Comment on Amazon Artificially Discounting Items $0.01 Below the Free Shipping Limit

• Takumidesh@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I mean, non profits exist. Of course it’s not the case for Amazon, but you don’t need to profit in order to exist as a company, and people still get to make money.

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  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Non profit doesn’t mean no profit.

    Non profits make enough profit to pay their employees, or they get money from other sources. They still make money.

    For a company to succeed, there must be profit, or have an outside source of funding.

    You cannot pay rent with revenue and no profit.

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    • Takumidesh@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Non profit means no profit. Salaries, rent, etc are not profit.

      That is fundamentally what profit is, revenue less expenses.

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      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        This is why you’re wrong

        Profit is revenue minus cost of goods

        NET profit or net income is after expenses unrelated to cost of goods.

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    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Heh, “revenue is not profit”.

      Non-profits are specifically not allowed to have revenue in excess of expenses. If they take in too much money, the excess has to be put back in for operational expenses in the future, an endowment or something like that.

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      • Crassus@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        (In the Netherlands) Non profits are allowed to make profit, they just need to pay tax above a certain amount of net profit. The thing that makes them “non-profit” is that they are prohibited to pay out that profit. Hence there is no incentive for (excessive) profit.

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      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Yes, nonprofits in the United States can earn a profit, but they must reinvest it back into the organization. Nonprofits are tax-exempt and are formed to serve the public, so they can’t distribute profits to individuals. How nonprofits make money

        Donations and fundraising: Nonprofits raise money through donations and fundraising events 
        

        Earned income: Nonprofits generate income through activities related to their mission, such as:

        Selling merchandise 
        

        Charging fees for services Renting out space Selling food

        How nonprofits use their profits

        Program growth: Nonprofits use profits to grow their programs, hire staff, and upgrade technology
        Sustainability: Nonprofits use profits to build reserves for long-term sustainability
        Fundraising: Nonprofits use profits to attract more support through fundraising efforts 
        

        Restrictions on nonprofit profits

        Nonprofits can't distribute profits to individuals
        Nonprofits must reinvest all surplus funds back into the organization
        Nonprofits must ensure that their revenue is directly related to their mission 
        

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  • tpihkal@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    All companies have to earn a profit, not just to pay for the expense of the goods plus all of the overhead, but also to be able to reinvest and grow. There’s a difference between earning a livable wage while the company as a whole remains poor and earning barely enough to live on while the investors pull in massive gains year over year.

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    • Takumidesh@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      A company taking excess revenue and reinvesting it isn’t profit.

      There may be phrases with the word profit in them that include that value, but the general accepted definition is profit is the money that gets distributed to the stakeholders after expenses are covered. This is things like dividends for publicly traded companies, or for private companies, it’s just straight up paying out the cash to stakeholders.

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• ricecake@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  What do you think profit is? It seems like you’re conflicting profit with income.

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  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Profit is revenue - cost of goods.

    If you make a widget and it costs you $100 to make, and you sell it for $110, you have $10 profit. Then you have all the other expenses that it takes to run a business, lets say that’s $200.

    Your revenue is $110

    You profit is $10

    Expenses: $200

    You NET profit (AKA Net Income) is $-90

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