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Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

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Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#81

Post by saalweachter »

tanilama wrote: post #77
Judgmentality wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon (for all their warts) is much more adept at keeping customer experience in their crosshairs. Except when it comes to selling counterfeit merchandise. This is more than just a nitpick, they are cannibalizing their core business. What I don't know, and I assume they do know, is how bad is the problem. Is it impacting 1% of customers who ultimately leave their platform (which could easily be offset by other fac…

I don't encounter many counterfeit problem as people here seem to be frequently hit. I use Amazon quite frequently, more than one order each week. Disclaimer: Ex-Amazon employee.

The line in the sand for me was when I purchased new socks and, fresh from the sealed plastic wrapper, they just didn't have that glorious new-sock feel. Washings later I can still tell the difference between the counterfeits I got online and the real ones I got in a store, and it is always a little let down when they come up in the sock rotation.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#82

Post by whack »

cloakandswagger wrote: post #69
1stcity3rdcoast wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s been a lot of heated discussion about this on HN previously, but it would be interesting to know 1) how big of a problem it is, and 2) what people are buying that seem to have this problem. My household buys on average 10-20 items from amazon each week for many years (combined personal, my business, my wife’s business) and have yet to receive a counterfeit item. Am I doing something different?

The problem seems to exclusively affect HN commenters, who have the remarkable misfortune of having every single item they buy off Amazon turn out to be counterfeit. It's a total scourge on the community of HN but miraculously doesn't seem to affect anyone else. Occasionally I'll see a broken-English listing from a third-party seller advertising a $800 camera for $200, but when that happens I just...don't purchase th…

But how else can I be a disruptive hacker if I don't buy $800 cameras for $200?

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#83

Post by azinman2 »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #74
kristianc wrote: post #27

This is more or less what Amazon is known for - experimentation, A/B testing and dumping ideas quickly. I'm pretty in awe that Amazon seems to have (at least) three bricks and mortar retail concepts on the go at the same time : Go, pop up stores and Whole Foods, and is only now deciding to cut one of them. Amazon's commitment to going with the data goes so so deep.

I think Amazon doesn't need those pop-up stores now as much since they could easily use Whole Foods stores to display and sell their hardware devices. They also have other options as well to sell devices such as their Amazon Books physical stores.

They already do, at least here in SF

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#84

Post by azinman2 »

bitpow wrote: post #75
Judgmentality wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon (for all their warts) is much more adept at keeping customer experience in their crosshairs. Except when it comes to selling counterfeit merchandise. This is more than just a nitpick, they are cannibalizing their core business. What I don't know, and I assume they do know, is how bad is the problem. Is it impacting 1% of customers who ultimately leave their platform (which could easily be offset by other fac…

They just launched project zero, so at least they seem to be addressing the issue. https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazon-project-zer...

“We’ve been testing these automated protections with a number of brands, and on average, our automated protections proactively stop 100 times more suspected counterfeit products as compared to what we reactively remove based on reports from brands.”

What’s scary is the implicit quantity of counterfit products quoted here.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#85

Post by MagicPropmaker »

cloakandswagger wrote: post #69
1stcity3rdcoast wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s been a lot of heated discussion about this on HN previously, but it would be interesting to know 1) how big of a problem it is, and 2) what people are buying that seem to have this problem. My household buys on average 10-20 items from amazon each week for many years (combined personal, my business, my wife’s business) and have yet to receive a counterfeit item. Am I doing something different?

The problem seems to exclusively affect HN commenters, who have the remarkable misfortune of having every single item they buy off Amazon turn out to be counterfeit. It's a total scourge on the community of HN but miraculously doesn't seem to affect anyone else. Occasionally I'll see a broken-English listing from a third-party seller advertising a $800 camera for $200, but when that happens I just...don't purchase th…

I've gotten counterfeit Brita water filters and counterfeit SanDisk USB drives. And, no, I wasn't trying to find a "bargain".

See this article in the Atlantic about the problem -- it's not just a bunch of crazy HN zealots: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/amazo...

@dang -- can you ban this user for his unhelpful comments that mock real people with real problems?

