Comments

1
May I AXE you where you got that photo
2
Amazon doesn't care about authors. Books were just the easiest thing for them to start with because they are relatively simple to catalog and ship. Books are now just another set of SKUs in the database and authors are UIDs.
3
Gladwell blames Amazon and not that people have caught onto and tired of his treacly message?
4
@1
It looks like one of Jen Grave's photos. The dude who axed the wall of the Frye museum. That was from about a month ago. I don't expect anyone to remember, there's so many exciting news bulletins on Slog every 30 minutes or less. Based on the lack of comments on her posts compared to Paul Constant and others, barely anyone gives a shit about art anyway.
5
Amazon has gotten away with rather dubious corporate behavior because they kept their customers and content suppliers happy. Now in the name of increasing their market share they have decided to piss off their customers and content producers royally. This is why we hate them. In other news I went to an actual bookstore for the first time in about a year recently and had the most lovely conversation.
6
closed my account. #AllDoneWithAmazon
7
Bezos has been working toward King of the Hill status since the beginning. He's always dictated terms that were more favorable to him as a retailer than any other retailer contracted, and didn't mind taking losses in the process of achieving complete monopoly. Anyone who didn't see this coming was not watching his business practices in the first place. And anyone who did but shrugged their shoulders has to be considered as complicit in Bezos's drive for monopoly. Fletc3her at #2 has it right -- books were just the easiest object for Bezos to begin with. Don't forget, too, that Bezos has a terrible, cheap record as a non-philanthropist despite his personal success.
8
Never quite drank the coolaide and haven't bought that much through them, but also haven't quite closed the account yet. Music and books (mainly just on the kindle).

The only reason they started with books is that it looked like the easiest target for #disruption for a sociopath (Bezos). I'm belatedly but increasingly appreciating this and I don't think I'm alone.
9
Not to defend Amazon or anything, but maybe Gladwell's sales are off because everyone who's susceptible to his line of fluffery has had their fill? I'll bet his sales are off in outlets that are not Amazon as well.
10
Is this the same Hachette that colluded with Apple to raise the prices of e-books, conspiring to raise retail e-book prices and to otherwise limit competition and restrain retail price competition in the sale of e-books?

They sound like good people.
11
I think it is telling that Gladwell thought of himself as a 'partner' with Amazon. Actually, I think it is hilarious. Deluded much? Now maybe he can bring this new perspective of labor vs management/owners to other fields... and quit being such a cheerleader for corporate money and culture. Reality bites, doesn't it, Mr. Gladwell? Don't blink or another one of your well-polished delusions may fall by the wayside.

Anyhoo, Amazon has been a grifter from day 1 - its whole existence is based on years and years of not charging sales taxes, a huge tax-payer subsidy.
12
@10,

It's also the same Amazon that pulled the ability for ComiXology customers to buy their comics through their iPad app. And the same Amazon that bought and paid for the Justice Department's investigation into Apple's collusion with big publishers, while the Justice Department looks the other way in regards to Amazon's monopolistic practices.

Amazon's totally good people.
13
@12.
So because Amazon isn't good people, then Hachette must be?
One is bad, so the other must be right?

I'm only seeing one side of this story. What is it about their contracts they don't like? What is Hachette asking for in their contracts that other publishers are not? How much of their sales do they pass on to their average authors? They've colluded before to drive up prices. Why are they all of the sudden a victim?
14
I wonder how Gladwell feels about his partnership with WalMart or my Mom's garage sale.
15
I think Amazon could have got Hachette to capitulate sooner and damaged its relationship with consumers less if it had simply stopped selling Hachette books entirely. It's really hard to see Hachette holding out for more than a week under such circumstances, and as a consumer I'm much less bothered by my retailer saying "we don't carry that supplier's goods" than by them saying "yeah, we'll take your order, but we'll dawdle and delay and make your buying experience suck".
16
Gladwell bashes Bezos. Oh lordy, when will the vicious cycle of douche-on-douche violence end?
17
Then there's my experience last week when I received 2 books from Amazon, one wasn't the one I thought I'd ordered but I looked up my order and it was my mistake. Contacted them to let them know I wanted to return it, and they told me I didn't need to return it, they'd just refund the money. The next day I had a refund on my credit card. (I still don't want the book, but Friends of the Library will take anything.)
Anyway, I have had that and other rather good customer service experiences with them, so I don't find them entirely the devil's corporation.
18
But Gladwell says we should admire Enron for being so good at cheating, and admire Lance Armstrong for being so good at cheating.

But NOW he says "I don’t think human beings reward those who hurt them"?!

Which is it, Gladwell?

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