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Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

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Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#91

Post by dazc »

joesmo wrote: post #60
freyr wrote: post #43

I've inadvertently purchased a lot of low quality junk from Amazon lately propped up by fake reviews and shady third-party dealers peddling counterfeit goods. If they want to sell me vitamins and food, they need to fix their brand. Are they a supermarket that is in control what they sell, or are they a back-alley bazaar that's strictly buyer-beware?

Be careful if you return too many of those shitty products, they will close your account, even if you have a Prime membership. Amazon is shady as fuck and an untrustworthy retailer. The way they treat employees is beyond atrocious. Amazon makes Walmart look ethical and honest in comparison.

There have been a few documented cases but for a business with many millions of customers I don't think it's a real issue?

My return rate is around average (I guess) and I've never had a problem.

The last incident is where I put the wrong sim card in a phone and couldn't get it out. Just return it I was told and the refund came through as soon as I had printed the label.

This is 100% the direct opposite of what would happen with any other UK retailer.

Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#92

Post by lfowles »

cgriswald wrote: post #15
dexwiz wrote: post #3

Most grocery stores have their own brands, even the small to medium regional stores. So this should not come as a surprise that a large store will develop its own brand. What I do want to see is the packaging. Most items are meant to be sat on shelves, and displayed to the consumers. But Amazon items won't need to sit on store shelves (just distribution centers) and don't need the packaging to sell themselves. Will A…

As a kid, the grocery store's generic brand came in yellow boxes with black letter that stated what was in the box (e.g. "Corn Flakes"). There were no other markings. I can't see Amazon letting a cereal box sit in front of someone while they eat and not try to sell them a Kindle.

AmazonBasics products don't do that, why would their generic cereal?

Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#93

Post by VLM »

dragonwriter wrote: post #54
mc32 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So long as they don't revive the defunct "No Frills" brand, maybe they'll have a chance. I don't know why store brands skimp on branding and presentation. All they need is one intern churning out design and keeping a fresh look, rather than a set it and forget it approach where you have the housebrand look the same way it did when it debuted even decades later. Maybe they worry about cannibalization into higher profi…

The point of a house brand in most supermarkets is to appeal to bargain-hunting buyers. The most important part of the branding, then, is to communicate that the product is no frills. Dated-looking branding probabky actually helps with that, which may be why even when store brands are new or updated, they are bith plain and dated-looking from the start. This also means that they don't really have a lot of reason to.k…

"plain and dated-looking"

Full on retro would be an interesting concept. Reusing box art from 1960, assuming its still in a vault somewhere, is cheaper and faster than trying to upgrade 2005 box art to 2016 current fads. And it would be kinda cool looking.

Two problems: Stealth inflation by shrinking package means the "one pound style" package will now be huge next to the current "one pound style" packages that are down to only 11 or so oz now. I suppose scaling in photoshop is pretty well understood. The other problem is the sports athlete on your 1961 Wheaties cereal box might have turned into a serial (cereal?) killer sometime in the last half century, need to research and censor some famous personalities.

Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#94

Post by gtk40 »

cgriswald wrote: post #15
dexwiz wrote: post #3

Most grocery stores have their own brands, even the small to medium regional stores. So this should not come as a surprise that a large store will develop its own brand. What I do want to see is the packaging. Most items are meant to be sat on shelves, and displayed to the consumers. But Amazon items won't need to sit on store shelves (just distribution centers) and don't need the packaging to sell themselves. Will A…

As a kid, the grocery store's generic brand came in yellow boxes with black letter that stated what was in the box (e.g. "Corn Flakes"). There were no other markings. I can't see Amazon letting a cereal box sit in front of someone while they eat and not try to sell them a Kindle.

Similar thing for "Price First" at Wal-Mart.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=price+first+walmart&FOR...

Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#95

Post by itgoon »

dmix wrote: post #2

This is how Standard Oil completely dominated their market, vertical integration brought prices so low no-one could compete. Once same-day delivery and/or drone delivery takes off I predict the grocery store market will start to look similar to retail music/book stores.

