Is Amazon considered a vendor for First?
Per page 58 of the rulebook:
A. has a Federal Tax Identification number. In cases where the VENDOR is outside of the
United States, they must possess an equivalent form of registration or license with the
government of their home nation that establishes and validates their status as a legitimate
business licensed to operate within that country.
B. is not a “wholly owned subsidiary” of a FIRST Robotics Competition team or collection of
teams. While there may be some individuals affiliated with both a team and the VENDOR,
the business and activities of the team and VENDOR must be completely separable.
C. must be able to ship any general (i.e., non-FIRST unique) product within five business days
of receiving a valid purchase request. It is recognized that certain unusual circumstances
(such as 1,000 FIRST teams all ordering the same part at once from the same VENDOR)
may cause atypical delays in shipping due to backorders for even the largest VENDORS.
Such delays due to higher-than-normal order rates are excused.
D. should maintain sufficient stock or production capability to fill teams’ orders within a
reasonable period during the season (less than 1 week). (Note that this criterion may not
apply to custom-built items from a source that is both a VENDOR and a fabricator. For
example, a VENDOR may sell flexible belting that the team wishes to procure to use as
treads on their drive system. The VENDOR cuts the belting to a custom length from
standard shelf stock that is typically available, welds it into a loop to make a tread, and
ships it to a team. The fabrication of the tread takes the VENDOR two weeks. This would
be considered a FABRICATED ITEM, and the two-week ship time is acceptable.)
Alternately, the team may decide to fabricate the treads themselves. To satisfy this
criterion, the VENDOR would just have to ship a length of belting from shelf stock (i.e. a
COTS item) to the team within five business days and leave the welding of the cuts to the
team.
E. makes their products available to all FIRST Robotics Competition teams. A VENDOR must
not limit supply or make a product available to just a limited number of FIRST Robotics
Competition teams.
Amazon meets all of those items, to the best of my knowledge.
1 Like
Sigh too bad my school won’t approve amazon