1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:04,040 Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser on 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:08,080 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. It's indeed Bloomberg Business Week on this Wednesday, 3 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:12,640 Speaker 1: Carol Masser. My co host on this Wednesday is Paul Sweeney, 4 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,239 Speaker 1: and God, Paul, I kind of forgot. I have actually 5 00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:18,919 Speaker 1: not been doing any kind of shopping on Amazon Prime Day. 6 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:21,320 Speaker 1: Have you been doing anything? It's day two, right, Yeah, 7 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:25,080 Speaker 1: I have not. That's there are boxes everywhere around, you know. 8 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: It's I'm not sure Prime Day is as important as 9 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 1: it used to be. It seems like every day it's 10 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:34,839 Speaker 1: Prime Day. Yeah, that's I mean, this pandemic has accelerated 11 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:36,920 Speaker 1: the trend that we've already seen towards e commerce. Well, 12 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 1: let's breg in our guest James Thompson, because he's partnered 13 00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:43,559 Speaker 1: Bye Box Experts. Say that five times fast Bye Box Experts. 14 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:46,479 Speaker 1: It's a managed services agency supporting brand selling online. His 15 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:49,839 Speaker 1: former business head of Amazon's Services, which is the division 16 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:53,040 Speaker 1: of Amazon responsible for recruiting tens of thousands of sellers 17 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:56,400 Speaker 1: annually to the Amazon Marketplace. He's also author of The 18 00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:00,200 Speaker 1: Amazon Marketplace Dilemma. And James joins us on the own 19 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:03,280 Speaker 1: from Seattle. James Nice to have you here on Bloomberg Radio. 20 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: How are you? Thanks for having me, Carol, Thanks for 21 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: having me, Paul. At the busy time, people uh, excluding 22 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: yourselves are buying on on Amazon right now, and they're 23 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:17,560 Speaker 1: buying in crazy, crazy volumes. Well tell us, yeah, go ahead, 24 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 1: tell us about that. What you're seeing. Well, I'm fascinated 25 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: with this whole preconceived notion that somehow this is the 26 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:27,680 Speaker 1: beginning of the holiday shopping season. And the reason, the 27 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:31,120 Speaker 1: reason a little confounded by this is typically when people 28 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,399 Speaker 1: buy things on Amazon, if they're going to buy them 29 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:36,679 Speaker 1: for gifts, they send it directly to whoever they're gifting 30 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:39,640 Speaker 1: it too. And so I ask you, would you be 31 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: buying Christmas presents right now in the middle of October 32 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:43,840 Speaker 1: and sending it to people two and a half months early. 33 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:47,800 Speaker 1: You know? The the the application here is people are 34 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:51,240 Speaker 1: spending money on themselves. They're not spending money on other people. 35 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,480 Speaker 1: At least that's my hypothesis. And they'll be interesting to 36 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 1: see what happens when we get to end in November, 37 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: when you know, the normal start of the holiday see 38 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 1: and kicks in. But right now we're seeing people buying 39 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 1: stuff that they're they're they're enjoying themselves. So I guess 40 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:09,799 Speaker 1: there's a lot of disposal income out there because the 41 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:12,839 Speaker 1: sales in the last two days are absolutely through the roof, 42 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,680 Speaker 1: even more than we expected for Prime Day. So, James, 43 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,120 Speaker 1: as we think about this pandemic, it's impact is so 44 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:22,440 Speaker 1: many facets of so many people's lives, daily lives, and 45 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: one of that is retail. One of those is retail. 46 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:29,959 Speaker 1: Give us your sense of to kind of how this 47 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:34,079 Speaker 1: this move towards e commerce is accelerating here during this pandemic. 48 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:36,520 Speaker 1: If so, and then how permanent you think that might be. 49 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: So obviously, when everyone started quarantining at home that there 50 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:46,560 Speaker 1: were a few few other options for buying other than 51 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:50,200 Speaker 1: going online. And one of the interesting aspects of what 52 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:52,360 Speaker 1: happened in March and April is that a lot of 53 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: people not only moved more dollars online, but they started 54 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:59,200 Speaker 1: buying products that they had never before gone searching for online. 55 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:02,920 Speaker 1: So many of us were buying grocery products that we 56 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 1: were used to win the grocery store and now we're 57 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:07,440 Speaker 1: stuck having to look online. And if you if you 58 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: did a curb site pickup, or you had groceries delivered 59 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: to you, you know, for some people, that was a 60 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:15,680 Speaker 1: very good, good experience, and they're saying, gosh, I didn't 61 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: realize my life could be so easy. I should have 62 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:20,600 Speaker 1: been doing this a long time ago. Likewise, there are 63 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:25,200 Speaker 1: companies that obviously we're well positioned to sell online, and 64 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:27,760 Speaker 1: there were lots of retailers that were not well positioned 65 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: at all, and so trying to play catch up and 66 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 1: build yourself a website, figure out how to get logistics 67 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: in place to deliver packages, that's really hard. And as 68 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:38,400 Speaker 1: I think about what's going to happen here later in 69 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: Q four, some of the retailers who still won't have 70 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: enough stores open to generate meaningful foot traffic, they're gonna 71 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:48,560 Speaker 1: have to rely on their their website to drive traffic. 