I don't think there is anything wrong with them trying to leverage the brand into something more, but I think they have lost focus, and are hurting the very brand they seek to leverage.
I used to love Amazon - I would shop there exclusively for books. I even liked it when the opened the music store, I could at last buy my CD's and books at the same time - so what if a few of the books cracked some of the CD's in a shipment?
Then they went wild... over time, I grew also to think of them more of a K-mart that a cool bookstore. The prices seemed to creep up a little (that may well be an unfounded statement, but remember we are talking appearances here). I tried out the Auction site - keyword searches seem to return almost random results (i.e. entries that do not even contain the keyword I typed).
So, the last CD/DVD order I placed was from 800.com - free shipping, and 800.com actually had a CD Amazon didn't. Fatbrain is now the first place I look for a book.
By trying to grab everything, they have lost a sense of quality and focus that made them unique.
They have suffered... (Score:2)
I used to love Amazon - I would shop there exclusively for books. I even liked it when the opened the music store, I could at last buy my CD's and books at the same time - so what if a few of the books cracked some of the CD's in a shipment?
Then they went wild... over time, I grew also to think of them more of a K-mart that a cool bookstore. The prices seemed to creep up a little (that may well be an unfounded statement, but remember we are talking appearances here). I tried out the Auction site - keyword searches seem to return almost random results (i.e. entries that do not even contain the keyword I typed).
So, the last CD/DVD order I placed was from 800.com - free shipping, and 800.com actually had a CD Amazon didn't. Fatbrain is now the first place I look for a book.
By trying to grab everything, they have lost a sense of quality and focus that made them unique.