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

Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 403 posts

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#111

Post by dv_dt »

compiler-guy wrote: post #108
dv_dt wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inequality is back to the time of robber barons of industry, and so too is the lawlessness of many of the industry practices, where we are in the same state where technology and scale of organization are outrunning the philosophical theories of government operation to regulate them.

Inequality goes back far beyond that. The slaves who built the pyramids in Egypt were pretty unequal from the Pharaoh. And even that wasn't the first society with inequality. It goes back far beyond recorded history.

But gini coefficient measurements show the magnitude of inequality, and the magnitude today has returned to that of the 1920's robber baron era.

And the magnitude is important because there is a correlation between higher economic growth and a gini value showing lower inequality than today.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#112

Post by siruncledrew »

Glyptodon wrote: post #64

Forget counterfeits for a second. Even trying to find something like an ultrasonic cleaner on Amazon is like straight going through AliExpress. But wait! Unless you're buying a very very expensive lab model all the "name brands" look to be sourcing the same way and adding a label too. So the name brands are AliExpress with maybe better QC and 200% markup. But wait! Even looking everywhere else it's the same situation…

If 2-day shipping time is not an important factor, then what I've started to do is just buy items from AliExpress and DHGate based on looking at # of orders and customer reviews.

The vast majority of stuff on Amazon could be found on AliExpress, DHGate, Alibaba, Tmall.com, JD.com, and Taobao.

At this point, I just gave up and decided to buy items I don't care about that much from their 'source' for less money in exchange for longer shipping times.

I wouldn't be surprised if the same overseas sellers have items being sold across every platform to maximize consumer exposure and potential orders. So many of the "brands" on Amazon are not even brands, it's just made up words next to a generic imported product. Like "iGoEnergeeFan" or something similarly stupid.

The market is just flooded at this point. Any dingus looking to 'get rich quick' could think "I know, I'll get into dropshipping or importing with Amazon FBA!". There are so many bullshit 'guides' already on this kind of 'passive income'.

The idea of selling cheap overseas crap to US buyers at a 200% markup is nothing new - it's been going on for the last 40+ years in retail.

Except, back in the brick and mortar days, not everyone could just open up a store and start selling. There are real estate, geographic, and management constraints, among others. That makes it difficult to penetrate the US Retail market side as an overseas Manufacturer/Distributor.

Fast forward to today, and the tables have turned. I could be the Chinese manufacturer/distributor AND the retailer, thanks to marketplaces like Amazon. Why wouldn't they want to go for vertical integration, when so much more money could be made at the retail level. Plus manufacturing, labor, and shipping costs are so low, the profit margins from selling junk on Amazon are enormous for those overseas sellers - even way more than domestic sellers.

At this point, why would any overseas sellers care to stop? They know the industry, they can directly interface with the factories, and they have plenty of people willing to work diligently to be among the top sellers on Amazon. They are definitely not stupid or naive, they know what to do and how to work the ecosystem in their favor. Those good ole' "produce cheaply overseas and markup in our stores" business models of American retailers have come right back around to bite them in the ass.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#113

Post by LordDragonfang »

fenwick67 wrote: post #57
dangus wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you don't actually know that this practice is wasteful. That all depends on the numbers. Let's say that Amazon sends out 100 books, and 1 or 2 get damaged. But if they add some extra bit of packaging to every single one of those 100 books, zero will get damaged. Did this save cost or materials? I don't know, it depends on how much extra packaging was needed, whether the damage was serious enough to initiate a ref…

I think the poster may have meant "a waste of a good book" not "a waste of money". It's like how throwing produce away at the grocery store is "a waste" but the system is cost-effective.

The environmental impact of extra plastic packaging is much greater than the impact of compostable produce.

And anyway, if Amazon has to ship extra books, they pay the publisher an extra time, and you can always donate the damaged book as well.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#114

Post by Glyptodon »

heavyset_go wrote: post #92
Glyptodon wrote: post #64

Forget counterfeits for a second. Even trying to find something like an ultrasonic cleaner on Amazon is like straight going through AliExpress. But wait! Unless you're buying a very very expensive lab model all the "name brands" look to be sourcing the same way and adding a label too. So the name brands are AliExpress with maybe better QC and 200% markup. But wait! Even looking everywhere else it's the same situation…

> But wait! Even looking everywhere else it's the same situation as Amazon! It isn't a problem on Walmart or Target's websites, because they don't allow white-label Chinese goods to be sold on them.

