This was more about when Amazon was starting up (eg before Prime or slightly after it) than the last few years. Nobody expects it to die at this point. Also I said "quite profitable" not "profitable" ;)

> What's more, Amazon retail would be pretty wildly profitable, relative to the typical margins of retail, if Amazon stopped dumping billions of dollars every quarter into continuous expansion of its logistics capabilities.

Well, this is falsifiable, but it hasn't been tested, so I dunno.