Amazon is buying Whole Foods

You mean like buying the Washington Post? Seriously, if Amazon wants to get into Internet grocery sales, they need a national brick and mortar distribution outlet. Also, relatively high profit margin items for supermarkets, especially Whole Foods, like meats, deli and prepared foods, are just not something folks are gonna buy online sight unseen.

 

With demand crashing for commercial real estate, I would be wary of anyone buying a company "for the property."

 

The point I poorly tried to make is that control of the Internet is firmly in the grasp of these three companies. So my question is, if BMW was the only car manufacturer on the planet, don't you think they could charge $3 million per car?

 

No.

 

I don't think it's as in control as you seem to believe.

 

How much can SiriusXM get away with charging its subscribers?

 

Yeah, I recall 1995 when AOL and Yahoo! were in control and everybody would have been wise to just stop competing.

 

Have never paid the advertised price for SiriusXM. As Kramer says, "retail is for suckers."

 

Same here ... came with a trial in the new mini-. Re-upped at the $25 for six months rate (which requires you to call in and cancel ... I need to do that this week).

 

It happens so often it's almost a cliche ...

 

I just think it's interesting that Amazon, which is as "online" as online is ever going to get, is seeking to go, seemingly, backward, into brick-and-mortar business at a time when I think everyone sees brick-and-mortars going the way of, oh, newspapers.

I see what you're saying, and I agree, that Amazon will need a more in-ground footprint to make it with foods. But that's primarily because their primary competitor for that business -- Walmart -- already has it, and people are not QUITE ready to go all-online for foods just yet.

I personally do think that we're headed that way, though, and that people will soon be able, and willing, to order and buy foods online, and that they'll eventually do it on a regular basis, just like with everything else. As with newspapers, actual physical delivery may end up being something of an Achilles heel, I think. But Walmart already is implementing a version food ordering -- even for fresh, dairy and meats -- in which, yes, customers do in fact buy items sight unseen -- at least until their purchases are presented to them, either curbside or at their homes.

There will probably be, indeed there will have to be, all kinds of new regulations, new company policies and new safety rules and parameters, etc., established along the way as Amazon and Walmart try to get things all figured out. But those will all evolve in time, just like the basic business-customer dynamic is doing.

And just as has already occurred between newspapers -- what are those? -- and readers.