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Re:Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan by Manuel_D on Thursday November 24, 2022 @08:31PM (#33738144)
Isn't the chain: (thief) -> (fence) -> (Amazon) -> (customer)? If a fence sells his wares in a bazaar, the bazaar is the fence? No, the fence is the fence the bazaar is the marketplace.
Re:Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan by lupire on Thursday November 24, 2022 @08:34PM (#33738160)
If Amazon is commingling inventory and Fulfilled By Amazon, it's not a bazaar, it is the fence.
Re:Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan by codetrotter on Thursday November 24, 2022 @08:38PM (#33738186)
They should rename it Fenced By Amazon
Re:Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan by tromp on Friday November 25, 2022 @04:48AM (#33740850)
Fullfencement by Amazon?!
Re:Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan by thaumasiotes on Friday November 25, 2022 @12:10AM (#33739426)
There's actually an interesting point here. We can easily imagine a scenario where someone steals a bicycle, lists it for sale on Amazon, and ships it off to the customer themselves. Amazon was just a billboard in that case, kind of.

A fence is providing a few semiseparate services:

1. They will buy stolen goods. You get a lower price, but you don't have to face nasty questions like "how did you get this?"

2. They may assume the risk of policing. If you stole something surprisingly important and it gets thoroughly investigated, the fence goes to jail, and you don't.

3. They locate people who want to buy stolen goods. It's easy to conceive of this as a service they provide for their own benefit, after buying your stuff (#1), but in reality you can't really do either without the other one.

Amazon commingling inventory lets it provide service #2. The police can establish that a stolen object was delivered to an Amazon customer, but if it came from a commingled pool, they can't establish who sold it.

But Amazon's whole concept is to provide service(s) 1 and 3. This would make it fairly strongly parallel to a fence who, when the police show up, lets them know where to find you. But even then Amazon is still doing the largest part of fencing; usually the police don't show up. The hard part is locating the customers, and that's what Amazon does.

Re:Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan by MagicMoonlight on Friday November 25, 2022 @12:22PM (#33744656)
It's not fencing if you don't know it is stolen.
Re:Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan by tomxor on Thursday November 24, 2022 @11:51PM (#33739316)
An even more perverse chain is: (thief) -> (fence) -> (Amazon) -> (delivery) -> (thief) -> (fence) -> (Amazon) ...

At least it's Amazon losing money then rather than Amazon benefiting from crime against competitors.

Re:Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan by wizofaus on Friday November 25, 2022 @12:16AM (#33739465)
But what's the cathedral?
Re:Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan by wrasee on Friday November 25, 2022 @05:49AM (#33741155)
Perhaps the definition is that to be a fence you have had to buy the good and take ownership (and responsibility) for the goods yourself. You then resell them to pass on ownership. Otherwise you're just providing services, whether that's storage, transport or whatever. So do Amazon take ownership, or do they just sell them on your behalf?