72 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: And quite frankly, it's one thing to sell ten percent 73 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: of your volume through an online site, but what if 74 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,560 Speaker 1: acent of your volume now has to go online and 75 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 1: you don't have good inventory software and customers are saying, 76 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:02,880 Speaker 1: do you or don't you have this product? Can you 77 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:05,600 Speaker 1: get me this product quickly? One of the things that 78 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: we're gonna see, I suspect in the next six or 79 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,280 Speaker 1: seven weeks as we move into mid December, everybody except 80 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 1: for Amazon is relying on UPS and FedEx and the 81 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:18,440 Speaker 1: postal service to get packages delivered. Amazon owns last mile 82 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:21,400 Speaker 1: delivery for two thirds of its own packages, So their 83 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:25,440 Speaker 1: ability to say to customers, we're comfortable that these products 84 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:27,920 Speaker 1: are actually gonna arrive on time when you order them 85 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:30,919 Speaker 1: on December twenty, You're gonna get them by nine o'clock 86 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:34,320 Speaker 1: at night on December. What about everybody else who relies 87 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:36,920 Speaker 1: on you UPS and FedEx. It's going to be interesting 88 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: to see how the big carriers are able to support 89 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:44,480 Speaker 1: this crushing level of demand for online order fulfillment. So 90 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,000 Speaker 1: it's interesting one of the things that James is just 91 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:50,719 Speaker 1: talking about. You know, can people coming onto the Amazon platform? 92 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: There's everybody, It's so crowded, there's so much availability, there's 93 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: so many different brands competing against in effect Amazon, some 94 00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 1: of some of their brands. How do you how do 95 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: you consultant and explain to your clients what's the best 96 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 1: way to compete there? At the end of the day, 97 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:10,360 Speaker 1: that there are some formulaic things that every company selling 98 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: on Amazon needs to do. You need to have the 99 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:15,720 Speaker 1: very best listings, meaning you've got to have the right 100 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:17,839 Speaker 1: images you've got to have video. You've gotta have high 101 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: quality content that helps answer customers questions. But that's basic 102 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,080 Speaker 1: black walking and tackling. Unfortunately, lots of companies selling on 103 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:28,280 Speaker 1: Amazon don't do a particularly good job there. There there 104 00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:30,320 Speaker 1: are questions around how do you make sure you stay 105 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:34,479 Speaker 1: in stock. Amazon penalizes products that are in stock, out 106 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 1: of stock, in stock out of stock, So you've got 107 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:39,200 Speaker 1: to remain in stock and be in a position where 108 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:43,159 Speaker 1: customers can consistently find your product. And then the big 109 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: catch all here is Amazon says, if your products are 110 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:50,800 Speaker 1: Prime eligible, we're gonna reward you with better visibility for customers. 111 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:54,720 Speaker 1: And so, uh, you know Amazon Prime. Some people know 112 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:57,600 Speaker 1: that as FBA, some people know that as buying your 113 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:00,520 Speaker 1: Prime membership. But those are the products that are presented 114 00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:03,039 Speaker 1: to consumers first and foremost on Amazon when you go 115 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,680 Speaker 1: looking for products. If I go searching for men's running shoes, 116 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:10,040 Speaker 1: I'm going to see all the Prime eligible products first 117 00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:12,720 Speaker 1: because I'm a Prime customer and I'm playing in and 118 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:15,400 Speaker 1: Amazon says I want to show you Prime eligible offers. 