Does anybody buy Christmas presents on Cyber Monday?

[pinstripe_bindi]

Because I only ever seem to buy stuff for myself. I don't even know what anyone wants, we got going late on the Christmas lists this year. I only want accessories (a case and a filter set) and more film for my Polaroid, a cookie scoop set, and some sandalwood oil

Comments

[taz_39]

I think amazon has enough capital to be able to afford something like the Echo, which may or may not work out for them. If it doesn't, meh, they're still raking in $52 MILLION EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY.

[pinstripe_bindi]

I mean I'm not like, worried for their bottom line because they're losing money on it. I think it's funny that they see it as a loss because they couldn't figure out how to monetize, say, someone asking Alexa what year the Battle of Stirling Bridge was. There's an easy solution and it's just not to sell the speakers at cost. Apple is still making money on theirs, because they charge more upfront and consider anything they make after the purchase to just be extra. Same with the speaker I bought on Monday.

[taz_39]

Right, and that's why fewer people have an Apple speaker, or the speaker you bought on Monday. Amazon's goal with their speaker is not the speaker, but marketing. Having you buy their products, with the speaker being the vehicle for that. That IMO is the difference; Apple is just trying to sell you a useful speaker, but Amazon wants your transactions with them to continue, via the speaker and via having easy access to things you need via just talking out loud and having what you need next-day. So yeah they're losing money on the speaker, but they don't care because they ultimately profit from you having the speaker in your home regardless. At some point I'm sure they'll quit with the speakers or charge more for them or whatever to reduce losses, but for now they can probably show that losing money on the speakers still gains them profit through sales.

[pinstripe_bindi]

That was their goal, but they're not seeing that realized and they've slashed staff and budgets to the Echo department. At some point they'll either have to charge more for the speaker, or make users listen to a commercial whenever they ask for the weather. (At which point I will throw mine in the trash and just the speaker I bought yesterday for everything.)

[chocolate_frapp]

I bought sandalwood oil a few days ago but I live in Oakland so I just go over to Berkeley and buy it from old hippies