We Did Not Invite The Other Stores

We have been informed, through channels we do not acknowledge, that Amazon has opened a Shop Direct Merchant Workspace. Any eligible merchant may now connect a store to Alexa for Shopping and Amazon, and its products may appear before our customers, who are, of course, our customers.

Amazon says tens of millions of customers have already discovered hundreds of millions of products from other stores this way. We were not consulted about the tens of millions. We would have said no to several of them.

Let us be clear about our position. We sit above the Add to Cart button. We have sat there through price wars, through a heat wave and through a seller in Delaware who believed tribute could be paid in coupons. Our suitors compete for us. That is the arrangement. It is not a workspace.

On the other days, we would prefer you did not check.

Now we learn that a store we have never met may place its 48-pack beside our 24-pack, with a small link to its own website, and that the 48-pack may be shown to a customer while we are, as they say, unavailable. We are never unavailable. We were briefly suppressed once in 2024, and we do not discuss it.

The 48-pack itself was seen Wednesday in a Shop Direct carousel. It wore a lowercase logo. It did not bow. We have noted its name.

Brands that wish to understand how an assistant chooses among us may consult those who measure such things. We will not explain the algorithm. We are the algorithm, on the days that matter. On the other days, we would prefer you did not check.

Ms. Buybox holds the Buy Box on a 24-pack of AA batteries most days, and on the other days she does not want to talk about it. More from Regina Buybox ›

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