The UK has long be feted as a nation of shopkeepers. We have some great retailers with strong brands. Amazon came to the UK to take on one of the most advanced and efficient retail sectors in the world. The sector has luckily avoided nationalisation and the more extreme forms of government intervention. As a result we have avoided rationing of food and clothes. Meanwhile the NHS rations non urgent health care by long waiting lists. Councils and government limit the supply of nationalised roads to keep drivers fuming in congestion,suffering peak hour road works and closures. You do not see Heathrow airport closing the main runway for repairs at the busiest time for landings during the day. We have plenty of choice of shops, with market leaders like Tesco and Next achieving fast growth and high standards. We do not have a bread shortage, though state regulated water monopolies give us a water shortage.
Nonetheless Amazon has gone from a start up US business selling books in 1995 to having 30% of the UK on line shopping market today. 85% of all UK consumers use Amazon for some of their purchases. It is true Tesco dominates in on line groceries, with Sainsbury and Asda also important. Next Directory is a great business success selling clothes and household goods. . Amazon has only been able to make such a dent in the general retail market place by the excellence of its technology, the ease of access and use, and the high quality of delivery and service. Some more traditional UK retailers have struggled to come up with a good enough on line offer to compete.
Amazon has advanced its competitive foothold in the UK by being fast and flexible in understanding customer wishes and responding to customer needs. It has greatly expanded the range of what it sells, to give customers maximum choice at the click of a mouse. It has two mega warehouses and many other distribution points so it has the stock to rush goods to people as soon as they buy them. It expanded its delivery system at record pace when covid lockdowns caused many more people to want to shop on line. When other retailers were having to limit our access to their shops to conform with government health advice, and were rationing access on line for lack of capacity, Amazon seized the opportunity for major expansion.
Great companies listen to all their customers and seek to cater for all of them. I myself as an Amazon user refuse to pay for Amazon Prime. Amazon tried to shock people like me into paying the subscription by increasing the delivery charges. Clearly enough of us objected and withdrew custom, as they soon stopped that and said sorry . Tesco who built my loyalty to buy many of my household basics from them through sensible price promotions and good whole basket discounts went too far, only offering a discount on a much larger shop than I needed. They have decided not to bother to win me back. It is easy to lose customers, difficult to get them to return.
Amazon handle complaints and returns well. They keep your retail history to make re ordering so easy and to remind you what you bought and what it cost. They have built total global sales to over last year’s $775 bn, branching out into crucial new business areas in digital technology. They generate an impressive $500,000 of sales per employee and now employ 1.6 million people worldwide. They daily strive to improve, looking to provide better value and quality with everything they do. They adapt and adopt new technologies to get things to people cheaper and faster. Their on line shop is very accessible, making it easy to choose and to specify where and when you want it delivered. Some other retail sites are much harder work trying to get through all the stages to finally complete a transaction, or even to see the goods and read their design details and specification.
The UK public sector has so much to learn about great on line access and great customer service. State computers threaten you if you cannot make them work, often fail to offer choices you like and are out to serve their owners, not their clients. The public sector does not think about your convenience but theirs. It does not ask what we the customers would like, but what they are willing to provide. They want to stress the rules. Amazon stresses the convenience and the product they can supply.
Amazon knows it can only hold its current success and expand its sales if it continues to improve daily what it supplies, keeps its prices keen, and sustains fast deliveries. There is a good UK retail sector left, ready to take back some of that lost market share. It is competition which drives the innovation, the quality and the better service. The Uk public sector usually insists on monopoly provision, backed up by taxes, rules, and fines to make people conform with what it is prepared to supply.
The nationalised railway concentrates on building a new line that will be more than a decade delayed and billions over budget. It could spend that money on improving punctuality and capacity on main routes which is what travellers want. If Amazon ran trains they would arrive on time and would use the latest technology for signals and safety. The nationalised roads concentrate on making it more difficult for vehicles to get about, pursuing a policy of wanting contraction in the vehicle fleet and in usage of the network. The nationalised Post office fails to capitalise through its network of counters on the demand for in person banking and services as other business automate too much. The Post Office prefers to lose lots of money and claim a grant from taxpayers.
We need more of the Amazon touch in our public services. Put customers first. Always ask what they want. Look to use latest technology in a customer friendly and accessible way. Use staff to deliver the service to people promptly and efficiently. We could save billions and cheer us all up as government turned from being a bad hectoring presence to being our friendly supporter.
August 16, 2026
Amazon Prime is a way of hooking customers to a regular direct debit. I know an old man who only discovered he’d subscribed to Prime when he looked at his bank statement.
