Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 09:48:20 on Thu, 29 Sep
2016, tim... remarked:

The problem with BMIB was that they only flew from one region of the
country (the midlands) [1] which presumably wasn't a big enough
catchment for the quantity/type of flights that they offered.

Not that the individual airports were inconvenient (though for PT
access, one of them was)

[1] that's all Wikipedia will admit to, did they fly (to Europe) from
elsewhere?

Aberdeen, Bristol and Newcastle.

Like I said, their main problem was tidal flow. I used to fly regularly
from East Midlands to Schiphol, and the 7am flight out was always
packed, but the immediate return leg (about 10am Dutch time) was
virtually empty. As was the inbound flight for the busy 7pm departure
from Schiphol.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-09-29 07:16:26 +0000, Roland Perry said:

Doesn't change the fact I wouldn't pay £50k for a second hand one.

Indeed - I vaguely looked but ended up with a LWB Defender because of
the outrageous price of used Discoveries. (Defenders aren't cheap
either but they are fun, and I managed to find an ex-farm one which had
been replaced early to get one of the last new ones, so it was a lot
cheaper than one that was alloyed up, and now is the last chance to own
a nearly new Defender to the original design...)

Will be interesting to see, with the Discovery having become less
utilitarian, if the new Defender plugs that gap well, or if those
wanting a comfortable utility 4x4 (the Defender is an excellent vehicle
but there's nothing comfortable about it) are resigned to having to
purchase Japanese pick-ups, given that US-style full-size SUVs by and
large are not available in the UK, with the old Discovery and Nissan
Pathfinder having been as close as you got?

(How did we get from taxis to Landys? :) )

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

eat me, was Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-09-29 08:29:53 +0000, tim... said:

There are loads of products that Aldi do not sell in every country, and
there are some German ones that I wish I could buy here

I find Lidl to be better for actual German stuff - Aldi have by and
large Anglicised most of their range, Lidl much less so.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-09-29 08:54:20 +0000, tim... said:

Gdansk-Gdynia would be the third largest city in Poland if it were one
single city

Fair point, it does get referred to as the Tricity almost as if it were
one. It is I suppose a coastal and smaller equivalent of the
Liverpool-Manchester-Preston (North West) conurbation, or the Randstad.

FWIW it's also an excellent airport, though the old terminal where you
get sent for actual departures on non-Schengen flights is a bit grim
and Lutonesque. (Best approach is not to go there until the flight
calls)

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-09-29 09:03:40 +0000, Roland Perry said:

Like I said, their main problem was tidal flow. I used to fly regularly
from East Midlands to Schiphol, and the 7am flight out was always
packed, but the immediate return leg (about 10am Dutch time) was
virtually empty. As was the inbound flight for the busy 7pm departure
from Schiphol.

That was always going to be the case - BHX and EMA have no appeal for
tourists whatsoever, nor really for incoming business which is highly
London-centric.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 10:19:38 on Thu, 29
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:

Like I said, their main problem was tidal flow. I used to fly
regularly from East Midlands to Schiphol, and the 7am flight out was
always packed, but the immediate return leg (about 10am Dutch time)
was virtually empty. As was the inbound flight for the busy 7pm
departure from Schiphol.

That was always going to be the case - BHX and EMA have no appeal for
tourists whatsoever, nor really for incoming business which is highly
London-centric.

It's more a case that the empty flights lose you half a day, getting to
the UK too late for a morning meeting, and leaving the UK too early for
an afternoon meeting. And both (if as they were, used mainly by Brits)
in effect requiring an extra overnight hotel at the Dutch end.

If the morning flight from the UK didn't get in quite so early, it would
encourage more people to fly the evening before and use a hotel for an
early morning start. Which is what I did if the host rather than
attendee.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On 2016-09-29 08:54:20 +0000, tim... said:

Gdansk-Gdynia would be the third largest city in Poland if it were one
single city

Fair point, it does get referred to as the Tricity almost as if it were
one. It is I suppose a coastal and smaller equivalent of the
Liverpool-Manchester-Preston (North West) conurbation, or the Randstad.

