How much did you spend on Amazon in...

[Magic]

2015?

I placed 36 orders which came to a total value of: £612.67

Just go in to your orders and it tells you the total value of each order (inc delivery and multiple items if app).

[Henry]

Probably about 20 quid on Kindle books that I couldn't find via "alternative" methods.

[-james-]

£940, but only about £200 if you subtract the PC I built. £30 if you exclude gifts as well.

[Boydy]

Probably about 20 quid on Kindle books that I couldn't find via "alternative" methods.

:nono:

[Boydy]

£88. Most of it was Christmas shopping.

[SvN]

£622.25

How depressing. I'd forgotten I'd even bought some of it.

[leedsrevolution]

56 quid. I'm not really a "shopper".

[wullie]

£340ish. It says 32 orders, but at least half are free Underground app downloads and then Christmas presents. The last three orders are the same CDs repeatedly thrown towards my house.

[Toby]

£1077.48

But well over half of that wasn't for me and claimed cost back, so about £400 of my own money.

[Pepe]

Fuck Amazon.

[Josh]

122 orders. No way am I counting the value up from them.

[Lewis]

I spent £9.99 on myself (two books, some shit gym straps, and an iPod wire) and about three times that ordering things my mother wanted because it's not worth giving myself ulcers explaining how to set her own account up.

[Magic]

122 orders. No way am I counting the value up from them.

Christ. In one year?

[Davgooner]

Four orders, about £100 in total.

[Josh]

Christ. In one year?

Yep. I have amazon prime though and most were little orders. I do the majority of my tech and present shopping on Amazon.

[Vim]

Round about 50/60 quid I'd say. Bought some merch, headphones and speakers.

[Boydy]

£88. Most of it was Christmas shopping.

Wait, it was £151.93. That £88 was only my last order. Still, most of my orders for 2015 were Christmas shopping.

[Giggles]

Can't see where you find out. Maybe you can't on the phone.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

87 orders.

I'm not adding it all up.

10 orders already for January :\

[Weaver]

£52.05, which comprises of a book, two iPhone charging cables, a blender, some skipping ropes and some pencils.

[Offshore Toon]

Probably about 20 quid on Kindle books that I couldn't find via "alternative" methods.

Can you download books illegally on a kindle?!

[Giggles]

I'd imagine you can download via other means and then transfer.

[Giggles]

Just totted up.

£647.48 (€880.24 currently) from Amazon.co.uk including delivery costs, and €587.67 from Amazon.it.

[Manc]

Is that the Italian version?

[Giggles]

Is that the Italian version?

Yep, I bought my G4 from them due to the Sterling exchange rate and Amazon.fr being out of stock.

[TG09]

A big fat zero, never used it.

[hfswjyr]

About 288 GBP. Most expensive items were sonos speakers, a 1TB external hard drive, and little dehumidifier. In fact, I'm using all 3 of those items at this very moment.

[Giggles]

I want that Echo thing if they ever get their arses in gear and realise there's civilisation outside the USA.

[Henry]

I'd imagine you can download via other means and then transfer.

This.

[leedsrevolution]

How do you guys spend so much on Amazon. I mean it's certainly not a dig but what the fuck are you all buying?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Seeing as I have Prime, I'll buy pretty much anything and everything.

The items I have bought this year are: bedding (I needed new sheets, pillows and a duvet), a computer chair, a new headset for TTH gaming as my old one was beeping apparently and some new beard wash as well as balm.

[SvN]

Amazon is my first port of call whenever I need to buy anything that isn't clothes or food.

[Boydy]

I try to avoid Amazon after those reports a while ago about how shit their warehouses are and how badly their workers are treated. Plus, they pay fuck all tax.

It is very convenient though.

[Yevrah]

They pay fuck all tax because they don't make any money. It all gets ploughed back into development.

[Lee]

£169.78 on 24 books.

[Lee]

They pay fuck all tax because they don't make any money. It all gets ploughed back into development.

I'm a thicko when it comes to accounting so take this in that spirit, but surely they are thus making money and are choosing to plough it into 'development'?

[Yevrah]

I'm a thicko when it comes to accounting so take this in that spirit, but surely they are thus making money and are choosing to plough it into 'development'?

They generate revenue, shitloads of it, but they don't make a profit. If you don't make a profit, you don't pay tax.

