Merry Christmas, Walmart, from your Friends at Amazon

In an early round of what is sure to be a slugfest, Amazon has decided to use its own warchest this holiday season to discount the price of some products sold by both companies.

You can read about it here. But the practice reportedly has upset third-party vendors who don’t want to see outside discounts applied to their products without permission.

Why? My guess is it dawned on them a long ago that margins become even more marginal in a world where the one true king of online retailing is Jeff Bezos. There is a way for vendors to opt out of the discounts, but is this perhaps Amazon’s way of telling suppliers to choose a side?

So there it is, America. You can tell your kids we now live in a world where Walmart’s suppliers are trying to protect them from so-called unfair competition.

This is especially ironic given the “Walmart effect” on Main Street businesses.  There are a lot of failed mom and pop business owners who must now be enjoying the giant Arkansas retailer’s plight.

Wonder how many of them own Amazon stock?