FWIW it's also an excellent airport, though the old terminal where you get
sent for actual departures on non-Schengen flights is a bit grim and
Lutonesque. (Best approach is not to go there until the flight calls)

That's like going down to the "low cost" cattle shed [1] at BUD.

tim

[1] almost literally

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 03:46:02PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:51:15
on Tue, 27 Sep 2016, David Cantrell remarked:
In any case, to compete with a business you don't have to do everything
that that business does or do it in the same way. The few remaining
bookshops, for example, are in competition with Amazon, despite not
also selling beer and sex toys, despite not stocking many books, and
despite not delivering them to your door for free.
Which is why people can easily set up competitors for Uber by
cherry-picking a bit of its market (just one of the types of service,
one city, etc).

Why does cherry-picking a bit of Uber's market count as competing with
Uber but cherry-picking a bit of Amazon's market doesn't count as
competing with Amazon?

--
David Cantrell | Reality Engineer, Ministry of Information

Do not be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave
-- Fergus Henderson

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 06:11:28PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:

Of course, their non-food takes these features to extremes, with much of
the stock being for sale for only a few weeks a year, and bins full of
clothing that within a day or two are entirely the unpopular sizes
no-one wants.

I assume that's just because someone desperate to unload something
offered them a good price. I picked up a decent multimeter from them
for a song a while back and have never seen them in there since.

--
David Cantrell | Cake Smuggler Extraordinaire

Are you feeling bored? depressed? slowed down? Evil Scientists may
be manipulating the speed of light in your vicinity. Buy our patented
instructional video to find out how, and maybe YOU can stop THEM

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 15:07:29
on Thu, 29 Sep 2016, David Cantrell remarked:
In any case, to compete with a business you don't have to do everything
that that business does or do it in the same way. The few remaining
bookshops, for example, are in competition with Amazon, despite not
also selling beer and sex toys, despite not stocking many books, and
despite not delivering them to your door for free.
Which is why people can easily set up competitors for Uber by
cherry-picking a bit of its market (just one of the types of service,
one city, etc).

Why does cherry-picking a bit of Uber's market count as competing with
Uber but cherry-picking a bit of Amazon's market doesn't count as
competing with Amazon?

In the sense you ask, because the only product being cherry picked from
Uber is transport *here*, whereas the thing which isn't in fact being
cherry picked from Amazon is mail ordering a specialist product.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-09-29 16:49:36 +0000, Roland Perry said:

In the sense you ask, because the only product being cherry picked from
Uber is transport *here*, whereas the thing which isn't in fact being
cherry picked from Amazon is mail ordering a specialist product.

You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On Fri, 30 Sep 2016 14:37:49 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
Although prices aren't mentioned, I suspect it's going to be expensive, as
it uses a beefed-up version of the aluminium platform used by the Range
Rover, Range Rover Sport and 2017 Discoverer. So I suspect it will be
targeted at a completely different niche to the old Defender, perhaps more
like a Mercedes G-Class.

Almost certainly. JLR seem to have their sights permenantly upmarket these
days. I doubt they'll produce another purely utilitarian vehicle anytime soon.
It'll probably be far too complex, too many bells and whistles and far too
expensive for any farmer or similar who really do need its offroading
abilities to buy. It'll just be another Chelsea posing wagon for people with
too much money and no taste.

--
Spud

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-09-30 14:37:49 +0000, Recliner said:

Here's some info on the all-new 2018 Defender:

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/ne...ad-2018-launch


Although prices aren't mentioned, I suspect it's going to be expensive, as
it uses a beefed-up version of the aluminium platform used by the Range
Rover, Range Rover Sport and 2017 Discoverer. So I suspect it will be
targeted at a completely different niche to the old Defender, perhaps more
like a Mercedes G-Class.

Possibly, though the G-Wagen is much more like the "old" Defender -
ladder frame chassis etc. If they want to sell a reasonable volume,
the new Defender will need to provide at least some competition with
the Japanese pickups - just appealing to enthusiasts isn't going to
sell all that many, particularly as most of them will continue, for
now, to buy used "old style" Defenders.

I do like the look of it, though. Just as "boxy" as the original,
which is also very practical - the obsession in the 2010s of giving
everything a "fast back" is not very practical for carrying large
loads. And Japanese pickups are all very well, but no good for anyone
wanting 7 "full size" seats, nor for long load carrying.

