Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Goodbye Amazon

princeton-audio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 139 posts

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#71

Post by flubert »

jasode wrote: post #4

>Our Site:1 speakers are lovingly handcrafted. We make them one at a time, to our customer's desired spec, [...] If all goes smoothly, this process takes about six weeks. >Amazon relentlessly pushed us to accept lead-times that were typically only four days, and sometimes demanded fulfillment of orders in as little as 24 hours--including delivery. Amazon is not really an appropriate distribution platform for 6-week c…

>Amazon is not really an appropriate distribution platform for 6-week custom-made-to-order products. Maybe there's another well-known retail site that caters to that type of vendor but it certainly isn't Amazon (or Walmart).

But there is Amazon Handmade (which is supposed to be the Amazon Etsy):

https://services.amazon.com/handmade/handmade.html

...and Amazon Custom:

https://services.amazon.com/custom.html

..and Amazon Fine Art:

https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=6685269011

...so it looks like Amazon has their hands in other areas besides distribution of mass manufactured parts.

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#72

Post by petra »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #35

This is one of those posts that would be more impactful with the Amazon emails embedded in the post. When you can have the bad guy in the piece playing their own part it really resonates, if you're reading PA consider just putting in their responses to your questions. The only nit on this is this bit: "The only way to meet their demands would have been to mass-produce huge volumes of speakers featuring no customizati…

If you think down this path, that craftmanship needs a very fast route to market, and it's going to be a very big industry - with the capitalistic logic, you end up with solutions like drone transport, automated machines that create custom things fast, and robots/ai to test products.

And you probably also end up with manufacturing clusters doing most of the work - and not in small towns spread around, but maybe still in the US, maybe. But designers could stay local and not necessarily near factories.

But not sure that does fit your ideal.

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#73

Post by RyanOD »

athenot wrote: post #39
jasode wrote: post #4

>Our Site:1 speakers are lovingly handcrafted. We make them one at a time, to our customer's desired spec, [...] If all goes smoothly, this process takes about six weeks. >Amazon relentlessly pushed us to accept lead-times that were typically only four days, and sometimes demanded fulfillment of orders in as little as 24 hours--including delivery. Amazon is not really an appropriate distribution platform for 6-week c…

> Amazon is not really an appropriate distribution platform for 6-week custom-made-to-order products. Maybe there's another well-known retail site that caters to that type of vendor but it certainly isn't Amazon (or Walmart) . Perhaps Etsy would be a better platform for that product?

Or Amazon Handmade? Does anyone know if Amazon treats Handmade sellers the same as standard Amazon sellers?

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#74

Post by amyjess »

ronnier wrote: post #68

> But it was also born as a reaction against the cheap, mass-produced audio products that litter the marketplace today. We are entering a world where the cheapest mass-produced items are just about as good as the high end versions. Products are plateauing in many ways which means the cheap versions catch up. Say on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is the worst product ever, and 10 is the best you could ever imagine. Over the…

Agreed. Reading the article, Princeton Audio reminds me of the independent bookstore from Something Positive:

http://somethingpositive.net/sp09092004.shtml

http://somethingpositive.net/sp09102004.shtml

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#75

Post by RyanOD »

jjeaff wrote: post #24
toast0 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the words they're using, I don't think they were selling on Amazon as a 3rd party seller, it sounds more like Amazon was buying from them on wholesale terms, and then selling to end users as sold and shipped by Amazon.

Yes, must be. Which really makes no sense as a seller when you can just sell your product FBA. Especially when you are the manufacturer and can control who you sell to. It seems that all their troubles would be solved by just selling themselves on Amazon as a 3p seller.

That's exactly what I was thinking. As a 3rd party, merchant fulfilled (not Amazon fulfilled) seller, it seems like Princeton could have complete control over their inventory, lead times, etc. However, this is all an assumption. Anyone know for certain how that all works?

