Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon • Hacker News Board

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#241

Post by aeturnum » Tue, May 14, 2019, 10:28 PM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #145

aeturnum wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose I shop at Walmart in a digital context, but avoid them in a physical one. Obviously their competitive practices are pretty harmful. There just aren't good alternatives to Amazon in general. Do you have another recommendation? I've tried to use Target but have found their selection to be quite bad.

Every corporation does some sketchy thing or another so I just use Amazon because it's the most convenient. You could go out and shop locally at small stores when possible if you want. Some argue it's still better to go to a Wal Mart than order from Amazon because it keeps local jobs. I've heard Amazon warehouse work has bad conditions but pays decently and consistently if you're willing to put up with it, while Wal…

Yah - it's easy to find alternatives offline. The problem (and the context of the discussion as I understood it) was online shopping.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#242

Post by paulddraper » Tue, May 14, 2019, 11:26 PM UTC

igetspam wrote: post #214

ghaff wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not an option for everyone obviously but it's actually not a bad idea. I got an "extra large" rural mailbox a few years back and it's been great. Not everything fits of course but most basic book and small to medium parcels do. It also means I don't need to get my mail held even if I'm out of town for 10 days or so. My postal carrier even thanked me for getting it at one point.

Unfortunately it's a mailbox cluster at the entrance of a rural subdivision. The sizes are fixed and I believed they're property of USPS. An oversized package locker would be a great idea but it's not something I could do as a private citizen.

Well, it seems this here is the root of your problem.

And given the amount of difficulty and delay it causes, would be worth serious investigation into a solution.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#243

Post by lbatx » Wed, May 15, 2019, 12:23 AM UTC

trophycase wrote: post #101

joering2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deal with USPS? Would be hard to find a manager who can make this work and not obviously post it as a huge disaster on their resumee. USPS continues to bleed money, is always understaffed, continues to misplace the mail and is bugged with pretty old technology that is hard to upgrade. Add unions to it and you have a perfect government entity altho USPS is not actually a government organisation. If anything it would m…

Remind me again why a tax funded organization needs to make a profit?

Strictly speaking, their operations are not tax funded. Their operating budget comes from selling postage. There's a whole complicated discussion about their pension, which apparently gets some Federal funding, but day-to-day they are not tax funded.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#244

Post by StudentStuff » Wed, May 15, 2019, 1:23 AM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #200

StudentStuff wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon Fresh is not full vertical integration, merely seems like Costco's ordering program or similar. Amazon Fresh used to be quite popular in Seattle a half decade ago, but I barely see their empty containers anymore. I think Amazon saw their volume falling with Amazon Fresh and was threatened by their vendors and wholesalers with higher prices, thus purchasing Whole Foods to attempt to stabilize their cost on good…

> Amazon Fresh used to be quite popular in Seattle a half decade ago, but I barely see their empty containers anymore. Amazon has been cannibalizing Fresh by including (a smaller selection of) grocery items in Prime Now, which (unlike Fresh, which is a premium upgrade) is included in the base cost of Prime.

Amazon Fresh had its own (timely and reliable) delivery network and reusable plastic storage crates (often insulated). It seemed like a more eco-friendly & premium service compared to Amazon Prime.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#245

Post by RickJWagner » Wed, May 15, 2019, 1:58 AM UTC

My family has started using Walmart's grocery pickup service. You select your groceries online, then schedule a pick-up time. You drive up at the agreed upon time, Walmart workers come out and load your car trunk with groceries. You never leave the car.

Walmart's not sitting still.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#246

Post by jimmaswell » Wed, May 15, 2019, 2:08 AM UTC

aeturnum wrote: post #241

jimmaswell wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every corporation does some sketchy thing or another so I just use Amazon because it's the most convenient. You could go out and shop locally at small stores when possible if you want. Some argue it's still better to go to a Wal Mart than order from Amazon because it keeps local jobs. I've heard Amazon warehouse work has bad conditions but pays decently and consistently if you're willing to put up with it, while Wal…

Yah - it's easy to find alternatives offline. The problem (and the context of the discussion as I understood it) was online shopping.

Online shopping isn't a necessity for the most part.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#247

Post by thebigspacefuck » Wed, May 15, 2019, 2:18 AM UTC

thisismyaccoun7 wrote: post #51

thebigspacefuck wrote: post #12

Amazon has rolled out same day delivery for my area and it is too convenient to pass up. I used to go to Brick and Mortar to get my items faster and I felt good that I was supporting them, but now I will have a hard time saying no. Walmart has always had a terrible website experience for me. It's difficult to find items that will be in store for pick up and difficult to tell which items are part of the third party ma…

Are you actually getting one day deliveries in a day? I always got two day deliveries on time before the switch, but so far the vast majority of my one day shipping items are coming late. It's not a big sample size, but 7/9 were or are currently late.

I'm 3/3 for same day. I order in the morning and packages are delivered before I'm home from work. It's free with Prime too. Can't believe it.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#248

Post by djakjxnanjak » Wed, May 15, 2019, 2:35 AM UTC

treis wrote: post #95

CPLX wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in the same boat. I have called and begged and pleaded and escalated to get Amazon to stop using USPS but it just doesn't work. Here in Brooklyn if anything is unusually large they just punch in "attempted delivery" a couple days in a row and send it back. They don't even bother trying, I'm pretty sure it never even leaves the regional sort facility and gets on a truck. I'm not sure I blame them. Amazon once use…

>It's one of a few things that perplex me about Amazon Their price match policy is pretty silly too. I bought a robo vacuum that got a $150 off promotion a week later. They were unwilling to refund me the difference but are willing to let me return the old one for a full refund while buying a new one at the discounted price.

There is a startup called Paribus that was doing automated claims for Amazon price drops. Amazon locked down the policy after a while.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#249

Post by wpietri » Wed, May 15, 2019, 4:10 AM UTC

ascagnel_ wrote: post #209

wpietri wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This honestly strikes me as getting close to doable. For Amazon to do next-day and same-day shipping with reasonable efficiency, they clearly have gotten good at this on a statistical basis, as the stuff needs to be in the warehouse in advance of shipping. A plausible next step to me is something like the Amazon Corner Store, where they have neighborhood caches of goods. I go to order something and they say, "Hey, we…

Amazon does something similar now -- if they see you're following a repeating pattern (say, ordering detergent the first day of every month, or you buy the newest installation of an annual video game on release day), they'll prep loading the product onto their delivery trucks in anticipation of a last-minute order.

Really? That's very cool. Where could I learn more about that?

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#250

Post by jjeaff » Wed, May 15, 2019, 9:16 AM UTC

alasdair_ wrote: post #141

treis wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's one of a few things that perplex me about Amazon Their price match policy is pretty silly too. I bought a robo vacuum that got a $150 off promotion a week later. They were unwilling to refund me the difference but are willing to let me return the old one for a full refund while buying a new one at the discounted price.

That may make sense if the inverse of percentage of people that actually go to the trouble of returning a bulky item multiplied by the margin is higher than the shipping cost of a new item.

It's pretty easy. I've done this with hard drives that I had already installed.

Just printed the return label for the higher priced item, and slapped it on the box and gave it right back to the carrier when he delivered the same, lower priced item.