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Shopping Sucks Now

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Re: Shopping Sucks Now

#91

Post by [deleted] »

Merrill wrote: post #58
Reedx wrote: post #3

Anyone working on a Trader Joes meets Amazon? That curates maybe 1-3 versions of things, largely eliminating paradox of choice. I guess Costco is kind of a bulk version of that... Also I've been increasingly interested in just buying things once and having them last a decade+, ideally a lifetime (less waste). But this takes a lot of research. Trader Joes does a good job of curating groceries and I've come to trust th…

You can search for Amazon Basics or Amazon Essentials, which seem to be listings of high volume commodity products. However, I don't see adult dress gloves in Amazon Essentials. There are kids gloves. And if you want high style, these products aren't for you. The other alternative is to use specific branded sites, such as LL Bean or REI. These will provide premium products at a premium price. Finally, you can go dire…

[deleted]

Re: Shopping Sucks Now

#92

Post by pzs »

smacktoward wrote: post #32
egypturnash wrote: post #12

When I was living in the PNW and realized I direly needed gloves, I just hit up a few of the department stores downtown until I found some that met my criteria. Which are probably similar to those of this author, I wanted some that looked cute, had a conductive patch on the finger so I could use my phone without taking them off, would fit on my long hands with long fingernails, and weren’t super expensive gloves desi…

I think the key to the article can be found in this passage: > [T]he problem is that now, somewhat suddenly, perfect knowledge of the perfect glove, for you specifically, exists, if you simply do enough research. When you're shopping in a physical store, you have no expectation that you're going to find the absolute, one-and-only perfect glove (or whatever) in the world for you. Even in the largest stores, you unders…

It's a case of "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good".

Some time ago I read about a paper on HN. It was explaining what can you do to maximize happiness in life. IIRC, one piece of advice therein was to avoid comparison shopping. You elaborated very clearly why.

Re: Shopping Sucks Now

#93

Post by gjs278 »

loblollyboy wrote: post #90
bartread wrote: post #67

Sorry, but I just can't get on board with this point of view. Shopping has always sucked. Badly. Going to the shops has to be one of the single most annoying and unpleasant day to day experiences I deal with[1]. If you live anywhere even remotely populous when you visit the shops there are people milling around just ####ing everywhere. Dithering, dawdling, standing around chatting at every choke point in the aisles,…

Sounds like you just hate people

sounds like you just enjoy subpar conditions

Re: Shopping Sucks Now

#94

Post by curun1r »

smacktoward wrote: post #32
egypturnash wrote: post #12

When I was living in the PNW and realized I direly needed gloves, I just hit up a few of the department stores downtown until I found some that met my criteria. Which are probably similar to those of this author, I wanted some that looked cute, had a conductive patch on the finger so I could use my phone without taking them off, would fit on my long hands with long fingernails, and weren’t super expensive gloves desi…

I think the key to the article can be found in this passage: > [T]he problem is that now, somewhat suddenly, perfect knowledge of the perfect glove, for you specifically, exists, if you simply do enough research. When you're shopping in a physical store, you have no expectation that you're going to find the absolute, one-and-only perfect glove (or whatever) in the world for you. Even in the largest stores, you unders…

The flip side of infinite variety is also that there are some truly terrible products for sale online that would never make it past the selection process to get brick-and-mortar shelf space. So while going to a physical store results in just choosing the best of the available options, online shopping requires at least some research or else you end up wasting money on things that are utterly worthless or, worse yet, put your health and/or other property at risk.

Re: Shopping Sucks Now

#95

Post by ghaff »

smacktoward wrote: post #32
egypturnash wrote: post #12

When I was living in the PNW and realized I direly needed gloves, I just hit up a few of the department stores downtown until I found some that met my criteria. Which are probably similar to those of this author, I wanted some that looked cute, had a conductive patch on the finger so I could use my phone without taking them off, would fit on my long hands with long fingernails, and weren’t super expensive gloves desi…

I think the key to the article can be found in this passage: > [T]he problem is that now, somewhat suddenly, perfect knowledge of the perfect glove, for you specifically, exists, if you simply do enough research. When you're shopping in a physical store, you have no expectation that you're going to find the absolute, one-and-only perfect glove (or whatever) in the world for you. Even in the largest stores, you unders…

You see the same thing with travel lodging. In the past, you'd maybe have a few hotel/B&B names. Maybe some recommendations from friends or Lonely Planet. (Or, maybe going back a little further, just tell your travel agent to just book something.)

Today, it's really easy to go down a rabbit hole finding the best/best value/etc. place complete with lots of squinting at reviews to see if they're for real and/or have the same criteria you do.

I mostly don't sweat it too much but it's easy to do so.

Re: Shopping Sucks Now

#96

Post by tawm »

amluto wrote: post #19
floren wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why should I buy Brand Item when I can get a version from Alibaba for 10-20%? If it truly is comparable, then why pay the markup when the internet lets me cut out the middleman? But then when the version from Alibaba is total crap, there's no recourse. It's not like a local shop with reputation at risk. The unfortunate reality these days is that the majority of items on, say, Amazon, are the same crap from Alibaba…

> The unfortunate reality these days is that the majority of items on, say, Amazon I find “on, say, Amazon” entertaining. Amazon may well be the worst largeish US online vendor. It’s gotten to the point where I trust eBay more. If you want winter gear, buy from one of several excellent online stores dedicated to it.

>It’s gotten to the point where I trust eBay more.

Absolutely! I recently bought a simple item, a roll of wiring loom tape. It was on Amazon and had a few reviews that stated that the received tape was old and didn't stick very well anymore.

Same item on eBay for cheaper has the seller specifically mentioning that they only sell fresh tape from the running production, not old stock. Even better, the seller specialized in these (and other) tapes.

It seems that eBay has just cultivated a much higher quality base of vendors. Many of them seem specialized.

Re: Shopping Sucks Now

#97

Post by lifeisstillgood »

I was a Vegan for five years in my twenties ("London's only fat vegan"). And one of the things I liked was that I did not have to think hard about eating out at lunchtime. I could have a jacket potato with beans or I could get all sophisticated and have a jacket potato with hummus.

Lack of choice sucks. Limited sufficient choice makes a simple happy life.

Re: Shopping Sucks Now

#98

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

egypturnash wrote: post #12

When I was living in the PNW and realized I direly needed gloves, I just hit up a few of the department stores downtown until I found some that met my criteria. Which are probably similar to those of this author, I wanted some that looked cute, had a conductive patch on the finger so I could use my phone without taking them off, would fit on my long hands with long fingernails, and weren’t super expensive gloves desi…

Shopping for physical goods in B&M stores sucks.

After the last few decades of recessions, stores have gradually dropped their inventory of goods for anybody outside the meat of the bell curve. I will shop for things for months just to buy local and end up buying online because nobody will carry what I want or will fit.

Re: Shopping Sucks Now

#100

Post by ssss11 »

OnlineGladiator wrote: post #68
JohnFen wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your comment makes really excellent points. This line: > The infinite variety of online shopping tells us to set our expectations higher than that. made me think a bit -- that used to be true for me, but the effect is trending in the opposite direction now. I have learned that it's very nearly impossible to tell if a product being shown is actually any good or not unless I'm already familiar with that company…

Being overwhelmed with choice is known as analysis paralysis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis https://xkcd.com/1801/

It’s the overwhelming choice yes, but it’s also the fact that companies sell junk online that looks good in a photo and then of course you receive it and it’s useless. The reviews are all rigged and the brands are unknown to you, so there’s no way of knowing until you’ve purchased it, and then in many cases there’s no way or it’s very difficult to return the dud.
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