Now most of the time companies that generate shitoads of revenue but don't pay tax manipulate their accounts to show no profit by doing things like charging 'management fees' etc. between entities to reduce the tax burden in certain jurisdictions, but in Amazon's case their business model is such (make money, reinvest it immediately) that they're genuinely not trying to avoid paying tax, they just don't seem to give a shit (at this stage, or at any stage to date) about making profits.

It's a very odd business model, one which I don't fully understand the sustainable long term strategy of in terms of satisfying shareholders (they don't pay dividends either and if the CEO at my company decided not to make any money this year and do that he'd be out on his arse immediately), but it is legitimate what they're doing and neither avoidance nor evasion.

Whether they act ethically when they are making money is another story, but for now that's not a reason to hold paying no tax to date against them.

[Boydy]

Okay. They still treat their workers like shit.

[Yevrah]

Yeah, that I don't know, but could easily see being the case, so there'll be no argument from me there Boyd.

Another interesting thing about Amazon's business model is that their margins are dogshit. Their revenue is such that that isn't the problem it would be in a much smaller scale business (they'd probably fail to cover their overheads if that were the case), but what it does mean is that one wonders how long their prices can remain as good as they are before they come under enough pressure to increase them.

I suspect this is all of the reason why their free postage bit the bullet, but even 'free on over £20' is still pretty good and their prices/deals seem a lot better than other places.

One of the discussions I have with sales people a lot is when they say they've gone in low with the initial prices to secure the business and work at the margins later. It's usually far from clear about how they're going to do that without pissing off the customer when they do increase prices later, possibly to the point of losing them. It'll be interesting to see how Amazon manage it, but for now I'll enjoy the cheap Blu-Rays.

[Spoonsky]

Amazon is brilliant for books, particularly books of photography. That's the only thing I really use it for (and I use my parents' account so who knows the total cost).


87 orders.

I'm not adding it all up.

10 orders already for January :\

Just what are you buying?

[Boydy]

I was going to post saying that AbeBooks is a good alternative but it turns out it's owned by Amazon anyway.

I guess I've been giving them more business than I thought. :moop:

[Yevrah]

I was going to post saying that AbeBooks is a good alternative but it turns out it's owned by Amazon anyway.

I guess I've been giving them more business than I thought. :moop:

Like the hero who once had a go at me for buying a diet coke from a vending machine, only to follow my purchase with a Fanta for themselves, you're a shambles Boyd. :nono:

[Boydy]

At least some of the money is going to bookshops that way though, I guess. It's basically just all the Amazon sellers on there.

[Lewis]

The good book shops (those little second hand ones) probably use Amazon themselves. Fuck Waterstones and that.

[Giggles]

I try to avoid Amazon after those reports a while ago about how shit their warehouses are and how badly their workers are treated. Plus, they pay fuck all tax.

It is very convenient though.

If the alternative is going to actual shops then I don't care if they shoot and replace half their staff every lunch break.

[Raoul Duke]

Yeah, that I don't know, but could easily see being the case, so there'll be no argument from me there Boyd.

Another interesting thing about Amazon's business model is that their margins are dogshit. Their revenue is such that that isn't the problem it would be in a much smaller scale business (they'd probably fail to cover their overheads if that were the case), but what it does mean is that one wonders how long their prices can remain as good as they are before they come under enough pressure to increase them.

I suspect this is all of the reason why their free postage bit the bullet, but even 'free on over £20' is still pretty good and their prices/deals seem a lot better than other places.

One of the discussions I have with sales people a lot is when they say they've gone in low with the initial prices to secure the business and work at the margins later. It's usually far from clear about how they're going to do that without pissing off the customer when they do increase prices later, possibly to the point of losing them. It'll be interesting to see how Amazon manage it, but for now I'll enjoy the cheap Blu-Rays.

They also make a shit ton of money off Amazon Web Services, which is a cloud-based server solution. Loads of companies use it for their infrastructure.

I bought 11 things which seem to consist of The Witcher 3, some Xmas presents, some tedious household shit like cooking equipment, coffee grinder etc. and a load of replacement cables for Apple's shitty ones.

[Baz]

16 orders totalling £385.39

[Magic]

AWS and Azure have an entire building beside our rack within a datacentre in Canary Wharf. Even the centre's owners aren't allowed access to it.