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Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

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Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#61
post #21

Haha, except their last mile delivery which is really flaky because they use their own logistics and drivers

Their last mile coverage is quite impressive. I'll get notifications on my phone letting me know my menial package is 9 stops away and to expect it soon. When I open up the alert (usually after it's delivered), I get a picture of the package on my stoop.

It's a way more transparent notification system than I've gotten with the other "Big Three".

Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#62

I own a decent number of Amazon shares. I’m sure they can ship most places, but to any Amazon management folks reading this - is the longer term plan to kill Amazon.com the store? The experience has gotten somewhat akin to EBay. It seems like it’s intentional, but I can’t tell. There are any number of shady sellers selling the item I want to buy. I have to manually click often times to ensure I’m buying from Amazon.…

It gets worse. They used to call themselves Earth's most customer centric company. Well, recently they shipped me a pack of women's briefs rather than the fountain pens I ordered. Customer service was abhorrent and they would not take them back - the cherry on that cake was that the pens I wanted had now gone out of stock as well.

I cancelled my prime subscription immediately. I don't think I'll be giving them any of my business anymore. I used to work there so I still own a lot of shares, though.

Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#63
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't own amazon (except through the indices) but I am a customer who buys almost all of my consumer goods through amazon. You are absolutely right. Amazon is a luxury brand, and amazon doesn't seem to know this. I mean... it really is a pretty great luxury brand? There's a lot of crap I don't have to own if I know I can order it the day before, and I'm willing to pay extra for that convenience. I mean, there's thr…

Amazon is a luxury brand? Look I'm in Japan and from this side of the pond as it were, Amazon is a shitty aggregate selling site. There are many around and they are all to be steered clear of unless you desperately can't find the item you want somewhere else

[deleted]

Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#64

I own a decent number of Amazon shares. I’m sure they can ship most places, but to any Amazon management folks reading this - is the longer term plan to kill Amazon.com the store? The experience has gotten somewhat akin to EBay. It seems like it’s intentional, but I can’t tell. There are any number of shady sellers selling the item I want to buy. I have to manually click often times to ensure I’m buying from Amazon.…

I strongly suspect this is intentional. It feels as if amazon is doing the subcontractor/gig-economy scam, just slowly.

Amazon is attempting to shift everything to being 3rd party. That way they're a middleman who gets a cut of everything sold, but without any risk. The risk is all on the sellers, who are can be at Amazon's whims, and on the buyers who get garbage from scammers. But sellers can come and go and the customer can't keep track of which sellers are actually trustworthy.

We can already see this gradual slide with how counterfeits work on Amazon. You can't tell if or when you'll get a counterfeit. Even Sold By Amazon is no guarantee since Amazon will mix 3rd party seller goods into the same bin.

This is pure MBA thinking. They remove risk to the business and the need to have buyers of bulk goods to list them. They don't have to keep their own stock anymore. Sure they run a warehouse business too, but the risk of holding good too long is someone else's problem: The 3rd party sellers. And still they keep getting a cut of everything sold.

Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#65
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't own amazon (except through the indices) but I am a customer who buys almost all of my consumer goods through amazon. You are absolutely right. Amazon is a luxury brand, and amazon doesn't seem to know this. I mean... it really is a pretty great luxury brand? There's a lot of crap I don't have to own if I know I can order it the day before, and I'm willing to pay extra for that convenience. I mean, there's thr…

Amazon is a luxury brand? Look I'm in Japan and from this side of the pond as it were, Amazon is a shitty aggregate selling site. There are many around and they are all to be steered clear of unless you desperately can't find the item you want somewhere else

It used to be. For years, you just knew a few things. One, Amazon would probably have it. Two, it'd be a good price. Three, you'd reliably get what you wanted in just a few days.

Now its a mire of junk and finding something solid is hard. And even if you find it, you get to wonder if you got a counterfeit or not.

I imagine in other countries Amazon largely skipped the build up phase where they bought and sold everything themselves. Now they're just an ebay without the auction.

Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#66
post #3

You know, if Brick & Mortars entered some sort of alliance, they could ship same day deliveries to an equally large chunk of the population.