An electric and hybrid version might be nice. Though I bet someone
will bring out an electric conversion kit for the old-style Defender -
the modular nature of the vehicle would to me make it quite easy to
convert once battery technology can supply enough energy to shift such
a heavy vehicle far enough. It's already been done with milk-float
parts, but that obviously isn't practical for day to day road use
(though may well be fine for farm use where speed is not a necessity).

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-09-30 16:15:03 +0000, said:

It will interesting to see how the British Army gets on without a
basic utilarian home built 4x4 to use, though some schools of thoughts
suggest that even there a polarization of roles has taken place .

Yes, I think the military are going much more specialised rather than
having a general vehicle (made, as you rightly say, of tin foil).

Such vehicles then become too expensive to be used as general run
arounds so something like one of the 4x4 crewcab pickups may be used
for that,after all they work for many of the various forces fighting
in conflict zones around the world.

Much as we all wish it wasn't, the biggest advert possible for the
Toyota Hilux is its use by terrorist groups - if they can keep them
going in the conditions they are using them in permanent war zones, it
isn't going to break down on your farm. And a pickup, with the part
containing the cow**** separated from the part containing the people,
is probably a more practical farm vehicle anyway - indeed, many farmers
used to opt for Defender pickups, often with canvas backs.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 08:43:53 on Wed, 28 Sep 2016, Recliner
remarked:

Basically, a new entrant can't beat an established market leader just by
having lower prices. It has to offer something better

What's better about Aldi than Tesco, if not the prices?

It's certainly not the range of products or length of checkout queues.

Aldi is a low cost, not just a low price, chain.

Having lower costs is how they can do the lower prices. It's the latter
which attracts the customers.

Absolutely. But it's why they can have sustained low prices. A start-up
Uber competitor would have higher costs

Even if run from someone's back bedroom?

That's probably a higher labour cost per ride than the highly automated
Uber incurs. How would this little operation handle fare calculations,
customer billing, driver payments, advertising, route creation and
monitoring, and all the other things that Uber slickly automates? Or are
you just suggesting a simple, local, manual mini cab operation?

Still automated (writing an app is easy these days) but local market.

and wouldn't be able to compete on price for long.

It could compete for as long as the local drivers were prepared to swap
more business for lower fares.

Not if their payments were less than the running costs of their cars.

At £1/mile typically, there's a big gross margin. The biggest running
cost is sitting for an hour on a rank, with no customers.

Uber's drivers in the same city would earn more per ride, and probably get
more of them.

If there are any.

An Uber start-up competitor would have higher, not lower costs.

A Uber competitor in a small section of their market would have lower
costs. No vanity projects like driverless cars, and they'd probably
expect the drivers to pay their way rather than be subsidised.

They would, and it's why their prices would be higher than Uber's.

Why does drivers not being subsidised make this new-Uber's prices
higher?

Uber's subsidies are basically to allow fares to be lower than what the
drivers earn. The niche competitor, by not doing this, either has to pay
its drivers less than it costs them to run the cars (so zero drivers),

At £1/mile?

or charge more than Uber (so very few customers).

I just looked up Uber where I live, and it said £1.25/mile.

It's why Ryanair and easyJet succeed, where bmi Baby failed.

The reason BMIbaby failed was because they failed to fill the planes up.
Part of that is because as a much smaller airline they had very little
brand recognition on the Continent, where you want a lot of your
customers to be living, so that you don't get excessive tidal flow
arising from mainly UK-based customers.

Whenever I've flown easyJet or Ryanair, it's been on routes that primarily
attract Brits or the Irish, and that's what all the pax were, in both
directions.

You must not have flown to Eastern Europe very often.

And as for brand recognition, Uber will be the easy winner against a niche
local competitor.

I bet more people where I live have heard of Panther [500+ cars in
Cambridge] than Uber.

Perhaps. Does Uber even operate yet in Cambridge?

Since this June, apparently.

And would visitors to
Cambridge have heard of Panther (which is where branding matters)?

Visitors (to Cambridge) are a niche market for cabs.

I'm no sure which part of their costs you think were significantly
higher - they had one of the oldest fleets in the air, and the other two
one of the newest. That must impact the cost.

