Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#201

Post by complianceowl » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:11 PM UTC

complianceowl wrote: post #16

The HN is a very intelligent community, so I'd like to hear your thoughts out loud here. Do you guys think supply chains will move closer to home because of this pandemic? I'm hearing every narrative under the sun right now: "This will establish globalism even more", "No! This marks the abrupt END of globalism." What are your thoughts?

Guys, you freaking rock. Thank you for your informative and insightful responses. This is precisely why I referred to you guys before even receiving any responses as "intelligent".

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#202

Post by powvans » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:15 PM UTC

jakearmitage wrote: post #72

ebg13 wrote: post #23

I tried ordering some things from Home Depot the other day, and they silently cancelled half of my order while still charging me the same amount for delivery from the store and while saying that some things can only be delivered from a warehouse and that some things can only be delivered from a specific store and that delivery from each store has a $45 minimum purchase before they'll even consider delivery despite th…

HomeDepot's ecommerce is a joke. Not only the shopping experience is poor, they treat logistics as if they were doing you a favor. And, on top of all that, you get damaged items. I made 7 purchases and all 7, in different periods of time, had to be returned or replaced. Same for Lowe's. There's a reason people shop on Amazon. Other than BestBuy, no other retailer "gets" ecommerce.

I thought the same thing about Home Depot until this hit. I've had the opposite experience with them the last few weeks. Things come quickly, my cart is consistent wherever I am logged in, and I can just add pretty much as much stuff as I want and get it all delivered the next day for $9. I'm loving the express delivery. In general it would always be worth it for me to spend $9 to get stuff delivered from Home Depot. Pre-pandemic it's a solid hour or more in the car to cover the 4.3 miles there and back from my house.

Maybe I'm getting a better experience because I'm in Atlanta and there's a bit of a headquarters halo effect.

Their search and general catalog organization isn't great. I just use Google as my entrance to their site and that makes life easier.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#203

Post by kube-system » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:17 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #173

Arcsech wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/ presumably. I've ordered some things from there, and generally had a good experience, with a few notes: - For large purchases at least, they are very scrupulous about sending tax documents to your home state to make sure the sales tax gets paid. This is probably a social good overall, but unusual for internet retailers and may take some folks by surprise. - They follow a Jewish holiday s…

Last time I ordered from them, I think they collected the sales tax. I'm not sure when this started; I am a long-time customer but they're not a store I tend to purchase from frequently. I like them overall and I tend to prefer using them to Amazon for AV type of purchases.

2018:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota_v._Wayfair%2C_Inc...

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#204

Post by markkanof » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:24 PM UTC

ebg13 wrote: post #144

markkanof wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I'm using a different homedepot.com than everyone else on this thread. I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Every time I have done this they send an email when the order is ready to be picked up, and then I go there and pick up all the items. Not saying you didn't have the experience you did, just wondering if they actually do…

> I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Those two things you just said are the same thing.

I don't think they are. When the parent commenter said reserved for pickup, I assumed they meant some way to say "hold these at the counter for me to come purchase". What I am saying is that in my experience, you are making a purchase, someone at the store is pulling the items from the shelf and setting them in a special area, then you get an email/text that the order is ready, meaning that everything is ready to go, they had all the items, and no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#205

Post by smileysteve » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:24 PM UTC

swsieber wrote: post #52

Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

> we have a fair quantity of emergency supplies. If you won't use them now, when will you? Are we talking days, weeks or months?

When someone in the house gets sick and nobody is supposed to leave because they've been exposed.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#206

Post by JoshTriplett » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:24 PM UTC

Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

Definitely try alternate services. We had much more luck with local stores than with Prime Now. In our area, Prime Now for Amazon has never had a delivery window, Prime Now for Whole Foods rarely does, but the local Fred Meyer has delivery windows open up regularly, often for same-day delivery. Also check Albertson's, Safeway, Target, Walmart, Shipt, and any other service. Talk to local non-chain or small-chain stores and see if they have any options; I've found that several places that don't normally delivery are happy to deliver in the current situation, especially for a tip. That goes for restaurants, pharmacies, and many other services. In some areas, TaskRabbit and similar are still operating, and "pick up XYZ for me" tasks are very common. And if all else fails, ask around for someone willing to pick things up and drop them off for you, and pay them well.

Also, this may depend on your financial situation, but if you can, don't make small orders; make large orders less often. (This is true all the time, but it's especially true right now.) Then, even if you have to drive a long distance for a pickup or pay a larger delivery fee, you don't have to do it as often.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#207

Post by Animats » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:28 PM UTC

Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

Costco is still shipping. I just ordered about $135 worth of stuff, including fruit, bread, milk, and hand cleaner, for delivery today.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#208

Post by simmons » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:29 PM UTC

Diederich wrote: post #95

influx wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have Amazon Fresh available? You might have to check through the day to get a slot, but it's been a life saver for our family.

We do have Amazon Fresh, it's just been hard to get slots. When you 'check through the day', can you say roughly how many times you are checking? Thanks!

I think they must be adding slots fairly frequently. (But they might also be snatched up quickly.) My wife and I put in an Amazon Fresh order yesterday after doing a quick "dry run checkout" to confirm there was an available slot. While shopping, we got a notice that the slots were exhausted, but we continued in the interest of getting an order prepared. When we checked out, it again said there were no slots. I waited a minute and refreshed the browser, and a slot had opened up for tomorrow. I'm in Colorado, but I assume AF works the same everywhere.

So far, I've had a better experience with Amazon Fresh than with Instacart (King Soopers/Kroger) due to 1) the ability to "call dibs" on items instead of waiting for the shopper to see there's no stock and struggle to find a replacement, and 2) the quick 1-2 day delivery (but maybe I've just gotten lucky). On the other hand, lots of stuff is out of stock which makes shopping challenging.

We also put in an Amazon Pantry order yesterday. Expected delivery: April 26! :O

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#209

Post by kube-system » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:31 PM UTC

dawnerd wrote: post #148

vernie wrote: post #67

I've been using eBay lately. Sellers have been consistently delivering in 2 days and it feels just as likely that I'll get fake shit as from Amazon these days.

I sell on eBay and it's pretty easy to beat Amazon. Most first class and priority packages arrive in under 3 days depending on your location to an airport. I'm right next to PDX and almost all of my packages go through there and end up on the other side of the US overnight. Those packages typically take two days. Also helps I ship same day so they're on a flight that night or the next morning. As for the fakes, they…

I avoid shady listings when I really need the item, but if I'm looking for a deal, I've never had an issue leaning on eBay's buyer protection. I've gotten all of my best deals from poorly-listed items.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#210

Post by jshevek » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:31 PM UTC

twblalock wrote: post #180

complianceowl wrote: post #16

The HN is a very intelligent community, so I'd like to hear your thoughts out loud here. Do you guys think supply chains will move closer to home because of this pandemic? I'm hearing every narrative under the sun right now: "This will establish globalism even more", "No! This marks the abrupt END of globalism." What are your thoughts?

Supply chains need to be more resilient, and that probably means making them more global rather than less. A pandemic could originate in any country. Making things "at home" would turn out to be a bad idea if the pandemic originates at home. If that happened we would like to be able to get help from other countries.

De-globalization, in this case, brings redundancy. This is less efficient, but more fault tolerant.

Striving for domestic manufacturing does not prevent imports from occurring if deemed necessary. Tariffs are easy to wave, in an emergency.