George Packer Quotes

Companies that are terrifying to a writer are companies like Amazon.

Amazon is not a monopoly or a monopsony, and even if it were, that by itself isn't illegal.

I'm not one of those people who hates Amazon because they're big. Why pay a third more for the same thing?

Today, we have our own concentrations of economic power. Instead of Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, the Union Pacific Railroad, and J. P. Morgan and Company, we have Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft.

I'm not itching to sue Amazon or Wal-Mart... they sell a lot of books. But the future is very uncertain with books.

There are lots of retailers that are now scrambling to emulate the Amazon model, so Amazon does not have a monopoly on same-day distribution or broad selection or low prices. All that said, there are advantages that accrue to the largest player, so I don't see much in the way of Amazon slowing down.

Being a 'monopoly' is not illegal, nor is trying to best one's competitors through lower prices, better customer service, greater efficiency, or more rapid innovation.

I like every individual editor, designer, marketing and publicity person I deal with, but I don't like what publishers, corporately, are doing to the ecology of the book world. It's damaging, and it should change.

The difference between Amazon and us is Amazon is more like an empire - everything they control themselves, buy and sell.

Amazon's outsized power is looking less and less like smart business and more and more like oppressive politics - one company bullying us all.

Competition exists everywhere.

Competition matters.

Amazon is evil, like anything big, but we can't help if it flows the very center of literature.

I think the yearning for a different product is really strong. WWE hasn't had any significant change since, what, 2001 in wrestling? WWE provides so much good content. Just good, wholesome content, but they're still the only one.

If you've got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you've got a very good business. And if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by a tenth of a cent, then you've got a terrible business. I've been in both, and I know the difference.

Who can object to a monopoly when any new company, if it is built around a scientific nucleus, can create a new monopoly of its own by creating a wholly new field?

You want an idea that turns into a monopoly. But you can't get a monopoly, in a big market right away; too much competition for that.

Land monopoly is not only monopoly, but it is by far the greatest of monopolies; it is a perpetual monopoly, and it is the mother of all other forms of monopoly.

Superior sales and distribution by itself can create a monopoly, even with no product differentiation. The converse is not true. No matter how strong your product-even if it easily fits into already established habits and anybody who tries it likes it immediately-you must still support it with a strong distribution plan.

Customers get vested in certain paradigms of computing, and those large vendors will try to keep those customers in those paradigms of computing for as long as possible. That's where you basically get the term cash cow.

You have to find a small market in which you can get a monopoly and then quickly expand.

I don't like Amazon (wearing my author hat, not my customer hat).

Cartels have spread and will spread as long as the world lacks an effective mechanism by which balanced expansion may be achieved without a resulting disruption of prices.

I've been through the whole western world, and it seems to me that there's more retail floor space devoted to the sale of books than food! There's more retail floor space devoted to the sale of books than there's been in the entire history of humanity! It's grotesque!

The reality is that we've seen the last of any serious price wars for a long time. I don't think any of the others could afford it, certainly not on a long-term basis.