Yes, it does, in favour of the airlines operating large, modern, homogenous
fleets. It's why true low cost airlines all buy their planes new, and don't
keep them too long. By bulk buying, they get brand-new planes, built to
their exact spec, and support services, all at the lowest possible cost.
BmiBaby had a motley collection of elderly 737s, all acquired second-hand.

So their buyer's fault they failed?

No, the airline's lack of strategy or understanding of the low cost airline

I'm more inclined to think it was the routes they operated.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 23:24:11 on Thu, 29
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:

In the sense you ask, because the only product being cherry picked
from Uber is transport *here*, whereas the thing which isn't in fact
being cherry picked from Amazon is mail ordering a specialist product.

You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!

Only in a small subset of products, preferably ones not available via
Amazon Prime.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 02/10/2016 11:53, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 23:24:11 on Thu, 29
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:

In the sense you ask, because the only product being cherry picked
from Uber is transport *here*, whereas the thing which isn't in fact
being cherry picked from Amazon is mail ordering a specialist product.

You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!

Only in a small subset of products, preferably ones not available via
Amazon Prime.

Or sell them cheaper than Amazon.

Not everyone has Prime either.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 14:16:09 on Sun, 2 Oct 2016,
Mizter T remarked:

You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!

Only in a small subset of products, preferably ones not available via
Amazon Prime.

Or sell them cheaper than Amazon.

It's not a sustainable business to sell things cheaper than Amazon,
while also paying them to use the platform.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-10-02 10:53:03 +0000, Roland Perry said:

In message , at 23:24:11 on Thu, 29
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:

In the sense you ask, because the only product being cherry picked from
Uber is transport *here*, whereas the thing which isn't in fact being
cherry picked from Amazon is mail ordering a specialist product.

You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!

Only in a small subset of products, preferably ones not available via
Amazon Prime.

You can sell any product on Amazon near enough, regardless of whether
it is offered via Prime or not.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-10-02 14:34:07 +0000, Roland Perry said:

In message , at 14:16:09 on Sun, 2 Oct
2016, Mizter T remarked:

You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!

Only in a small subset of products, preferably ones not available via
Amazon Prime.

Or sell them cheaper than Amazon.

It's not a sustainable business to sell things cheaper than Amazon,
while also paying them to use the platform.

It can be - plenty of people do.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 14:16:09 on Sun, 2 Oct 2016,
Mizter T remarked:

You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!

Only in a small subset of products, preferably ones not available via
Amazon Prime.

Or sell them cheaper than Amazon.

It's not a sustainable business to sell things cheaper than Amazon, while
also paying them to use the platform.

It is if you charge people for postage

not everyone has Prime

tim

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 17:26:05 on Sun, 2 Oct
2016, Neil Williams remarked:

It's not a sustainable business to sell things cheaper than Amazon,
while also paying them to use the platform.

It can be - plenty of people do.

What makes you think their businesses are sustainable?
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 17:25:39 on Sun, 2 Oct
2016, Neil Williams remarked:

In the sense you ask, because the only product being cherry picked
from Uber is transport *here*, whereas the thing which isn't in
fact being cherry picked from Amazon is mail ordering a specialist product.
You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!
Only in a small subset of products, preferably ones not available
via Amazon Prime.

You can sell any product on Amazon near enough, regardless of whether
it is offered via Prime or not.

Yes, but we appear to be drifting from competing with Amazon the
platform, to competing with Amazon the retailer selling a limited number
of things via its own platform.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 18:24:03 on Sun, 2 Oct 2016,
tim... remarked:
You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!

Only in a small subset of products, preferably ones not available via
Amazon Prime.

Or sell them cheaper than Amazon.

It's not a sustainable business to sell things cheaper than Amazon,
while also paying them to use the platform.

It is if you charge people for postage

What? Less postage than Amazon, who will have negotiated the very best
discounts.

not everyone has Prime

Prime is faster, there's also their free postage offering.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-10-02 17:43:46 +0000, Roland Perry said:

What? Less postage than Amazon, who will have negotiated the very best
discounts.

Amazon charge quite a lot for postage for non-Prime purchases. No
doubt this is very profitable for them.

Prime is faster, there's also their free postage offering.

