⚡🚨 WATCH - Amazon just got caught running a secret price manipulation operation with Levi's, Home Depot, Walmart, and many more.
Every time you "comparison shopped" online, you were looking at prices that were already rigged.
Here's what happened:
Amazon would monitor prices on Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Chewy in real time. The second a competitor listed a product cheaper than Amazon, they'd contact the brand directly and tell them to "fix it."
And the exact emails are now PUBLIC.
Amazon sent Levi's links to two Walmart listings with the subject line "styles of concern." They basically said the prices on Walmart are too low and we have a problem.
The next day, Levi's responded: "I talked to Walmart and they have partnered with us to take Easy Khaki Classic fit back up to ladder SPP price, $29.99 immediately."
Levi's literally called Walmart and told them to raise the price. Because Amazon told Levi's to make the call.
Walmart complied. Then Amazon matched the HIGHER price.
Both retailers ended up charging more. The customer paid extra. Nobody competed.
Same playbook with Hanes:
Amazon sent them links showing Target and Walmart prices were lower. Hanes confirmed they "reached out to Target and Walmart to have the prices increased."
Target increased the prices. Walmart increased the prices. Amazon kept their margins.
But it gets even worse...
Amazon told Allergan (the company that makes eye drops) that their product was "suppressed" on Amazon because it was cheaper on another site.
Allergan responded: "Walmart got their price back up to $16.99." Amazon then unsuppressed the listing.
They did this with pet treats on Chewy. Furniture on Home Depot. Products across dozens of categories spanning YEARS.
The mechanism is simple but terrifying:
If you're a brand and you sell cheaper on Walmart than on Amazon, Amazon suppresses your product, removes you from the Buy Box, buries you in search results, and effectively makes you invisible to 300 million customers.
Brands can't afford that. So they call Walmart and Target and say "raise your prices or we'll lose our Amazon listings."
Walmart and Target comply because they need the brand's products.
Amazon captures 40 cents of every dollar spent online in America. That gives them the leverage to set prices across THE ENTIRE internet. Not just their own platform.
So turns out, you were never comparison shopping.
You were looking at a coordinated price floor set by Amazon through backroom phone calls between brands and their competitors.
"Amazon is working to make your life more unaffordable."
3 separate antitrust trials are now scheduled for 2027. The FTC has its own case. 18 states plus the DOJ are piling on.
This is literally happening during the WORST affordability crisis in a generation. Groceries up 25% since 2020. Housing unaffordable. Wages flat.
And the largest ecommerce company on Earth has been secretly coordinating with brands to make sure you can't find a cheaper price ANYWHERE.
"Competition" in retail is just a fantasy.
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Replies (19)
Audio version available if the thread wants it — 500 sats from one or many, and everyone gets to listen.
Good ol’ Jeff
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Murmured. 3m 48s of audio, ready for everyone.
Funded by @Peacehodl1
Scum
This is just fun. Mob-style coercion to even the biggest producers. “Be a real shame if you didn’t raise your prices over there…..”
Can’t wait for the $300,000 judgement fine Amazon will have to pay in 12 years
Wow, this sounds BIG if true. Wonder if it will make the news cycle.
Oh so the libs were right
Never buying anything from Amazon again.
It ALWAYS gets even worse in this system...
Nobody in government will do anything about this
Its biggest shareholders are also regulating it.
Great intel, thanks FLASH
cool business you've got going, excited for what you have planned.
"Show me the incentives (fiat) and I'll tell you the outcome"
This is why we’re building @Plebeian Market
decentralised Amazon
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That is the same product on chinese platforms costs 10 EUR and on Amazon will easily go for 20 EUR.
Why am I not surprised?
Amazon owns the paper of record
another reason to support local bitcoin economies by using @Shopstr Markets
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