The thing is - everybody already knows this. Jeff Bezos has been open about this being the plan since the IPO in 1997, and that's why investors continued to give him money despite Amazon barely turning a profit for 15 years. Most customers knew this too - folks I know are like "Yeah, I know that once he gets a monopoly he's just going to raise prices and we'll be the ones hurting, but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy my low prices, free delivery, and convenient one-click ordering."
Tragedy of the commons is a remarkably powerful business model. Everyone knows that collectively they're going to be fucked over by Bezos in a generation or so, but since everybody knows it, they're powerless to avoid it, because individually each person is just screwing themselves over by not buying from Amazon.
> individually each person is just screwing themselves over by not buying from Amazon
How so? I haven't noticed Amazon UK being particularly competitive on price for many years.
I just randomly checked a camera backpack, £219 on Amazon and Wex both with free delivery.
Canon 6D2, £40 cheaper than Amazon on Wex and Currys.
Amazon are like Ryanair these days, coasting on a low-price reputation that is long gone. They each do occasional headline sales of things people don't want for pennies but the overall trend is up.
Sorry to say, but I really doubt that more than a small proportion of Amazon customers really think any further than what they want.
Something I've noticed is that many of the Amazon deals in the UK are really just price matches to other retailers, they know they can still likely make a profit due to their favourable tax arrangements.
Tragedy of the commons is a remarkably powerful business model. Everyone knows that collectively they're going to be fucked over by Bezos in a generation or so, but since everybody knows it, they're powerless to avoid it, because individually each person is just screwing themselves over by not buying from Amazon.