8709

No, I’m specifically complaining about @MarinusWA, who is going to frankly offensive extents to try and delegitimize the electoral results he disagrees with.

Keir Starmer for example is certainly not toxic (although I’m not a fan), and it’s a great relief to be able to say that about the Labour leader.

Really, drawing an equivalence with 1933 Germany and elections in various totalitarian states isn’t saying it is illegitimate?

8710

No, it’s this:

8711

It’s my mistake really. I should have known better than to use the NSDAP as an example seeing how people cramp up the moment Nazi Germany is mentioned (even though in 1933 all the horrible stuff was still years away and Germany didn’t become totalitarian until after said election).

So let’s just pretend that instead of Germany in 1933 I used Venezuela in 2012 (or any of the elections where Chavez was elected). Not only did the course he laid out wreck the entire Venezuelan economy, his zombie form also rigged voting machines in the 2020 US election.

8712
8713

Hah as if Brexiters care about people in Portugal. Or people in general.

8714

Yeah I was reading about VAT etc for importers and exporters.

If I sell you in the EU something from England, you pay the price plus some import costs.

If I sell something from outside the UK to someone in the UK, there’ll be taxes to pay.

So the way I get around this is by having multiple accounts I suppose.

Still, I think for most people, none of this really matters.

If you’re the consumer in the UK you just pay the price Amazon has.

8715

What’s this mean for the future? That people will seek out sources in Europe before UK Amazon now because they don’t want their prices doubled? Or people just have to eat the cost because some stuff is exclusive to UK Amazon? People in the UK will face the same thing buying from Europe Amazon?

8716

There’s not a lot of stuff that is exclusive to Amazon UK - at least not in my experience. It’s not always you can find the exact same item on amazon.de or amazon.fr, but you can usually find something equivalent.

IMO, the main benefit of amazon.co.uk is accessibility (english language). Short-term, I suspect this just means people shift to their nearest localized market; long-term, I expect we’ll get to see even more localized sites (they recently opened amazon.se - I expect amazon.dk and amazon.no are not all that far behind). And - of course - amazon.co.uk gets downsized to serve the British market.

8717

Yup, colleague of mine from Portugal is switching to Amazon Germany now.

8718

So in the end this hurts the UK quite a bit if they cease to be a major hub due to cost/brexit issues?

8719

They’ll be too busy jizzing over their sovereignty to notice, I imagine. Extolling the virtues of their freedom, all the way to the end of the bread lines.

8720

At least it would be the Queen’s bread, not the tasty baked goods from France or Germany. The better to train a stiff upper lip with.

8721

Perhaps.

But the UK market is large and the number of people wanting to use Amazon is quite large, and the costs aren’t going to be that much more from what I can tell.Also, Amazon is not obliged to pass on extra costs to customers, and indeed Amazon has run a loss befre in order to gain market share.

Also, if I am reading this government website correctly:

Median annual pay for full-time employees was £31,461 for the tax year ending 5 April 2020, up 3.6% on the previous year; annual pay estimates are largely unaffected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

So what it mwans, as far as I can tell, for the vast majority of people, is actually almost nothing.

However, it is more work if you are selling something.

So if I drop ship something from Europe to a customer in the UK, said customer has to pay my price + VAT.

And if I sell something shipped from the UK to someone in Europe, that customer has to pay the actual cost + import duties.

here’s an example in practice:

A board game company no longer delivering to Europe:

As the relationship between the UK and the EU is scheduled to change on 1st January 2021 there comes a point when we need to complete orders taken under the current regime and take the time to prepare for a new reality, that time has now come and we have now switched off the ability to place orders to be delivered to the EU countries. We will reconfigure our systems and open back up to our EU customers as soon after January 1st 2021 as is practical.

and, more up to date, same website:

EU VAT & Shipping

The relationship between the UK and the EU changed on 1st January 2021 and we are busy reconfiguring our systems, testing courier integrations and updating our systems in order to bring options back for our EU customers. We currently anticipate we will be running again sometime during the next 13 days - sooner if testing goes well.

If you live in Holland, would you bother buying from them? The real question is whether you would have bought beforehand.

On a more personal level, it means secret santa gets more complicated for me, unless I order from an EU based vendor.

So, I think the real question is whether the smaller companies (like this board game company, because let’s be honest Amazon can weather pretty much anything) can survive on a UK majority market.

If you’re shipping eels then probably not…

8722

It is accesibility, but not due to language.

Their headquarters and main warehouse are not far from me.

Milton Keynes has several warehouse districts, and a very wll integrated road system, so serving the Uk market doesn;t get changed.

The drama, as we knew all along, is crossing the border.

For the record I fail to see what we gain here, but I do see what we lose, and imho this is just the beginning. I think the costs will get more tangible soon.

But then we’ll just blame corona and unwilling kraut eating cheese worshipping siesta taking europeans.

8723

For me, the main advantage of a UK Amazon would be English and not having to deal with moving stuff from outside the EU to the EU, expensive and you never know when the border gods decide your stuff is going to be inspected for several days / weeks.

Now that it’s also outside the EU, huh, maybe my French / Spanish is good enough?

Wonder how much sense a EU Amazon would make, instead of several localized ones…

8724

I doubt Amazon UK was much of an international hub other than for expats. And for most US tech companies Ireland was always the main European hub (plus Luxembourg until the VAT change).

8725

I meant from the point of view of the rest of Europe.

amazon.co.uk has always been my go-to store whenever I need to get anything from abroad; it’s a lot cheaper than amazon.com (unless for very special items) and while I’ve used amazon.de more in recent years, my default is always to go to co.uk. Everyone I know in Scandinavia (until recently) and elsewhere do the same - com and co.uk are the two major amazon hubs. My father sells some old books as well (he was a publisher earlier in life and still has some stock), and those two sites are the key ones he’s had sales through.

That obviously stops now. No way I’m paying extra for importing from the UK.

8726

The question is how much, pre-Brexit, Amazon UK was shipping to the continent? If it was a large amount, then I expect job cuts at the UK distribution centers, because EU orders are going to drop like a cannonball. At the same time, Amazon will set up more distribution centers on the continent.

8727

I ordered quite a lot from Amazon and had it shipped to the Netherlands. Prices were very competitive. That stops now.

8728

Hard to say with any certainty as the accounts for the UK entity don’t break down turnover by business segment or geography as they’re supposed to, and I very much doubt the parent company discloses that sort of info.