had many moving violations) and the cyclist (ex-convict drug dealer, 50 year-old, working as a pizza delivery man) who purjured himself in his testimony, and his lawyer still thought he could win some money! Somehow in a busy intersection, no cameras caught the accident, but a witness said he threw his bicycle under the van's passenger front wheel as it inched forward in traffic.

@CFreak

This one is different. Customer returns are goods that belong to Amazon.

Goods that they are destroying mostly belong to other sellers who use Amazon warehouses, if goods are not sold Amazon hike storage costs 20x and lot of sellers just abandon products.

Capitalism

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7018955/Exposed-Amazon-destroys-millions-new-items-sell.html

In Amazon’s earnings call their chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky revealed that Amazon is now spending heavily in order to make one-day shipping the norm for Prime subscribers.

Another one bites the dust. in the US Trade War with China, the US is demanding 100% access to the Chinese market without using Chinese partners. But, even with partners, many have failed. The video shows why it happens.

Amazon Closes in China

"We are notifying sellers we will no longer operate a marketplace on Amazon.cn, and we will no longer be providing seller services on Amazon.cn effective July 18," the company said in a statement. Amazon's platform competes for Chinese sellers with Tmall, owned by the country's e-commerce leader Alibaba (BABA).

Amazon first entered the Chinese market 15 years ago, when it acquired an online book retailer, but it has struggled amid fierce competition. Research suggests that the company's market share in China was miniscule compared to local rivals. China's online retail market is huge, notching up about $2 trillion in sales annually, according to research firmer eMarketer. The US market is worth just over one quarter of that. The Chinese market is dominated by Alibaba, which accounts for more than half of all transactions, and local rival JD.com (JD), eMarketer data shows.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/18/tech/amazon-closes-china/index.html

Special for class theory deniers:

Amazon doubled its profits to $11.2 billion and paid $0 in federal taxes. In fact, the company somehow got a rebate of $129 million.

Source: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analysis of SEC filings, 2019

Amazon thinks AI will help solve its counterfeits problem

Amazon (AMZN) — which has long struggled with counterfeit products on its site — will also automatically monitor for fake items. The project uses a type of AI called machine learning that constantly scans Amazon's stores and removes suspected fakes. Companies give Amazon their logos, trademarks and other important information about their brands, and Amazon scans product listings every day looking for bogus items before they are purchased.

Previously, brands had to report counterfeit items to Amazon. Now, Amazon is offering a "self-service counterfeit removal tool" which lets brands take down these items themselves.

Amazon's new product serialization service also offers a unique code for every item, which brands place on products during the manufacturing process. When products with these special serial numbers are ordered on Amazon, the e-commerce giant scans and verifies the authenticity of the purchase and can stop fake products from being bought.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/28/tech/amazon-counterfeits-project-zero/index.html

Amazon cancels HQ2 plans for New York City

In a statement, Mayor Bill de Blasio took a more aggressive stance toward Amazon than he had in recent weeks, implying that the company wasn’t willing to stick with the process amid opposition.

“You have to be tough to make it in New York City,” his statement reads. “We gave Amazon the opportunity to be a good neighbor and do business in the greatest city in the world. Instead of working with the community, Amazon threw away that opportunity. We have the best talent in the world, and every day we are growing a stronger and fairer economy for everyone. If Amazon can’t recognize what that’s worth, its competitors will.”

But much of the criticism has focused on the subsidies that Amazon will recieve: as much as $3 billion, through a combination of tax incentive programs from the city and state. Critics of the deal include City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer and State Sen. Michael Gianaris, who represent Long Island City, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

https://ny.curbed.com/2019/2/14/18224997/amazon-hq2-new-york-city-canceled

...there's one part of Amazon's HQ2 competition that is deeply disturbing -- pitting city against city in a wasteful and economically unproductive bidding war for tax and other incentives. As one of the world's most valuable companies, Amazon does not need -- and should not be going after -- taxpayer dollars that could be better used on schools, parks, transit, housing or other much needed public goods.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/20/opinions/amazon-headquarters-competition-disturbing-richard-florida-opinion/index.html