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Competition is a vital part of business and creating an equal playing field for companies to put their products on the market. It creates an environment where the consumer has the possibility to choose between several brands carrying the same product. By getting rid of competition a monopoly can be established: in turn this ruins the will to conceive better products, the want to innovate in the field and spawns complacency.

Amazon is now by far the biggest online retailer and for good cause, it caries the widest array of products of any other website. The internet company does online retail but also groceries, cloud computing, voice activated speakers, streaming video, production studios, large scale delivery, mobile devices and many more to name [1]. And its latest deal, Whole Foods, an upscale grocery chain, has agreed to be bought out by Amazon for $13.4 billion [2]. This agreement makes Amazon even more present in our daily lives than it already was; it’s no longer just an online retailer.

Clearly Amazon has an interest in being a part of almost every sector it could sell another of its own product to consumers; and it’s even transitioning into the real world retail side of things, which could be a threat in the long run to other retailers. This brings up the issue of monopolies; the internet company could become the one and only place that buyers would go to for almost any good or service. This monopoly would mean a lack of choice for buyers as there would only be one place to get any products or services needed and would put the buyer in a losing situation as Amazon would have full control on its pricing and will to put in effort to improve products.

Hypothetically I think the only way this monopoly would ever occur is if Amazon were able to build such a strong brand loyalty mindset for its consumers that other companies would eventually go out of business.

In my opinion we should be appreciating Amazon’s efforts. It’s known that being so diverse creates a difficulty of being able to be the best in every single area as it is easier to be the best at something if it becomes your one and only focus. In my eyes Amazon is giving consumers more choices, as well adding a stronger aspect of competition to each sector they decide to integrate. This then pushes other companies to better their own products to avoid Amazon from taking over. In the end I believe what Amazon is doing is for the best of the consumer and the products being created by each and every brand it competes with, as this monopoly is unrealistic.

Sources:

• https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/16/technology/all-things-amazon-does.html
• https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/business/dealbook/amazon-whole-foods.html