119 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:19,120 Speaker 1: There are too many companies on Amazon today who have said, 120 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: let me dip my toe into selling on Amazon. I'm 121 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:25,840 Speaker 1: just gonna fulfill a few orders as they come in. Well, 122 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:29,440 Speaker 1: it's a self fulfilling prophecy. You're irrelevant unless you're prime ilig. 123 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,240 Speaker 1: It's like unbelievable. I've done it myself. I think I've 124 00:06:32,279 --> 00:06:34,240 Speaker 1: even paid a little bit more because i know it's 125 00:06:34,279 --> 00:06:35,920 Speaker 1: prime and I'm going to get it quickly and it's 126 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:38,600 Speaker 1: going to be easy. It's just pretty fascinating. I gotta 127 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:40,719 Speaker 1: tell you. I'm listening to you James talk and I'm 128 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:43,360 Speaker 1: just thinking, where does Amazon go from here? You know, 129 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: where is Amazon in your view? You know, you know 130 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:48,839 Speaker 1: this company so well, you see their domination. And I 131 00:06:48,839 --> 00:06:51,400 Speaker 1: think that's a fair word to say when it comes 132 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 1: to retail, where do they go in the next two years, 133 00:06:54,440 --> 00:07:00,599 Speaker 1: the next five years? The reality is Amazon starts by saying, 134 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:02,880 Speaker 1: how do we do more for customers? How do we 135 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:06,120 Speaker 1: focus on what customers want? And for twenty five years 136 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: they've been looking at how do we deliver as much 137 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:12,360 Speaker 1: selection as quickly as possible at low prices. And the 138 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,440 Speaker 1: reality is as you grow your business and it becomes 139 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,240 Speaker 1: five times bigger, fifty times bigger, five hundred times bigger, 140 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:20,400 Speaker 1: it gets harder and harder for Amazon to do that, 141 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:22,840 Speaker 1: and yet they continue to step up and do that. 142 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: And this year they've demonstrated that they're not just a marketplace, 143 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: they're a massive logistics powerhouse. I mean they they hired 144 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:35,520 Speaker 1: a hundred seventy five people in order to do last 145 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:38,080 Speaker 1: mile delivery of your packages. That they are now at 146 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:41,680 Speaker 1: a place where they are competing with FedEx and UPS 147 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: day to day for all the most profitable routes. And 148 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:47,720 Speaker 1: that's that's pretty staring when you can think of Amazon 149 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:51,480 Speaker 1: as being a shopping destination, but yet they support all 150 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 1: these other things behind the scenes that consumers don't necessarily see, 151 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 1: but are critical to keeping the core business of a 152 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:01,480 Speaker 1: shopping site to keep that running. So it's expensive to 153 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 1: do that. It's really expensive to do that. It's expensive 154 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:07,840 Speaker 1: to do that, but it's actually cheaper to do it 155 00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:10,680 Speaker 1: yourself if you do it at a scalable level than 156 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:12,880 Speaker 1: it is to wait around for UPS and FedEx to 157 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:14,680 Speaker 1: figure out how to grow fast enough to keep up 158 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 1: with Amazon. And that's exactly what we saw when Covid 159 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 1: kicked in in March, is the UPSs and FedEx is 160 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:23,920 Speaker 1: they can't keep up with the increase in demand that 161 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: Amazon's experiencing and quite frankly, Amazon doesn't have to make 162 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:31,200 Speaker 1: any money with their fulfillment capabilities. They just have to 163 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:33,080 Speaker 1: be able to make sure the pipe is there and 164 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:35,480 Speaker 1: they can push packages through the pipe. And that's one 165 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:37,719 Speaker 1: of the beautiful things about Amazon. You know, the same 166 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,600 Speaker 1: thing happened when they built out their AWS capability. That 167 00:08:40,679 --> 00:08:43,040 Speaker 1: wasn't meant to be a profitable business. It was meant 168 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,640 Speaker 1: to be back end services that would support huge numbers 169 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:50,040 Speaker 1: of customers flow flocking to the site. You know on 170 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: Black Friday, we need to have essentially infinite capacity. Amazon said, 171 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:56,480 Speaker 1: we'll build it ourselves, and then they discovered, oh, we 172 00:08:56,559 --> 00:08:59,320 Speaker 1: can now sell excess capacity to someone else. They're gonna 173 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,240 Speaker 1: do the same thing with logistics. Eventually they're going to 174 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:03,679 Speaker 1: be in a place here in the next year or 175 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: two to start offering more shipping services to retailers who 176 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 1: sell packages to people, not just on the Amazon site. 177 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:15,880 Speaker 1: That that's a nice, tidy business. We know Amazon has 178 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 1: gotten into the health care business starting with how do 179 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 1: you build out better, better options for Amazon employees? But 180 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:28,280 Speaker 1: the reality is if Amazon gets this figured out, that's 181 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: another trillion dollar business where Amazon would say I'd like 182 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:34,079 Speaker 1: the slice of the bi please. So I see lots 183 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:36,720 Speaker 1: of opportunity for Amazon, certainly to grow in this country. 184 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: But everything they've done in this country with regards to shopping, 185 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:42,480 Speaker 1: they're replicating all over the world. They've got over fifteen 186 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:45,800 Speaker 1: marketplaces now different countries they're moving into where they're saying, 187 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 1: we could do the same thing and help local consumers 188 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:51,760 Speaker 1: in these other countries get huge, huge amounts of selection 189 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:55,520 Speaker 1: at low prices, delivered quickly. I did say domination, didn't 190 00:09:55,559 --> 00:09:58,640 Speaker 1: I say domination? And the legal scholars, you know, the 191 00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:02,839 Speaker 1: anti trestlers, hears part though. So it's interesting you want 192 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:04,960 Speaker 1: to think and you point out that it's expensive, but 193 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:07,920 Speaker 1: I'll also point out they've got seventy billion dollars of 194 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:10,360 Speaker 1: cash on the balance sheet, forty billion dollars of free 195 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:13,480 Speaker 1: cash flow, so I guess they can afford it, Uh, James. 