I made the mistake of online ordering from Home Depot and they "conveniently" shipped from a local store. Only problem is that they apparently have a habit of reusing SKUs and sent me an older model that I didn't order. Given a chance, brick and mortars will fuck everything up. Guaranteed.

I tried to order a few boxes of hardwood flooring from Home Depot one time and despite being in stock at the store 20 miles away from me they somehow managed to outsource delivery to some local company that delayed delivery repeatedly because of "weather" for four months. This local company never picked up the phone or returned emails.

I had to do a chargeback as Home Depot refused to refund me, they seemed confused as to where the shipment was. I don't think HD or any company run in the HD mold will ever be competitive if these are the outcomes.

Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#67
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made the mistake of online ordering from Home Depot and they "conveniently" shipped from a local store. Only problem is that they apparently have a habit of reusing SKUs and sent me an older model that I didn't order. Given a chance, brick and mortars will fuck everything up. Guaranteed.

>Given a chance, brick and mortars will fuck everything up. Guaranteed. Let's not pretend Amazon are innocent of fuck ups like this. I'm a semi regular shopper with Amazon (uk) and in the last 12 months I've had: - used products sold as new - products sent by Amazon's own courier service for "next day delivery" show up after 3 days - flat out wrong items sent - previews for books sent in place of actual books - recei…

Fixing Amazon mistakes is relatively painless.

With Home Depot their phone support was 100% useless and I had to physically go to the store the item shipped from. I made sure the new product was on the shelf and tried to do a simple exchange. Unfortunately the duplicate SKU was a problem and the price had increased since I paid for the order so the drone wanted me to pay the difference. That wasn't going to happen so my time had to be further wasted arguing with them over their mistake.

Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#68
There are substantial margins to be had in over-the-road freight. The launch of the Amazon Freight platform last week is a clear indication Amazon knows this.

Managing an enormous seller marketplace is almost as fraught as shopping on one. I can understand why Amazon wants to act as the broker in every aspect of the retail transaction. As a third-party broker you’re shielded from much of the liability while reaping much of the benefit.

Unfortunately, third-party brokers are limited in the kinds of interventions that first-parties can bring to bear during a service failure. Walmart, Target, et al., can fix a wayward transaction much more quickly and cheaply than Amazon can by virtue of maintaining many well-staffed warehouses, i.e., stores.

Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made the mistake of online ordering from Home Depot and they "conveniently" shipped from a local store. Only problem is that they apparently have a habit of reusing SKUs and sent me an older model that I didn't order. Given a chance, brick and mortars will fuck everything up. Guaranteed.

I tried to order a few boxes of hardwood flooring from Home Depot one time and despite being in stock at the store 20 miles away from me they somehow managed to outsource delivery to some local company that delayed delivery repeatedly because of "weather" for four months. This local company never picked up the phone or returned emails. I had to do a chargeback as Home Depot refused to refund me, they seemed confused…

I've had pretty much the same experience with Amazon (for a "sold and fulfilled by Amazon") item. Except that Amazon kept lying to me about pretty much everything, from whether they've even shipped an item to whether I could get a refund of Prime membership to a lot of other things.

They aren't any better, and their customer "service" is pretty much limited to "throw the customer another month of Prime (it's worthless anyway) and hope they go away".

Re: Amazon can already ship to 72% of US population in a day, map shows

#70
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Given a chance, brick and mortars will fuck everything up. Guaranteed. Let's not pretend Amazon are innocent of fuck ups like this. I'm a semi regular shopper with Amazon (uk) and in the last 12 months I've had: - used products sold as new - products sent by Amazon's own courier service for "next day delivery" show up after 3 days - flat out wrong items sent - previews for books sent in place of actual books - recei…

Fixing Amazon mistakes is relatively painless. With Home Depot their phone support was 100% useless and I had to physically go to the store the item shipped from. I made sure the new product was on the shelf and tried to do a simple exchange. Unfortunately the duplicate SKU was a problem and the price had increased since I paid for the order so the drone wanted me to pay the difference. That wasn't going to happen so…

Yeah that's awful, and like I said, Amazon's policy of "refund and we'll pick it up" if there's a problem has kept me shopping there.

My latest issue was a clearly used item being sold as new, and it was damaged. The price had increased since I ordered it, and with one live chat they couriered me a replacement, and picked up the old one, at no cost to me.

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