commbasics

Right now, I think Amazon and Google have become the best friends of retail world, including local business. I’m not sure Costco can survive. If I were a stock holder, I’d be calling my broker.  I made a significant decision recently to let my Costco membership expire and give my business to Amazon and a lot of it has to do with how both have marketed themselves to me.  i think I might be on the cutting edge on this “trend” but I think it’s going to cause trouble for Costco down the road.  I have shopped at Costco since 1987.  Average trip was around $300 and I went twice a month.  I still shopped at local brick-and-mortars when Costco didn’t have what I needed, but bulk items bought there made more sense.   I boycotted Amazon for a time because of their stance and active lobbying against state sales tax in California , but when they gave up their tactics that actually hurt small, local business I decided to give their Amazon Prime service a try....

Lots of people are wondering what it means for Jeff Bezos to buy the venerable Washington Post Company .  Can he make it profitable again.  I say, that's not the question. there is a historical reality that everyone is ignoring about journalism: it wasn't supposed to be profitable. From the beginning of this country, which was in large part launched by a healthy dose of print journalism , newspapers were money pits.  Their primary goal in life was to support a certain cause.  For example, Joseph Pulitzer was Missouri politician who amassed a significant personal wealth.  He bought an interest in one paper, flipped it quickly to another investor and then used that profit to buy another.  He merged the two papers the St. Louis Post Dispatch supporting Republican causes.  His personal wealth continued to grow so he bought the New York World , which was bleeding cash at the time, and went into a frenzied competition for readers with the N...