Lifeblood of Amazon merchants threatened as coronavirus infects Chinese workers

CNBC ^ | PUBLISHED FRI, FEB 7 2020 5:00 AM EST | Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Culver City, California; Additional reporting by Sonya Dowsett in Mad

[11th_VA]

LOS ANGELES, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc sellers are bracing for product shortages as Chinese workers - worried about the fast-spreading coronavirus - may be unable or unwilling to return to idled factories.

Brandon Young, who pulls in more than $10 million in annual revenue from the online marketplace, has a 30-45 day supply of portable Apple Inc watch chargers that could be difficult to replenish because they are built from genuine Apple components that are exclusively made in China.

Plugable Technologies founder Bernie Thompson says he could run out of his top-selling triple display laptop docking station by the end of this month, even if factories open as planned next week.

The entrepreneurs are among the 1 million-plus Amazon sellers whose livelihoods depend on factory workers in China, where the coronavirus has sickened more than 30,000 and killed more than 600 people. Their predicament foreshadows the risk Amazon sellers face if China's fast-moving epidemic results in worker shortages or prolonged factory closures.

Running out of product on Amazon can wipe out a small business. Amazon's algorithm gives top billing to sellers with the briskest and most recent sales. That prominent placement helps drive even more sales.

"Going out of stock is the best way to kill that," Plugable's Thompson said.

Amazon's revenue from services to third-party sellers accounted for just over 19% of Amazon's net sales in 2019. That figure did not include proceeds from Amazon's lucrative advertising business. In a letter to shareholders, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said those independent merchants accounted for 58% of physical goods sold on Amazon in 2018...

[11th_VA]

Black Swan event ...

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[null and void]

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[Paladin2]

Was this virus built by the Red Chinese or not?

[central_va]

Coolies in factories 13,000 away not working does not hurt the US worker one bit.

[central_va]

Amazon merchants = Free Traitors™ selling out the US worker for a buck.

[11th_VA]

Amazon merchants = Free Traitors™ selling out the US worker for a buck.

I was waiting for someone to sum it up ...

[redgolum]

Every US manufacturing and reselling company is looking at critical stocks going away

[central_va]

I hope every “Amazon Merchant” goes < expletive deleted > themselves.

[central_va]

Us manufactures? How do you figure?

[xzins]

Can this strand of corona virus survive dormant on a package from China?

[FreedomPoster]

Supply chain logistics are incredibly complex for just about any product with a reasonable number of parts. You get to where you’ve got dependency on Chinese made components pretty frequently, fast.

[central_va]

We import < $5B/yr of that type of supply chain parts from China so I THINK WE WILL SURVIVE. LOL. I have an idea GET A DOMESTIC SUPPLIER. No sympathy here gloBULList.

Example: A basic and nearly ubiquitous building block of consumer products today, nearly all of the LED lights that the US imports come from China, accounting for $1.48 billion in imports. The duty leveled comes out to about 2%.

Link here.

[Jim Noble]

Was this virus built by the Red Chinese or not?

Possible - but not very likely.

[BobL]

The BIGGER problem, probably more so here, is whether people will even be making deliveries, should this bug get embedded.

Hopefully, our wonderful people are giving that some thought.

[DCBryan1]

Can this strand of corona virus survive dormant on a package from China?

Unknown. Estimates from 2-5 days out to 28 days on certain surfaces in the perfect conditions.

However, UV light kills all. We may start putting ours in the greenhouse for a few hours if UPS/FED EX drivers start wearing PPE and dropping in our AO.

[BobL]

Good link, thanks. Sure, we don’t import cars directly from China, but I doubt any car in the world is now made totally without Chinese parts, and, just as a guess, there are probably hundreds of parts (or components needed to make the parts) that are pretty much only available at this point - to make any car.

And why not? That’s the great thing about GLOBALISM - the most productive and efficient producers make the goods (with China not having to deal with the labor and environmental crap that we have to deal with), and we get to buy them, nice and cheap.

And starting in a few weeks, we will soon get a taste of the ugly side of GLOBALISM - when we start to see just how dependent we are on them.

[mad_as_he$$]

The aftermarket spare/replacement parts industry is largely based upon Chi-com parts.

[central_va]

And why not? That’s the great thing about GLOBALISM - the most productive and efficient producers make the goods (with China not having to deal with the labor and environmental crap that we have to deal with), and we get to buy them, nice and cheap.

Your short sighted greed is destroying middle America and has caused massive social and economic harm to MILLIONS of Americans and communities. This why we need substantial protective tariffs NOW! There is nothing that Communist slaves can't produce marginally more cheaply than Americans. Globalist ARE the enemy. Globalism leads to socialism leads to Communism

There will be a day when these sell globalist traitors and the families will be tried, shot and thrown unmarked graves. Sorry to say that. That is what Communists do with their useful tools once they are no longer useful to the Commies.

[central_va]

The aftermarket spare/replacement parts industry is largely based upon Chi-com parts for now.

Fixed it.