What's in the box?

How Amazon ships from Guangzhou to you

Good morning, my hardworking strivers. This is your Stock Market Rundown for July 20th, 2023. Thanks as always for reading. Let’s get it started:

TODAY’S TOP STORY: AMAZON’S BOX OF TRICKS 📦

“There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.”

So said Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to his shareholders in 1997. These days, Bezos is no longer in his corporate throne, and can typically be found sailing on his four-hundred-foot yacht, or partying in Miami whilst dressed like Pit Bull.

But during his CEO era, he built Amazon into the world’s most powerful digital retailer. Now, I realize Amazon isn’t perfect. Given their problems with counterfeit luxury goods, I wouldn’t recommend ordering a Louis Vuitton purse on Amazon… you could get a “Lois Vuitoon” instead.

Still, if you’re anything like me, each week brings a pile-up of cardboard boxes as all the crap you’ve ordered from Amazon arrives. How is it possible that you can order anything from a yoga mat to a sofa set on Amazon, and have it on your doorstep a day later?

It comes down to Amazon’s tight-knit mesh of robot-powered warehouses and distribution centers, strategically located near shipping hubs. Robots, bless them, don’t take vacations, get sick, or need the afternoon off work for an audition that could finally be their big break.

Amazon’s other key advantage? Scale. With a 40% share of all online sales, Amazon is the #1 customer of UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service. That scale gets volume discounts, which Amazon passes onto consumers (remember Bezos’ quote above?) which further cements their lead.

That’s why folks in locations as remote as north of the Arctic Circle can get items from Amazon more cheaply than from their local grocery store. If Santa ever wants to shut the elves’ workshop and outsource toy manufacturing to China, Amazon has him covered.

SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

That’s it for today guys, see you bright and early tomorrow. Yours in capitalism, The Axe