25 Nov 2012 Amazon’s Diminishing Discounts
The issue of pricing on Amazon matters for more than my pocketbook. The central question about the company has always been: How will it choose to make money? It has invested for the future for 18 years now, in the process demolishing much of the competition while giving it one of the priciest stocks on Wall Street. But at some point, somehow, it will have to become a normal business, which means selling things for more than it paid. One way to do that: erase discounts on books that readers cannot easily get anywhere else.