Walmart has very similar results to Amazon, just not quite as much, and limiting results to Walmart.com helps a tiny bit more. So I don't agree there.

You're mostly right about Target, they pretty much only sell stuff that they carry or brand themselves, but the other side to it for Target is that often you can't find what you want there at all - they have a pretty limited selection, and in any case the stuff they brand themselves just costs more and looks a little nicer, but usually it's not actually quality.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#116

Post by dawnerd »

AmVess wrote: post #91
AlexandrB wrote: post #11

Amazon's fulfilment has also become shockingly bad. Most items are shipped in lightly-padded manila envelopes resulting in high percentage of damaged goods if you order books[1], CDs/DVDs/BluRays, video games, or anything else where the packaging is part of the product. eBay is a much better experience in this regard. [1] In an ironic twist, I absolutely refuse to buy books from Amazon anymore.

I received two nvme ssd's in a padded envelope. They could easily have been destroyed. They delivered a $500 video card by slapping a shipping sticker on the product box and shipping it that way. On the other hand, I received a $12 box of wet wipes that came in a giant, nicely padded box. The product itself was in a sturdy box. $400 dollars worth of computer storage was shipped improperly, but Amazon made sure I got…

It's funny how they hide behind the "Frustration Free" packaging which ends up being pretty frustrating. I just ordered a Dymo printer and they slapped a sticker on the original box that ended up completely destroyed (and I had it delivered to a locker via amazons own delivery people).

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#117

Post by caro_douglos »

habosa wrote: post #77

My favorite Amazon scam is the Amazon Ship of Theseus[0]. You sell a product, normally a cheap electronic, and build up a decent corpus of positive reviews. A good example is a USB-C cable or something. Then you decide you want to sell a new product in a more competitive subcategory, like Bluetooth Headphones. You then take the _existing_ listing and change it piece by piece. First the pictures, then the title, then…

As an industry electronic components are not all that different from knock off brands of LVMH products. Is it surprising to see a "customer" jump at the opportunity to score a "steal" on a new set of kicks which might look like the real deal but are certainly not. As slaves to the notion that everything must show up the next day we as consumers have decided that we should not pay for the shipping and are OK with whatever we get...Do you think Amazon makes more money working with Texas instruments or with the sellers that are hoping to make it big by boosting their reviews?

*Former employee at company that exclusively sold on Amazon.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#118

Post by behringer »

Havoc wrote: post #95
habosa wrote: post #77

My favorite Amazon scam is the Amazon Ship of Theseus[0]. You sell a product, normally a cheap electronic, and build up a decent corpus of positive reviews. A good example is a USB-C cable or something. Then you decide you want to sell a new product in a more competitive subcategory, like Bluetooth Headphones. You then take the _existing_ listing and change it piece by piece. First the pictures, then the title, then…

>Until you have a listing for your headphones that comes with 5,000 pre-made positive reviews! Fk. That's possible? How has Amazon not done anything about that? Like I can get keeping fake stuff out is a losing battle, but that seems like a rather significant design flaw if you can "transfer" reviews like that.

Amazon thinks it can automate itself out of these problems

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#119

Post by LordDragonfang »

AlexandrB wrote: post #19
izzydata wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've received many damaged books from Amazon. Whenever I report the items as being damaged I am prepared with photographs of the damaged goods as proof, but they always send me another one without caring. It just feels so wasteful to save money by mishandling everything to the point where it doesn't even matter if stuff breaks because it is cheaper to try a 2nd time.

It also flies in the face of Amazon's promise of convenience and "2-day delivery" guarantees when you have to have the same item shipped to you twice and make the trip to the post office to return the first one.

In my experience, Amazon doesn't usually make you return damaged items unless they're very expensive. I got a set of free wireless earbuds a couple months back because a previous resident of my apartment accidentally delivered their package to us, and when I called Amazon they told me to just keep it.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#120

Post by behringer »

Glyptodon wrote: post #64

Forget counterfeits for a second. Even trying to find something like an ultrasonic cleaner on Amazon is like straight going through AliExpress. But wait! Unless you're buying a very very expensive lab model all the "name brands" look to be sourcing the same way and adding a label too. So the name brands are AliExpress with maybe better QC and 200% markup. But wait! Even looking everywhere else it's the same situation…

I've never gone to Walmart and gotten fake SD cards and counterfeit video games...
Post reply on HN