[SamAdams76]

The key to Amazon’s growth was that they ran at losses for years, putting every possible penny back into the company. In fact, to this day, Amazon has yet to pay a single dividend back to shareholders.

[Alberta's Child]

Amazon always had one major flaw in its business model. They have lower real estate costs than traditional retailers with “brick & mortar” stores, but the downside was that they pick up an enormous cost associated with home deliveries that customers of traditional retailers do for free.

I would also add that these online retailers do an awful job of home deliveries. In the last two years I have placed three online orders. They arrived in 11 different shipments … and only FOUR of them were delivered to the correct address.