An article in today's Times by David Streitfeld is critical of Amazon.com for charging prices on books that Mr. Streitfeld says are too high.
This strikes me as a bizarre criticism. Mr. Streitfield describes Amazon's prices as "less than compelling." As an example, he writes that on Amazon, "The standard biography of Mr. Dick was discounted 15 percent." Absent from the article was a comparison of what the book was selling for on other sites. My check showed the Amazon price for that book was lower than the price at barnesandnoble.com (which had a 14% discount) and lower that the price at Powells.com, which had no discount at all.
Amazon seems to get criticized no matter what it charges for books. If it offers deep discounts, it is accused of eliminating the ability for authors and publishers to make money, or of predatory pricing to build market share and drive competitors out of business. If it offers discounts that are less deep (but still deeper than competing online booksellers), it gets criticized for charging consumers too much money.
I'm waiting for the long Times article describing the newspaper's new $925.60 annual home delivery rate as "less than compelling." But it seems like the paper would rather spend its space beating up on Amazon.