Jack Nekhala still orders from Amazon two or three times a week. His daughter needs bikes, scooters, the rotating cast of childhood equipment, and the marketplace delivers them with the frictionless logic that made his own business viable, until it didn't. In late 2024, weeks before the holiday rush, Amazon deactivated the seller account for Bed Scrunchie, the company Nekhala built with partner Michael Nusinkis. The channel had powered roughly $4.5 million in revenue that year. Its removal collapsed the business, saddled the founders with debt, and unwound nearly two decades of financial planning for their young families. Nekhala calls the experience life-altering. He also calls his continued shopping habit crazy.
The default is structural, not sentimental
Nekhala does not shop on Amazon because he has forgiven the platform. He shops there because the platform has rendered alternatives operationally expensive. Payment credentials, shipping addresses, purchase history, all sit inside a single account. Adding an item to an existing order takes fewer steps than creating a new login elsewhere. Nusinkis describes it as muscle memory: need something, open Amazon. A recent survey of consumers in the United States and Europe found three-quarters buy from the marketplace at least once a month. The behavior is not loyalty; it is infrastructure.
Advertising feeds the machine it cannot escape
Before the account shutdown, Bed Scrunchie ran a national television infomercial directing viewers to its own website, where the product listed for $39.99. On Amazon, the same item sold for $44.95. Every time the infomercial aired, Amazon sales spiked. Customers discovered the product on television or the brand's site, then migrated to the marketplace to compare options, read reviews, and complete the purchase, often at the higher price. Research indicates up to three-quarters of Amazon shoppers begin their product searches there. Nekhala summarizes the dynamic bluntly: all advertising roads lead back to Amazon.
The product stays, the founders leave
Months of disputes preceded the termination. Amazon alleged patent infringement and review-policy violations; the founders dispute both. The account is gone, but the listing remains. Bed Scrunchie now sells wholesale to a third-party distributor that lists the product on Amazon for $49.99. Nekhala estimates the marketplace still generates 70 to 80 percent of total sales. Shoppers see the brand name and assume they are buying from the creators. They are not. The inventors have been replaced by a reseller at a higher price, while the platform that removed them continues to collect the traffic. Nekhala says the company would prefer to sell direct for less. The structure does not allow it.