I doubt they can get shipping cheap enough to make much of a dent in local supermarkets. Music and books can be downloaded. Kitty litter, not so much.

Spend 10 minutes outside of a typical suburban grocery store and try to estimate the weight of everything coming out.

Will it be used? Sure. I think it's more likely that it will push grocery chains to start/improve their own delivery services. After all, they already have "distribution centers" all over the place.

Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#96

Post by hga »

gtk40 wrote: post #94
cgriswald wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a kid, the grocery store's generic brand came in yellow boxes with black letter that stated what was in the box (e.g. "Corn Flakes"). There were no other markings. I can't see Amazon letting a cereal box sit in front of someone while they eat and not try to sell them a Kindle.

Similar thing for "Price First" at Wal-Mart. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=price+first+walmart&FOR...

Must be a regional thing, for it's Great Value here in SW Missouri, where Wal-Mart opened its first big store in the '70s: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=great+value+walmart&FOR...

Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#97

Post by TorKlingberg »

freyr wrote: post #43

I've inadvertently purchased a lot of low quality junk from Amazon lately propped up by fake reviews and shady third-party dealers peddling counterfeit goods. If they want to sell me vitamins and food, they need to fix their brand. Are they a supermarket that is in control what they sell, or are they a back-alley bazaar that's strictly buyer-beware?

Yes, Amazon is good for books and electronics, but I'm getting really tired of low quality household goods. I don't even know if the reviews are fake, or if people are just uncritical and give five stars for junk.

Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#98

Post by gtk40 »

hga wrote: post #96
gtk40 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar thing for "Price First" at Wal-Mart. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=price+first+walmart&FOR...

Must be a regional thing, for it's Great Value here in SW Missouri, where Wal-Mart opened its first big store in the '70s: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=great+value+walmart&FOR...

We have both here, with Price First being even cheaper and with a smaller selection of items than Great Value.

Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#99

Post by zodPod »

cgriswald wrote: post #15
dexwiz wrote: post #3

Most grocery stores have their own brands, even the small to medium regional stores. So this should not come as a surprise that a large store will develop its own brand. What I do want to see is the packaging. Most items are meant to be sat on shelves, and displayed to the consumers. But Amazon items won't need to sit on store shelves (just distribution centers) and don't need the packaging to sell themselves. Will A…

As a kid, the grocery store's generic brand came in yellow boxes with black letter that stated what was in the box (e.g. "Corn Flakes"). There were no other markings. I can't see Amazon letting a cereal box sit in front of someone while they eat and not try to sell them a Kindle.

Walmart/Great Value has been heading toward this as well. For a while they had fancy images on their products now they're just stating what they are.

Re: Amazon will reportedly soon sell its own private-label groceries

#100

Post by brianwawok »

massysett wrote: post #88
freyr wrote: post #43

I've inadvertently purchased a lot of low quality junk from Amazon lately propped up by fake reviews and shady third-party dealers peddling counterfeit goods. If they want to sell me vitamins and food, they need to fix their brand. Are they a supermarket that is in control what they sell, or are they a back-alley bazaar that's strictly buyer-beware?

Unfortunately now you can't even dodge this by making sure the things you buy are sold by Amazon. They deem many products to be interchangeable so they will take "Fulfilled by Amazon" stock and commingle it with stuff from third-party sellers. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2... I use Amazon a lot but I do not trust them at all.

I'm not sure you really understand how commingle works?

If you have something with a UPC code, say the DVD Back to the Future, the latest edition... it will get put on the same shelf as other people with the same identical product, with the same identical UPC.

They aren't just dumping all DVDs in a big pile and picking out a random one.. its for literally identical products.

Does someone pirate DVDs and put the proper UPC on them? I guess it might happen, but how often? And if it did you tell Amazon and get a full refund and the seller is banned.

I can see reasons to not trust Amazon (the fake reviews, etc), but commingling of sealed goods is not one of them.

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