CNBC has a story pointing out that as Amazon expands its retail footprint, it is having an impact on its Amazon Web Services business - and exhibit “A” is Kroger, which is using Microsoft and Google for its cloud computing needs, spending millions of dollars with those two companies.
According to the story, “Kroger is joining the likes of Wal-Mart and Target in finding other vendors to handle their massive workloads for their digital and e-commerce offerings. Alphabet said in its latest earnings release that Kohl's has moved to Google's cloud.”
"For obvious reasons competitively, it doesn't make sense for us to do a ton to help grow that business for them," Chris Hjelm, Kroger's chief information officer, told CNBC in an interview.
And GeekWire puts it this way: “Among retail companies that are watching Amazon drive a steamroller over their businesses, there’s a growing sentiment that there’s no reason to continue bankrolling that operation. AWS provides nearly all of the operating profit for the larger retail corporation, helping fund its (for now) money-losing international expansion and giving it cover with Wall Street.”
According to the story, “Kroger is joining the likes of Wal-Mart and Target in finding other vendors to handle their massive workloads for their digital and e-commerce offerings. Alphabet said in its latest earnings release that Kohl's has moved to Google's cloud.”
"For obvious reasons competitively, it doesn't make sense for us to do a ton to help grow that business for them," Chris Hjelm, Kroger's chief information officer, told CNBC in an interview.
And GeekWire puts it this way: “Among retail companies that are watching Amazon drive a steamroller over their businesses, there’s a growing sentiment that there’s no reason to continue bankrolling that operation. AWS provides nearly all of the operating profit for the larger retail corporation, helping fund its (for now) money-losing international expansion and giving it cover with Wall Street.”
- KC's View:
- I approve. I’ve always argued that businesses ought to play this kind of hardball - it is a fight for every dollar of revenue and profit, for every customer, for every bit of share of stomach.
