My theory: Prime, and its 2-day shipping service, is a flat rate deal, priced according to 10.5 normal months and 1.5 batshit crazy delivery months. Since they can't charge on a demand basis for shipping like FedEx can, they've run into an internal train wreck where they can't afford to deliver all the orders the've received. So their bottleneck is actually a bottleneck of budgeted "delivery slots" for these Spring months, which they've excused as being "due to essential items only, can't keep up with demand."<p>I've noticed something that I found extremely curious: I've ordered several random things in the last month from Amazon, and all have been severely delayed. These are not surge items: drumsticks, a guitar wall hanger, and an APC ups. All were Prime items, and all have been severely delayed, waiting weeks now. I get it, they are 'focusing on essential items' and my guitars will be fine to wait a while longer. However...<p>I have not noticed many Prime delivery vans out in the neighborhood. During the holidays, Prime vans are everywhere. Today, they are not. Last mile shipping is one of those businesses that gets gloriously efficient with scale. Bezos announced that 100,000 person hire a few weeks back, which I assumed would be rehiring their holiday surge subcontractors. But few vans on the streets today.<p>Finally, what essential items does Amazon have in stock that is overtaking their delivery supply chain?
Amazon sucks now. I can't buy most of the specific items I use in my work, and when I do find something it's swimming in a sea of clone crap. The best thing it does still is books. Anything else is a mizxed bag. AMZ is just Ali Baba for people who can't wait for the ship.
Those who complain about Amazon should try eBay.<p>I recently bought a relatively expensive item ($3k) that was being advertised as "New - Open box" one month old item.<p>What I received was a 5 year old used item. Trying to return it was the most stressful online shopping experience I have ever had.<p>One you open a return request, eBay gives the seller 5 working days to reply to your request. Seller took advantage of all 5.<p>When I finally got a return label, the seller left the item waiting for pick up for 3 days, until finally picking it up.<p>Once picked up, eBay gives seller another 5 working days to issue a refund.<p>In the mean time there is no way to ask help from eBay. All they do is just close the case asking you to wait.<p>So for a total of 3-4 weeks I have my money sitting in seller's PayPal account.<p>At least with Amazon, retail* support is usually pretty good.
This is quite significant given market is very bullish on Amazon (Goldman is just all over it). The expectations are set sky high to do well during these times. But if you look at things as consumer, it doesn't look so good. Personally, I've significantly less orders on Amazon these days because of huge delivery times. Sure, orders for "essentials" might have gone up but can that offset the gap? Also, sellers are very dissopointed with their items not getting delivered and many have started to look for alternate channels.<p>Given all these, I wonder how things will pan out. Wall street expectations for Amazon to do well this quarter is sky high but behind the curtain things might have taken significant hit.
The headline is pretty sensationalist. It's not like he is coming out of retirement. He is just updating his schedule to focus on immediate problems rather than longer term projects (like every other CEO in the world right now).
The other issue which Bezos has less control over is delivery, especially in areas where its own logistics service is limited.<p>A friend living in rural New Hampshire says Amazon will no longer deliver goods to people in his town, which indicates a last-mile delivery problem.<p>Another friend in North Carolina said the U.S. Post Office stopped delivery to all of the buildings in his apartment complex because the leasing office was now closed.<p>There are other situations in which delivery companies understandably don't want to follow pre-COVID procedures because it's no longer safe to do so.
Has anyone else noticed Amazon shipping them more of items than they ordered? I've recently had this happen in two separate orders, including receiving 3 SSDs when I'd just ordered 1, for a free $300 of SSD.
I don’t know what is going on but their “essential items” excuse is totally bogus. There are no essential items in stock! Go try to buy toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, etc. I can’t buy ANY of that and haven’t been able to for at least 4-6 weeks.<p>And the “normal” products have shipping delays of 4+ weeks sometimes. And then other times, none. It seems totally random and nonsensical.<p>I think they have serious labor issues that they are covering up. I’m just guessing here with absolutely no information. Just can’t make sense at what is going on.
Not sure why comments change to the degrading quality of Amazon retail.<p>The article is pretty obvious. The CEO needs to always focus on the most critical matter. Sometime it's long-term strategic investment, like Alexa. Some other time, it's a ongoing emergency that will have profound long-term impact.<p>And Mr. Bezos is doing the right thing to align the company right now.
What a missed opportunity, Boeing is on its knees and shown it cannot compete with SpaceX, and Blue Origin has the best opportunity to displace SLS with New Glenn program once and for all. When else will you be able to kill a crony-Goliath like ULA, by their own incompetence no less, and gain the public's adoration for it as CEO?<p>I get it, this is his golden goose and its undergoing huge stress and delays due to COVID; but for all the talk about why he got into tech and wanted to make Billions was essentially to get into Aerospace in the first place makes it seem like the vapid platitudes of Billionaire.<p>I'm not surprised, just disappointed in Bezos. I guess we're going to have to live with ULA clogging up the system and spending billions more without producing results all while SpaceX is sending astronauts to ISS next month.<p>I don't buy things from Amazon anymore, their supply chain optimization results in inhumane business practices, and despite having access to Prime I still prefer to stream shows on it elsewhere. The quality looks equally mediocre in comparison to Netflix on a 4k screen anyway.
Jeff being back to day to day will make a difference. Ex-amazonian, I've seen a lot of people go work for them recently and more than a few are B, and at least one a C level players.<p>OP1/OP2 presentations in front of Jeff will make a difference.
One of my client sells medical devices on amazon.<p>They sold out their entire 2020 forecast by mid April.<p>Amazon warehouses also got a little humility and flexibility towards warehouse workers.<p>The shipping demands are real.
Maybe this will bring him back to Earth and see that not everything is as good as in the bubble he lives by focusing on futuristic projects. It'd be nice to see an impact
I guess now we'll see how much of the perceived shit show was actually his making, and how much was his leadership group. This should be interesting.
Maybe he should set his sites lower and get some work done to fix Amazon Fresh. I have tried to order something everyday since Mar 12 and no time slots have been available.