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#86

Post by ghaff »

wincy wrote: post #18
skywhopper wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart in particular seems well-positioned to pivot to competing with Amazon in retail in the US. They maintain what are essentially warehouse facilities within a short drive of a huge percentage of the population. Outcompeting Amazon in terms of a pleasant and trust-building web-shopping experience should be achievable--Amazon's UX has been getting worse over time, and achieving truly fast delivery outside of huge…

I’ve commented on this several times, but Walmart’s online grocery pickup app is coming along nicely. They’re doing a push to hire developers and the improvements show in the app. You originally had to call a phone number but now you say you’re on your way and it notifies the workers to come out and put your groceries in the trunk. My wife hates going inside Walmart’s so we’d use the smaller more expensive grocery st…

I don’t use online ordering for groceries but I find Walmart grocery shopping generally incredibly hit or miss. A Walmart is the closest grocery store to me but I’ll basically never go there to do a full grocery shopping because of generally poor quality meats, wildly inconsistent produce, frequent out of stocks etc. I’d rather go a few more miles down the road to one of two grocery chains.

Walmart is fine for most staples but rarely do they have everything I’m looking for at acceptable quality. And, yes, I dislike going in the store.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#87

Post by therealx »

Kye wrote: post #34
w0mbat wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must have done half my Xmas shopping in the local 4 Star store, so I'm glad they are sticking with that concept. A well curated set of good gifts you can see IRL is a valuable thing.

I've never heard of these stores. They must not be heavily publicized.

There are only three; two in the US.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#88

Post by nordsieck »

cloakandswagger wrote: post #69
1stcity3rdcoast wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s been a lot of heated discussion about this on HN previously, but it would be interesting to know 1) how big of a problem it is, and 2) what people are buying that seem to have this problem. My household buys on average 10-20 items from amazon each week for many years (combined personal, my business, my wife’s business) and have yet to receive a counterfeit item. Am I doing something different?

The problem seems to exclusively affect HN commenters, who have the remarkable misfortune of having every single item they buy off Amazon turn out to be counterfeit. It's a total scourge on the community of HN but miraculously doesn't seem to affect anyone else. Occasionally I'll see a broken-English listing from a third-party seller advertising a $800 camera for $200, but when that happens I just...don't purchase th…

> The problem seems to exclusively affect HN commenters, who have the remarkable misfortune of having every single item they buy off Amazon turn out to be counterfeit. It's a total scourge on the community of HN but miraculously doesn't seem to affect anyone else.

I'm sure that much of the anecdata on HN unfairly paints Amazon in an poor light in regards to counterfeit goods. At the same time, I suspect that many, many people have bought counterfeit goods on Amazon and don't realize it.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#89

Post by rjf72 »

cloakandswagger wrote: post #69
1stcity3rdcoast wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s been a lot of heated discussion about this on HN previously, but it would be interesting to know 1) how big of a problem it is, and 2) what people are buying that seem to have this problem. My household buys on average 10-20 items from amazon each week for many years (combined personal, my business, my wife’s business) and have yet to receive a counterfeit item. Am I doing something different?

The problem seems to exclusively affect HN commenters, who have the remarkable misfortune of having every single item they buy off Amazon turn out to be counterfeit. It's a total scourge on the community of HN but miraculously doesn't seem to affect anyone else. Occasionally I'll see a broken-English listing from a third-party seller advertising a $800 camera for $200, but when that happens I just...don't purchase th…

One side issue you'll run into when discussing things like this is a major response bias. People who have neutral or good experiences are far less to chime in saying as much. By contrast you'll have a very large percentage of anybody who ever had a negative experience say something.

Like I suspect the vast majority of people, I've ordered plenty of items from Amazon and also never run into a single counterfeit.

---

As a tangent, you could also apply this same bias to driving the things like the division in social media. People surround themselves with people of the same affection and biases which, in turn, ends up being seen from their perspective as 'normal' which, in turn, drives radicalism since their distorted perspective creates a false reality.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#90

Post by jhall1468 »

callalex wrote: post #76
bitpow wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just launched project zero, so at least they seem to be addressing the issue. https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazon-project-zer...

Wow that is an extremely unfortunate name, it almost seems like they’re maliciously trying to ride the positive and successful associations of the existing Project Zero.

I'm going to guess that many, like myself, have no idea what the existing Project Zero is, and I would venture a guess the people that named this were in the same boat.

I'd even surmise that it's not a particularly unique or interesting name.

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