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#76

Post by unethical_ban »

hangonhn wrote: post #13

This is a just an ad or marketing stunt for the company. As most of you pointed out, they picked the wrong distributor for their business model. Now they are mad and severing relationships. However, 75% of the article is about their company and their handcrafted products. Then they offer a discount at the bottom tells you everything you need to know what this is really about. This is a publicity and marketing stunt.

So what? They have every right to post it anyway; if they didn't, other custom manufacturers woudln't know the danger of working with Amazon.

And to other peoples' points in this conversation, Amazon seems to have services for custom builders like this in Handmade.

So yeah, it has advertising, but it's a legitimate grievance and experience.

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#77

Post by prodikl »

macspoofing wrote: post #59

I don't fault either side here. Amazon in principle is doing the right thing - pressuring their suppliers to lower prices and improve shipment times. In this case they went too far and this company got fed up and left.

yeah, seems pretty fair. if the supplier doesn't think it's worth it and thinks they'll do better without amazon, that's their prerogative

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#78

Post by ohyeshedid »

accountyaccount wrote: post #54
Dayshine wrote: post #3

>I'll repeat that: Amazon.com, a reseller, told us that we were not allowed to raise the price of our own product for any reason. I don't believe this... Were you actually selling using "Sell on Amazon/Fulfilment by Amazon"? Or some 3rd party using Amazon for you...? >Amazon's policy is to never return unsold products to manufacturers https://services.amazon.co.uk/services/fulfilment-by-amazon/... says that: >Typical…

Amazon doesn't allow companies to sell their product for a higher price on Amazon than on their own site (or elsewhere). This is what I assume they're referring to. Obviously Amazon wants to push sales on Amazon, but it kind of sucks as a company when you feel like you have to sell your product on Amazon to get the exposure of your competition... but then doing so generally means a cut in your profits because you can…

>Amazon doesn't allow companies to sell their product for a >higher price on Amazon than on their own site (or elsewhere).

Well, yeah. They don't want you upping the Amazon price to balance out their revshare cut while simultaneously using Amazon as an advertising platform/traffic funnel.

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#79

Post by colmvp »

ronnier wrote: post #68

> But it was also born as a reaction against the cheap, mass-produced audio products that litter the marketplace today. We are entering a world where the cheapest mass-produced items are just about as good as the high end versions. Products are plateauing in many ways which means the cheap versions catch up. Say on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is the worst product ever, and 10 is the best you could ever imagine. Over the…

Yeah I find it annoying when high end producers complain about cheap alternatives.

I'd be willing to bet the average person probably couldn't tell the difference in audio quality between a pair of sub $50 Logitech speakers and these speakers which cost $335.00 each. Or at least, it wouldn't be worth the extra $620 for most people.

I'm not suggesting there isn't a difference (I've bought higher end headphones and speakers myself), but rather, when the difference is marginal for the average person, most people are content with a cheaper alternative that fulfills the need. We see the same with furniture and clothing.

As a designer, I can certainly appreciate the craft, care, and detail that goes into creating objects. But I also appreciate companies that produce well-designed, fully functional objects that almost everyone can afford. Like, when I was recently shopping for a desk, I was floored to find companies selling desks that were 10 to 20 times more expensive than my old IKEA desk that had zero scratches after a decade of use.

Re: Goodbye Amazon

#80

Post by urda »

hangonhn wrote: post #13

This is a just an ad or marketing stunt for the company. As most of you pointed out, they picked the wrong distributor for their business model. Now they are mad and severing relationships. However, 75% of the article is about their company and their handcrafted products. Then they offer a discount at the bottom tells you everything you need to know what this is really about. This is a publicity and marketing stunt.

> This is a just an ad or marketing stunt for the company.

Absolutely is. When I have myself asking "who?" then your product doesn't really speak for itself.

Good riddance Princeton, and good luck to your competitors who I can get through Amazon.

Post reply on HN