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‘Tis the season of giving… and apparently, Amazon thinks schools should get double the price on supplies. 😅

• You can’t 10× with your setup, here’s why 🛠️

• Is Amazon really charging schools double? 💸

• Amazon eyes $10B stake in OpenAI 🤖

• Fast cash for Amazon sellers 💳

BLACK MARKET

How Amazon ‘tricks’ schools into overpaying

Did you know school districts account for 70% of local government spending on Amazon?

Fewer staff, tighter timelines, and the pain of old-school bidding make Amazon Business’ “click, buy, done” pitch hard to resist.

But behind the convenience, The American Prospect warns it’s quietly conning schools out of their budgets.

📊 The pricing problem no one sees

A report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) uncovered huge price gaps for identical products, raising red flags about inflated pricing.

A few examples:

• Amazon Basics tape dispensers cost $9.08 in Needham, MA, but $17.99 in Charleston, SC

• Pittsburgh Schools paid $57.99 per case of Kleenex, while Denver Schools paid $36.91 for the same item

Smaller, understaffed districts are easy targets, and Amazon Business looks like the “easy button” even when it’s secretly more expensive.

💡 The real cost of “easy”

Amazon says the criticism misses the mark. The company argued that schools can set price caps, find local and diverse sellers, and walk away from contracts at any time.

And to be fair, some districts already have.

If you sell school supplies on Amazon: Do you think the marketplace helps districts save, or does it quietly work against them?

TOGETHER WITH THREECOLTS

You can’t 10× your business on a broken stack

You’re surviving Q4. You’re hitting your targets, but it’s chaos.

Thirty days of stress, spreadsheets, and disconnected tools that barely hold together.

❌ You can’t scale that. 

❌ You can’t hire a VA to manage five different apps.

❌ You’ve hit the ceiling of what your current setup can handle.

To grow, you might think you just need more tools. But no. 

You just need a better system.

Seller 365 is the unified operating system for your Amazon business.

It’s the all-in-one software bundle that scales with you, from your first sale to your first million and beyond.

Sourcing, accounting, repricing, reimbursements, and more. Every app you need, connected and working together.

This is what you graduate to when you’re ready to stop juggling and start building.

BITES OF THE WEEK

• Optimum Octave: Eight top marketing agencies for 2026 driving conversions, retention, and measurable online growth.

• Social Media in Focus: Read these key insights, including YouTube and Facebook gains, Instagram Reels decline, and LinkedIn competition intensifies significantly.

• Reels On FIre: Instagram launches Reels on Amazon Fire TV, taking short-form content to living rooms.

• 2026 eCom Trends: AI personalization, omnichannel, creators, sustainability, and storytelling all dominate ecommerce growth.

AMAZON NEWS

OpenAI could get a $10B boost from Amazon

What happens when one of Big Tech’s biggest retailers targets the world’s top AI lab?

BWorld Online reported that Amazon is in talks to invest billions in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

🚀 The deal on the table

Big numbers, big implications, even if discussions remain “very fluid” and far from finalized:

• Amazon reportedly considering $10B investment

• Talks could value OpenAI at $500B+

• OpenAI is also laying the groundwork for a $1T IPO

• Discussions remain “very fluid” and not finalized

⚖️ Winning deals for both sides

This isn’t just cash, it’s infrastructure chess:

• OpenAI may tap Amazon’s Trainium chips, competing with Nvidia and Google

• Amazon could gain closer access to OpenAI models

• Enterprise ChatGPT sales to Amazon are reportedly being explored

• Integration into Amazon’s AI shopping tools remains unclear

If this goes through, OpenAI becomes a rare AI platform courted by rivals, not controlled by one.

For Amazon, it’s a hedge in the AI arms race; for OpenAI, it’s leverage and scale as AI spending explodes across retail, cloud, and commerce.

And yes, maybe your ads will soon show up in ChatGPT like any other marketplace.

CASH CORNER

Sellers get real-time lines of credit

YOU can now have a faster, smarter way to access capital. 

Lending startup Slope, backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and JPMorgan Chase, is partnering with Amazon to offer lines of credit directly through Seller Central.

🚀 Seamless, AI-driven credit

This program is for sellers with at least one year in business and $100K+ in annual revenue.

• Apply in minutes using Amazon performance data

• AI underwrites in real time, factoring in cash flow and sales performance

• Lines of credit start at 8.99% APR with flexible 3–12 month terms

• Complements existing third-party financing, which mostly serves smaller sellers

📊 Why it matters

Independent sellers account for over 60% of Amazon’s sales, making smooth cash flow essential.

• Real-time, data-driven approvals cut reliance on traditional banks.

• Early trials show applications growing 300% week over week.

• The program expands Amazon’s seller support while opening a major new market for Slope.

By making financing fairer, faster, and more integrated, it helps sellers grow inventory, scale operations, and compete smarter on Amazon.

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