Yes, but if you don't order often the membership fee is fairly hefty.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 18:24:03 on Sun, 2 Oct 2016,
tim... remarked:
You can of course also compete with Amazon using Amazon's platform!

Only in a small subset of products, preferably ones not available via
Amazon Prime.

Or sell them cheaper than Amazon.

It's not a sustainable business to sell things cheaper than Amazon,
while also paying them to use the platform.

It is if you charge people for postage

What? Less postage than Amazon, who will have negotiated the very best
discounts.

IME (not necessarily with Amazon) postage is charged in fixed chunks with
say 6.95 as the smallest chunk,

when all the delivery of the specific item requires is a jiffy bag and a 2nd
class stamp

not everyone has Prime

Prime is faster, there's also their free postage offering.

The things that I looked for didn't "qualify"

tim

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

Neil Williams wrote:
On 2016-10-02 17:43:46 +0000, Roland Perry said:

What? Less postage than Amazon, who will have negotiated the very best
discounts.

Amazon charge quite a lot for postage for non-Prime purchases. No
doubt this is very profitable for them.

No, I get free delivery with all my Amazon-fulfilled orders, without Prime.
I just make my orders are all for goods with a total value of at least £20.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 19:18:36 on Sun, 2 Oct
2016, Neil Williams remarked:
What? Less postage than Amazon, who will have negotiated the very
best discounts.

Amazon charge quite a lot for postage for non-Prime purchases. No
doubt this is very profitable for them.

Not always. The last thing we bought, would have been zero postage even
without Prime, for the slowest delivery option.

Prime is faster, there's also their free postage offering.

Yes, but if you don't order often the membership fee is fairly hefty.

The membership fee is worth it for the streaming TV/movie service.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 19:26:21 on Sun, 2 Oct 2016,
tim... remarked:
It's not a sustainable business to sell things cheaper than Amazon,
while also paying them to use the platform.

It is if you charge people for postage

What? Less postage than Amazon, who will have negotiated the very
best discounts.

IME (not necessarily with Amazon) postage is charged in fixed chunks
with say 6.95 as the smallest chunk,

That's simply not the case. eBay in particular encourages traders to
ship with zero postage charges. Lots of stuff "fulfilled by Amazon" has
a zero postage charge for the slowest service.

when all the delivery of the specific item requires is a jiffy bag and
a 2nd class stamp

not everyone has Prime

Prime is faster, there's also their free postage offering.

The things that I looked for didn't "qualify"

Not qualifying for Prime is an indication that the product is being sold
on their platform, but fulfilled by the trader. Which is the modality
I'm saying is difficult to make competitive.

I just tried a random example: a pack of four Duracell rechargeable AA
batteries.

You can get them 'direct' from Amazon at £7.44 with free delivery, and
qualifying for Prime.

Just two other vendors match that price, and have free delivery (without
qualifying for Prime).

50 other vendors will also supply, with prices going up from £7.88 to
£8.99 by the tenth cheapest, and to £10 and beyond. The cheapest which
is "fulfilled by Amazon" (and thus also qualifies for Prime) is £7.99,
and rises rapidly to £10.84 for the most expensive (of the five/50 using
this method).
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-10-02 18:26:21 +0000, tim... said:

The things that I looked for didn't "qualify"

I do use Prime but the main "use case" I have for non Prime suppliers
is that they will post small, low value things on their own. Amazon
won't, they will only post them with a minimum £20 order.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 08:26:31 on Mon, 3 Oct
2016, Neil Williams remarked:

The things that I looked for didn't "qualify"

I do use Prime but the main "use case" I have for non Prime suppliers
is that they will post small, low value things on their own. Amazon
won't, they will only post them with a minimum £20 order.

Such people are only competing in a small range of products (and I still
worry if they have a sustainable business); not in a general sense
"competing with Amazon".
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On Fri, 30 Sep 2016 17:15:03 +0100
wrote:
suggest that even there a polarization of roles has taken place . It
is not thought wise nowadays to send a soft skinned vehicle like a
production Land rover into even a minor skirmish when the opposition
is likely to be firing rounds from a weapon that modern sights

It wasn't thought wise 25 years ago in the first Iraq war. The yanks were
trundling around in start of the art armoured Humvies, our lads had 1950s tech
farmers cars. Sadly the MoD either didn't understand or didn't give a ****.
Probably both.

