Amazon's monopoly is Armageddon for retail industry, retail analyst says
With thousands of deals reaching consumers during Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Prime Day, and the company’s stock price closely approaching $1000, Burt Flickinger of the Strategic Resource Group not only thinks Amazon is the most important company in America, but will cause a ‘retail Ice Age’ of unprecedented proportion.
“Amazon’s Armageddon and it’s going to lay waste to retail beyond retail Ice Age, it’s going to be Darwinian destruction, unprecedented proportions,” Flickinger told FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney.
Flickinger says that the e-commerce company’s market dominance has become an industry monopoly, and it’s time for government to intervene.
“Definitely time to rein it in with Robinson-Patman Antitrust Laws equal proportion and fair pricing because the branded vendors could get really hit, Chet Brooks already sued Amazon for antitrust reasons and Amazon said unfair government giveaways in terms of subsidies, tax abatements, really have to watch out for predatory pricing and anti-competitive practices.”
As online shopping becomes more popular and drives out physical stores, Flickinger predicts the retail industry will start seeing a record number of bankruptcies.
“Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman could go bankrupt, Bon-Ton, food, drug, discount, dollar stores, specialty category dominant warehouse clubs across the board, nationally and internationally, see a record amount of bankruptcies, shopping center failures, and for government implications, sales tax revenue will plummet and there’ll be massive public sector layouts,” he said.
Amazon is not without its own expansion stretch marks as it faces distribution problems, such as “not enough trucks, not enough drivers,” but Flickinger tells investors to hold onto Amazon stock for now.
“Amazon is going to $1100 probably $1150, I’d hold it for a few to two, three years and then be out by the beginning of the new decade in 2020.”
