Jeff B.

Amazon Will Stumble, Just Like Every Other Retail Company

You know, I seem to recall that during the height of the dot com bubble bursting masacre, there were a number of famous pundits, analysts & "experts" who predicted that Amazon would not be around much longer. They were doomed, so the story went.
Here we are years later, and Amazon is still around, gaining ground, and getting better all the time. What do they have that the other companies you mentioned do not? A few key things: An excellent shopping experience, the best prices around, a very wide selection, and so on. They are not perfect, but they are the best retail model around, and until somebody comes up with a better one (eBay just seems to get worse & worse...) Amazon will still be the leader. I think we are in the midst of psychological bashing orgy, where great companies like Starbucks, Amazon, and CAT are viewed as near the end of their rope. Just wait. They'll still be here in ten years, and all the pundits will hope the old negative articles get buried deeply somewhere.