I run a print-on-demand company, dropshipping for merchants. For me to deliver a product next day (or even two-day) costs many tens of dollars. The fact that I can buy a $7.95 item on Amazon and have it profitably delivered in a day or two is absolutely incredible. It should be lauded, not punished.
Is it profitable though, or is this a loss leader to get more people shopping at Amazon?
That is, if Amazon didn't offer it, I may check out Walmart or Overstock or somewhere else, and find other things at good prices.
Same for the other stages of delivery. They've already got something set up to move large amounts of goods between their warehouses to where the delivery vans are loaded. The marginal cost of one more item should be low.
When they have that kind of distribution/delivery infrastructure set up and essentially providing an almost continuous delivery pipeline, I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense to ask whether or not an individual item was profitable.
I don't even trust Amazon for buying books any more. Of the last batch I bought, about 30% have blotchy, blurry font, making me suspect they're knock-offs printed from imaging the original. Often it's the same imprint but one book has crisp clean lettering and the next has varying fuzzy blur around every letter.
Except I never asked for everything to cost more in exchange for getting it next day.
Imagine if everything cost $20 more but all came with next-hour shipping. That's a miracle of logistics but it's a terrible consumer experience. And forcing that price onto people should definitely be punished.
I haven't had the ability get next day shipping for a while. Anymore my order won't even ship for a few days. A little over a year ago next day or 2 day was the norm.