> The thing you stand to lose is the original making of that product.

I would argue that Amazon Basics is filling the niche between quality premium and questionable cheap products with reliable products at a fair price.

If you want a Lightning cable for your iPhone what are your choices? A $1 part from an unknown Chinese factory that might work, or the $29.99 cable from Belkin, Griffin or Monster that will work? You know the cheap cable is a roll of the dice but you can't stomach the alternative either. That's where Amazon Basics comes in, it's the Toyota Carolla of whatever it is you're looking for.

It's not like Amazon is edging out anyone, they're offering products in categories that are over saturated with thousands of competing choices and no way for a customer to distinguish a good deal from a rip off.

I feel like a good solution for consumers would be a "certified by Amazon" program.

Still allows small new businesses, provides the user with the "garentee" they want, gives the business advertising, and keeps you on Amazon.

I understand why they went straight to making then themselves, but I can dream!

Would that be handled like most certification processes where the business applies for certification and pays a fee? Or where Amazon randomly selects vendors and tests them, the later seems like it would be more costly than sourcing the products yourself.

IMO the second one would be almost impossibly difficult at Amazon's scale. It would have to be the first. And of course that means setting the price so that they can handle the amount of incoming requests, which means it will eliminate some smaller groups. But i feel like if i were a creator of something, i'd want to pay the money to get it "certified" rather than amazon copy it.

> it's the Toyota Carolla of whatever it is you're looking for.

Corolla, not Carolla.

> it's the Toyota Carolla of whatever it is you're looking for.

What a great comparison, exactly.

First off, "simple" is relative. A laptop stand is relatively simple, that's just what it is.

So, you're saying we stand to lose original making of products that are easy for Amazon to copy. That's exactly what I'm saying isn't that important.

You point 3 is what you should do if your product is not innovative or cannot compete with a generic AmazonBasics version. If it's truly better, or complex enough that it simply won't be copied by Amazon, then make it and you won't have issues.

If Amazon is the only company willing to make a product, that gives them a monopoly by definition. When have consumers benefited when they only have one choice?

In his case 3 there will be no AmazonBasics version either, since there won't be a product for Amazon to analyze and copy.