So far, so meh...

That crack in the earth that happened a couple months ago? It's not any wider than it was. My whatnots are still on the shelf. The sun came up in the East this morning.

And the business with Amex hasn't gone away. Not yet, anyway.

Those thinking that Amazon's marriage with Amex would spell the end of the product-for-points side of the Membership Rewards program are not correct at this juncture. Some vendors actually report INCREASED sales in October and November. How about that?

It's early--WAY too early--to be making longer-term pronouncements. The participant base is just now getting comfortable with the whole Amazon thing and I believe December will be a bellwether about the future of the alliance. But for the moment--and ONLY for the moment--things are as they were, more or less.

Now, I cannot speak for the electronics companies. It was their value proposition that Amazon threatened the most from the outset. Perhaps Sony, or Bose, or other suppliers are seeing decreases in their business. We may never know. We also don't know about funding levels for catalogs that Amex mails to their Membership Rewards members. 4Q was pretty locked in, and it was always 1Q 2011 and beyond that was uncertain.

But for the moment the Bull in the China Shop hasn't moved. Everything is still in one piece and is as it was before. December and January will tell us a lot, and prepare us for what happens next. I'll be up early, and facing East, to see if anything changes...


Pete