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I wonder if Buffett would invest in a business which didn't increase their prices when they knew demand was going to spike.

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Warren Buffett has said Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is a great businessman[0]. It is worth reiterating what Jeff Bezos thinks about price gouging: “There are two kinds of companies: those that try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.”

Perhaps you will argue that increasing the storage cost for fulfillment by Amazon[1] is an example of price gouging. I will let smarter people answer why it is OK for Amazon.com to charge more during the holiday shopping season. I'd imagine the simple reason is greater volume of transactions. However, with the way Amazon.com does storage, a 33% hike looks strange.

[0] “He’s a great businessman and a good guy, too.” http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/09/20/offering-tip...

[1] Currently $0.48 per cubic foot per month Jan-Oct and $0.64 for Nov-Dec. http://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/pricing.htm

could this be linked to the fact that amazon needs a lot more storage for its own uses in november and december to hold all the extra product they will shift in the run up to xmas, hence the price increases because this is more in line with what they would be paying elsewhere.

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