Prime Power: How Amazon squeezes the businesses behind its store

SEATTLE: For tens of millions of Americans, it is so routine that they don’t think twice. They want something — a whisk, diapers, that dog toy — and they turn to Amazon. They type the product’s name into Amazon’s website or app, scan the first few options and click buy. In a day or two, the purchase appears on their doorstep.

Amazon has transformed the small miracle of each delivery into an expectation of modern life. No car, no shopping list — no planning — required. But to make it all work, Amazon runs a machine that squeezes ever more money out of the hundreds of thousands of companies, from tiny startups to giant brands, that put the everything into Amazon’s Everything Store.