TradingwithCody Chief Guide Elad Ryba on Amazon, King of the Jungle

In the end there will only be one. Well maybe that’s a bit dramatic. Let’s just say a rare few.

A warning before I start this article: let me remind every iPhone owner to call Apple and purchase iPhone Care Plus for $99. This service gives you 2 years worth of tech support and hardware replacement insurance. If your device breaks, you pay just $50 more for a new iPhone vs. potentially $280-$750.

This article took shape Saturday afternoon. The glass screen on my iPhone5 shattered, fractured and broke into hundreds of pieces. I quickly called Apple to initiate my care plus coverage. I was given two choices. 1) Have a temp phone sent a.s.a.p. to arrive Tuesday while I send my iPhone to Apple for a diagnosis and new one sent to me. 2) Go to a nearby Apple store of my choosing and get a replacement iPhone on the spot Sunday, in time for work Monday morning. I chose option two.

Being a father of three I thought of my kids and decided to make a fun trip to the mall with them and end it with an early dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. This is where I realized how and why Amazon will rule the jungle.

As we grow older what’s the one thing that is most important to us all? The answer is simple: Time. Time can’t be slowed. Time can’t be regained. Time is the single most precious commodity we all have and hold dear, if you’ve come to realize it yet or not. I have.

We want time off from work, vacation time, relaxation time, quality time, family time, fun time, me time. I believe Amazon is doing its best to save us some of that precious time, well maybe more than that.  Amazon is giving us an opportunity to save time from the mundane. Time from the banal. Time from the ordinary and replace it with quality time. Sadly, as we get older we don’t want to be in a big box store picking up and dragging around super heavy, super large packaging. Not to mention dragging it to and from our car. Folks, it’s just a fact of life. My wife returned from a 3 hr. round trip to Bj’s wholesale club outing exhausted.  If you give me some of your time, I’ll explain how.

Sunday came about and I filled up gas for $50 dollars. Verrazano Bridge toll $15 dollars. NJ turnpike toll $6. Goethals bridge toll $13 dollars (Less if you have 3+ people in the car = carpool) So before we even got going I knew we would be spending $84 dollars just to drive to get the device. Since my cell phone is essential for work I could not wait until Tuesday for a replacement.

I don’t know about where you live but the tolls in NY/NJ never go down, they just keep rising year after year.  This is where Amazon comes into play. Cody is always trying to get us to grasp the concept of an ecosystem. Once you are in it (similar to the Matrix) you are hooked in, hard wired to use the service. As that company expands its services you tend to use them more and you like it. Wait, No, that’s a mistake, you love it. On Friday, I signed up for a free service I never knew Amazon had. It’s called Amazon Mom / Dad. Ship 5 or more products on a recurring monthly basis and you get 20% off their already low prices. I knew about their Subscribe and Save program where I ship Coffee Capsules for a machine we have every 2-3 months and save 5-10% on that one item. Well this new service dawned on me. Why do we have to go to our preferred Bj’s Wholesale club or similar Costco’s and spend 3-4 hours from the time I leave my house to when I am done unloading the car upon my return? Why do we have to drive, find a spot to park, scour the isles, push a 100+ pound cart around for hours.  Then stand in long lines to pay, haul it back to the car, load, drive home, unload etc.

Amazon just gave me an incentive to use them from the comfort of my home. I can use any device to add items to their subscribe and save program, Amazon Dad. I can preset and alter the frequency of shipping for each item, if needed. So let me get this straight: they scour their isles, they pick it, pack it, push it, ship it and deliver it to my front door and I save 20% for asking them to do this for me?  No waste of my gas? No increased emissions from my car? What’s this, they even offer virtual company coupons in addition to the 20% off? How long until this catches on and people feel empowered to save even more money, time, carbon footprint?

What do they have …. you ask? They have tens of thousands of products and are adding more all the time. I can change the recurring items anytime I want. What if you shop more frequently and don’t have space to store bulk items as a result? Well, even more reason to shop amazon as they sell all variations of quantities of items you what.  I am sure you shop a minimum once every 10 days for some household items.