--
Spud

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On Fri, 30 Sep 2016 18:50:02 +0100
Neil Williams wrote:
On 2016-09-30 16:15:03 +0000, said:
Such vehicles then become too expensive to be used as general run
arounds so something like one of the 4x4 crewcab pickups may be used
for that,after all they work for many of the various forces fighting
in conflict zones around the world.

Much as we all wish it wasn't, the biggest advert possible for the
Toyota Hilux is its use by terrorist groups - if they can keep them
going in the conditions they are using them in permanent war zones, it
isn't going to break down on your farm. And a pickup, with the part

Is it their reliability or is it because they're all thats available in
that part of the world? If they had access to Land Cruisers or Ford F150s
perhaps they'd use those instead. Who knows...

--
Spud

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On Sun, Oct 02, 2016 at 07:18:36PM +0100, Neil Williams wrote:
On 2016-10-02 17:43:46 +0000, Roland Perry said:
Prime is faster, there's also their free postage offering.
Yes, but if you don't order often the membership fee is fairly hefty.

Even if you do order often (and I do) I find it's rare that I need
something so urgently as to not be able to wait a few days for free
delivery, but also not so urgently that I'll wait for Prime delivery
next day instead of going to a shop.

If you just order stuff to be delivered I don't see the point of Prime.
I only see value in it if you want the video on demand service.

--
David Cantrell | semi-evolved ape-thing

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 19:18:36 on Sun, 2 Oct
2016, Neil Williams remarked:
What? Less postage than Amazon, who will have negotiated the very best
discounts.

Amazon charge quite a lot for postage for non-Prime purchases. No doubt
this is very profitable for them.

Not always. The last thing we bought, would have been zero postage even
without Prime, for the slowest delivery option.

Prime is faster, there's also their free postage offering.

Yes, but if you don't order often the membership fee is fairly hefty.

The membership fee is worth it for the streaming TV/movie service.

not if you already have more TV that you can watch without a streaming
service

tim

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 19:26:21 on Sun, 2 Oct 2016,
tim... remarked:
It's not a sustainable business to sell things cheaper than Amazon,
while also paying them to use the platform.

It is if you charge people for postage

What? Less postage than Amazon, who will have negotiated the very best
discounts.

IME (not necessarily with Amazon) postage is charged in fixed chunks with
say 6.95 as the smallest chunk,

That's simply not the case. eBay in particular encourages traders to ship
with zero postage charges. Lots of stuff "fulfilled by Amazon" has a zero
postage charge for the slowest service.

Not the stuff I bought

can't explain why, (I am not a frequent customer)

it's just how it was

tim

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 13:08:13 on Mon, 3 Oct 2016,
tim... remarked:
Prime is faster, there's also their free postage offering.

Yes, but if you don't order often the membership fee is fairly hefty.

The membership fee is worth it for the streaming TV/movie service.

not if you already have more TV that you can watch without a streaming
service

It's not the hours of programming available, but the quality.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 12:44:19
on Mon, 3 Oct 2016, David Cantrell remarked:

If you just order stuff to be delivered I don't see the point of Prime.

Isn't it like buying your groceries online? Rather than go to a shop,
you decide what you need and then have it delivered the next day.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

In message , at 13:09:23 on Mon, 3 Oct 2016,
tim... remarked:
IME (not necessarily with Amazon) postage is charged in fixed chunks
with say 6.95 as the smallest chunk,

That's simply not the case. eBay in particular encourages traders to
ship with zero postage charges. Lots of stuff "fulfilled by Amazon"
has a zero postage charge for the slowest service.

Not the stuff I bought

can't explain why, (I am not a frequent customer)

it's just how it was

YMMV, as it apparently always does.
--
Roland Perry

Is Uber Bleeding to Death?
 

On 2016-10-03 11:44:19 +0000, David Cantrell said:

Even if you do order often (and I do) I find it's rare that I need
something so urgently as to not be able to wait a few days for free
delivery, but also not so urgently that I'll wait for Prime delivery
next day instead of going to a shop.

I mostly work from home, which makes all the difference as I don't need
to "wait in" for anything, I'm there anyway. Whereas going to a shop
takes maybe an hour out of my day.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.