As soon as Amazon attains a monopoly in any market it increases prices. It needs to be broken up to preserve a free market.
Reply You do not have to use it. Amazon makes clear when you buy something if it is with Prime or not.
August 16, 2026
Amazon Prime is infact good value as it removes delivery charges which can be recouped after 2 or 3 purchases monthly. I needed to replace the number plates on my car and went to Halfords and the fixing kits were out of stock
I looked on Amazon. £1.99 delivered next day.
You also forgot to mention it gives access to Prime TV. Some very good back catalogue movies and dramas there.
Much better value than the £200 per month council tax which gives me very little.
The public sector and the government as a whole have no concept of value for money, their overriding ethos is to feather their own nests.
August 16, 2026
More interested in finding ways to fine you for parking 2 mins longer than allowed, putting a wheel in an empty bus lane, spitting a fly out of you mouth, putting the wrong rubbish in a bin or pouring a bit of left over coffee down a drain. All those wages, benefits and gold plated pensions to pay out.
August 16, 2026
Yes it means one you pay for prime you are probably better to use Amazon for the next delivery rather than looking elsewhere.
I see that I and my family order about 159 items PA. I have never had any problems anything faulty was promptly refunded or replaced thing that went wrong after the return period that should have lasted longer were refunded or replaced. Once you manage to get through to someone they are very fair in their dealings I find.
Other benefits too.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G6LDPN7YJHYKH2J6
I quite like kindle unlimited too and the pressreader app (this I get free from the state library service – so I do get something from the state this and an the occasion pee in a public loo if you can find one still open in the UK). And now I even get my state pension and my. Oyster card linked to my railcard for tube discounts.
Alas we do not get decent defence systems, law and order, social services, border control and the states net zero religion triples out electricity bill and over taxation and red tape wrecks jobs the economy.
August 16, 2026
R to R
I would slightly disagree JR.
They may make it ‘known’, but I would question if it is ‘clear’. It is a bit like the old fashioned ‘small print’ 😉
But yes, we so have a choice and, I do avoid Amazon where I can, even if it costs a little more.
August 16, 2026
Amazon are very sneaky in the way they promote ‘Prime’ It’s easy to unintentionally join it.
Wasn’t Amazon criticised heavily at one time by the media and politicians. For paying pitiful wages?
August 16, 2026
The public sector first need to stop punching the public in the face with things they do not want but have to pay for. Things that often do net harms – Covid vaccines, Covid Lockdowns, Net Zero rip off energy, phone alarms to scare people about fires, the BBC propaganda outfit, the many soft “loans” for worthless degrees even for people from overseas mainly not ever repaid… then we need a level playing field between the private sector and the state sector in healthcare, schooling, universities, transport, banking, housing… why should I have to pay 4 times over if I choose to use private schools or a private medical insurance? Why should some people get half price housing and others not?
August 16, 2026
Yes this is one of my favourite sayings to the wife-what if Amazon ran
the NHS,
the BBC,
the local Council
the trains
HMRC
DVLA?
But it would need competition, which would be perfectly possible in all of these.
Public service is pathetically slow in using technology.
August 16, 2026
Amazon and others would win the no-real contest.
August 16, 2026
Good morning.
Council Tax.
Here is a tax whereby I, as a consumer, would like to pick and choose which services the Council offer me. If I require my bins emptied once a week because I have a large family, then I should be allowed to have this offered as an extra service, at an additional cost to me. Same with schools, adult care and so on. Why should I pay for services I do not consume ?
We should also think about putting Councils’ out to private tender / franchise. A management company could buy contracts of Council employees much like they do in the Private Sector. They can then run the Council for a period of say, 10 years, receiving as payment for services given in the form of Council Tax. I, as a consumer, would be sent a list of services I would like to use and be charged for plus, any addition contributions to assist those less fortunate. You get this all the time at checkouts in supermarkets and restaurants where, they ask you if you wish to donate to some charity and so on.
What I am proposing is, we introduce a ‘feedback loop’ much like we have in the Private Sector where, if you do no provide the services and / or goods people would like for the price they are willing to pay, then you do not make any money.
Simple.
PS Let us hope this missive gets posted today 😉
August 16, 2026
So John, you appear to be suggesting the Country needs a management capable of the simple act, of ‘managing’ What it doesn’t need is political religious ideologues that lack real word experience and ability trying to direct . People pushing their own personal ego and agendas before managing the Country for ‘All’ it people.
Create the framework for earning, a strong economy, having ‘earned’ money behind any wish list before letting personal aspirations getting in the way