If you aren’t home to receive the products, Amazon partnered with various establishments some of which Amazon’s business is already hurting. They call it Amazon locker, where they will drop your items into your selected locations locker free and you can pass by on your way home and pick the items up.

In my local area those locations are in Staples and 7-Eleven’s. Staples lost my business already. There’s one location 7 minutes drive from my home. Their “sale” prices are what I pay for Amazon regular everyday prices. Why should I get dressed, drive, find parking in their small parking lot, find the item, stand in line, and then drive home. All I need to do is click on a similar Amazon item and get it sent to me in 2 days to my front door or next day air if you’re in a rush.  Is Amazon just spoiling me? Am I turning into the Instant gratification Apple app eco system my kids are growing up with in that I click on an item set it and forget it? In 2 days a package arrives at my front door. Is Amazon really that good? That efficient? Do they have that diverse of products to have everything I could want and more I never knew of? Are they that efficient in their pricing that I would not hop in my car for a 10 minute round trip drive? Yes, they are! It won’t be long before others realize this same thing. How often do you find yourself needing this little thing, that little thing and have to make time to get it, if not daily then weekly or monthly. Those little things not even counting the planned outing for house shopping of food essentials / house products take time and lots of it if you add it up.

Amazon saves me this time from local nonperishable shopping and bulk shopping. Instead I can convert that time ( not to mention money saved, carbon footprint diminished) to family time, playing with my kids, watching Amazon prime movies with my family. I even discovered Amazon productions this weekend. What is this you ask? Just like Netflix, Amazon is producing original shows, for adults and kids to be viewed on Amazon. It adds up to an extra few hours a week, many hours a month from just the little things I have to get that. Log on with your smartphone, tablet, and laptop, desktop and get Amazon to get it to you, when you want, how you want, where you want.

Oh, by the way did I mention perishable foods? Well Amazon is building that up as well in localized markets. It’s called Amazon Fresh.   In time I plan to report back on a test to buy all my households nonperishables from Amazon. I will compare the quantity and pricing vs. BJ’s or Costco using as exact pricing / sizing and see how it works out. Twenty percent off, no driving, gas, 2-3 hours wasted per month for 1 trip already in my mind has Amazon a step ahead.

Ever order electronics from Amazon? I once ordered 7 digital cameras, tested each before keeping one of them and shipped the rest back for free.  All this was done from the comfort of my home, on my time. No need to make time to be able to go. No salesman pressure. No need to call if all the models I wanted to test are there. No restocking fee.

Sadly, as a result of Amazon’s success Best Buy is getting hurt and so is my cousin who closed down his local retail electronics store a few months ago. He simply couldn’t compete with Amazon in any single way. Not customer service, diversity of product line, pricing, free shipping, free returns, anything. He’s a young guy, 30 with 4 kids. He will find another source of income, he must. It’s been very, very hard on him. However what he must not do is compete with the king of the Jungle in his next endeavor. Instead he must find a way to appease the savage beast. Either work with Amazon or find a line of business they have not spread into or about to or be doomed to repeat his previous fate. Amazon is the king of the jungle. There can only be one King.

I am going to use today’s weakness now trading at $254 to add to my position in Amazon making it a larger holding in my portfolio. I think Amazon will be successful in its multi-pronged approach to make users realize it’s a time, money and fun savings ecosystem at the same time making investors wish they had invested for the future with Amazon.

P.S. A little while back on my Microsoft article I detailed my Daughter’s debate on a Touch screen windows based laptop or Apple laptop / ipad. This past Sunday, Apple won out. She decided to use her money, and her money only, no need for her father’s 3.5% loan (Joke). She purchased an Ipad 4 HD, white, 16 Gig, Wi-Fi with matching white Bluetooth enabled full Qwerty Logitech keyboard which on a full charge lasts 4-6 months based on 2 hours of daily use. Plus the app “Pages” is $10 dollars for the iPad version vs. $20 for a MacBook version. The total came to $650.88 dollars. Apple won her business. We’ll see this coming Tuesday if Apple wins over our vote of confidence. Will it win over our investments in it when it reports and talks about the future of its products, earnings?