196 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 1: One business where they haven't been so successful is the 197 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:19,840 Speaker 1: grocery business. Is that just a sideshow for them? Or 198 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:23,680 Speaker 1: do you think that they want to get bigger, better, 199 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:27,960 Speaker 1: stronger in that retail space. They need to get better. 200 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:30,959 Speaker 1: And I'll tell you why. If you look at your wallet, 201 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:34,800 Speaker 1: the share of your wallet that goes towards grocery is 202 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:38,679 Speaker 1: a sizeable chunk of your spend and it's also one 203 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,199 Speaker 1: of those purchases you make at least once or twice 204 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:43,560 Speaker 1: a week. You're having to think about where do I 205 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: go to buy my groceries. Amazon's endgame is to be 206 00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:51,760 Speaker 1: top consideration for any type of product you want you want. 207 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:54,360 Speaker 1: Amazon wants to be in a position where consumers say, 208 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:58,280 Speaker 1: I need to buy something, let me pick Amazon first 209 00:10:58,280 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 1: as my channel, and let's see what they have. If 210 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:05,760 Speaker 1: Amazon can get enough grocery selection in place available for 211 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:08,839 Speaker 1: fast delivery, then Amazon will be able to get consumers 212 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:11,640 Speaker 1: to spend that part of their wallet on Amazon. And 213 00:11:11,679 --> 00:11:14,480 Speaker 1: that's too. Maybe two or three times a week, the 214 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,040 Speaker 1: consumers again are reminded, hey, Amazon is the place I 215 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:19,600 Speaker 1: need to go to buy everything else as well. So 216 00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:21,600 Speaker 1: at the end of the day, grocery may not be 217 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:24,280 Speaker 1: a very profitable business for Amazon in and of itself, 218 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,520 Speaker 1: but it's a constant reminder and there's a constant ad 219 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:29,679 Speaker 1: for consumers to come back to buy everything else. That 220 00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: may make Amazon more money. But it is interesting that 221 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:35,920 Speaker 1: the grocery experience with Amazon is not the whole food's experience. 222 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:38,520 Speaker 1: If you go into the store and and it's interesting that. 223 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:41,800 Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what they want it to be. Um, 224 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:43,839 Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if you have any thoughts 225 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:46,400 Speaker 1: on that. James just got about forty seconds here, but 226 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:48,440 Speaker 1: I am curious what they wanted to be. They probably 227 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:52,920 Speaker 1: just want people to shop. Amazon is all about experimenting, 228 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:55,520 Speaker 1: and they're trying to figure out how do they position 229 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:58,280 Speaker 1: themselves so they can do this effectively. They're never going 230 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:01,400 Speaker 1: to be Walmart, but they they're opening up different types 231 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:04,080 Speaker 1: of grocery stores in different parts of the country. They're 232 00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:06,760 Speaker 1: trying things out. It's not that they're necessarily going to 233 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:10,079 Speaker 1: be the number one player in traditional grocery, but they 234 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:13,520 Speaker 1: can still make a very sizable business out of trying 235 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:16,120 Speaker 1: things and offering services to consumers in a way that 236 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:20,680 Speaker 1: still makes sense financially for Amazon. Yeah, it's interesting. It's 237 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:24,199 Speaker 1: just but it's about Amazon forever. And I agree with you. Right, 238 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:26,120 Speaker 1: And we didn't even touch on the cloud, which is 239 00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:29,080 Speaker 1: what most investors are focusing on. Yeah, exactly, well, right, 240 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:32,160 Speaker 1: because that's such a growth engine for the company. Hey, um, James, 241 00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:34,440 Speaker 1: thank you so much. James Thompson, partner at buy Box 242 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:37,559 Speaker 1: Experts and former business head of Amazon Services. I mean, 243 00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:39,680 Speaker 1: you make up a good point. I mean, but I 244 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:43,720 Speaker 1: guess that's what enables them to do that experimentation, Paul, 245 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:46,840 Speaker 1: with parts of their business that maybe aren't doing as well. Yeah, 246 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:49,679 Speaker 1: it's amazing. And again, this is a company that invested 247 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,120 Speaker 1: every dollar it had for the first twenty years of 248 00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:56,080 Speaker 1: its life. Uh, and issuing profits in cash flow. Um, 249 00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:57,959 Speaker 1: and this is the payoff. Isn't this the place we 250 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:00,360 Speaker 1: go to buy books in CDs? Do? Isn't it used 251 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:02,160 Speaker 1: to do? God, I'm dating myself.