mraleigh - 9:01 pm on Jun 15, 2006 (gmt 0)

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Books are easy - they aren't too heavy to ship and the price point is at a point where a small shipping charge isn't a major detractor. Consider, however, a case of canned corn which weighs 20 pounds but only has a price point of $6. How does a customer justify a $20 shipping charge ($.99 per pount or $8.99 per shipment) for $6 worth of product? So Amazon offers free shipping to mitigate this. As long as they eat the shipping charge it might work but how long can you stay profitable without charging for shipping? Surely this is the most expensive part of the equation.