Posted on 11/06/2005 7:25:34 AM PST by XR7
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, often intimidates its competitors and suppliers. Makers of goods from diapers to DVD's must cater to its whims. But there is one company that even Wal-Mart eyes warily these days: Google, a seven-year-old business in a seemingly distant industry.
"We watch Google very closely at Wal-Mart," said Jim Breyer, a member of Wal-Mart's board.
In Google, Wal-Mart sees both a technology pioneer and the seed of a threat, said Mr. Breyer...The worry is that by making information available everywhere, Google might soon be able to tell Wal-Mart shoppers if better bargains are available nearby.
Wal-Mart is scarcely alone in its concern. As Google increasingly becomes the starting point for finding information and buying products and services, companies that even a year ago did not see themselves as competing with Google are beginning to view the company with some angst...
Google's recent moves have stirred concern in industries from book publishing to telecommunications...Google's disruptive presence may soon be felt in real estate and auto sales.
Google, the reigning giant of Web search, could extend its economic reach in the next few years as more people get high-speed Internet service and cellphones become full-fledged search tools, according to analysts. And ever-smarter software, they say, will cull and organize larger and larger digital storehouses of news, images, real estate listings...
Such advances, predicts Esther Dyson, a technology consultant, will bring "a huge reduction in inefficiency everywhere." That, in turn, would be an unsettling force for all sorts of industries and workers...
..."Google is the realization of everything that we thought the Internet was going to be about but really wasn't until Google," said David B. Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School...Internet search...is a disruptive technology, he said, threatening traditional industries and opening the door to new ones...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Walmart, Walmart, Walmart all the time. BJ's and Kohls must be happy.
google ping.
Wow, that's a threat! We can't have that!
The planets would explode and the Sun would go dark.
"is a disruptive technology, he said, threatening traditional industries and opening the door to new ones..."
It's time to give them the BILL GATES ATTACK!!! But this time it will be preemption, instead of little the empire get too big!!
We can also TAX them more. And get environmental groups to protest homes who dl the google tool bar under the guise of monitor radiation reduction.
little = *letting. oops!
"Seems to me the that customer service these days has gone completely out the window, and THAT is the difference."
Agreed.
Economists theorize by assuming competitors and consumers have perfect information. It's still far from perfect but, like bloggers exposing the MSM, the internet is empowering and educating the marketplace.
That's one reason I shop online. I can compare prices as well as read reviews for the merchant with whom I'm dealing. My success rate has been far better than dealing with sales people (or lack thereof) who act like they're doing me a favor to sell me something.
We'll finally get close to a reality of a Capitalistic market, the ability to instantly compare prices and choose the best deal for the buyer, that critics have repeatedly cited as a major flaw in market theory.
I like dogpile a lot better. It rolls several search engines (including Google) into one. Besides, Google is a little too anti-American for me.
It's there; you just have to pay for it.
Go to Nordstrom or Brooks Brothers and you'll get great customer service. Or American Express.
But most companies figure that people would rather have lower prices than good customer service, so that's what we have.
Ho, ho! Capitalism at work! If Google provides the ability for consumers to
find the best local prices before setting out shopping, every local consumer
market becomes an efficient market, with prices converging rapidly to
supply/demand equalibrium.
(Somebody tell the NYT so they can stop being gleeful at another triumph of the free market--it's not in keeping with their socialist editorial policy.)
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(This was my way of saying that with a web enabled cell phone, you can save a hell of a lot of money when shopping these days.....)
Those still hanging on to the hope of a Marxist Utopia will use Google's new price shopping technology as a justification for taking another stab at instituting communism.
Communistic economists love to claim that communism failed because, without the freedom of the market to set prices, there was no basis on which government could artificially control the cost of goods. With technology similar to this from Google, plus up to the second information on inventories, some whacko may now say there is a mechanism from which to launch communism, again, and this time in a manner that is economically feasible.
Perhaps it is part of the Soros group's long term plan.
google is the walmart of the internet. they deserve each other.
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