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

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#271

Post by fireattack » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 9:47 PM UTC

dan_quixote wrote: post #211

mauvehaus wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I beg to differ. Rock Auto is where it's at for auto parts. The website is ugly as hammered shit, but it's fast, shows you the options grouped by rough quality level (economy/you cheapskate, daily driver, performance, etc), shows you what part to select so it ships from the same warehouse as the parts already in your cart and saves you shipping, and returns are painless (disclaimer: I've only ever done returns for co…

My nomination is McMaster-Carr (mcmaster.com) - They have a huge catalog of parts/tools yet somehow it's so intuitive to browse. I was a mechanical engineer in a previous life and McMaster's website was my bible. Step one for any new prototype design was to browse this site. Best case scenario, you could cobble together your prototype from various COTS (commercial off the shelf) McMaster parts. And if that wasn't an…

If we started to include McMaster-Carr I would also say I have very good experience with Digi-key and Mouser.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#272

Post by bdcravens » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 9:49 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #266

A lot of the things I used to buy on Amazon I buy on eBay instead using “buy it now”. Even free shipping items are frequently less than Amazon. I’ve already phased out AWS, I hope to stop using amazon.com by the end of the year. I don’t like doing business with military contractors.

I assume you use Linux for your operating system then? Both Apple and Microsoft do business with the military.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#273

Post by grimjack00 » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

StillBored wrote: post #45

Yah, the only thing that's been arriving from Amazon lately are the things sold and shipped by 3rd party sellers. Frankly, i've been paying the extra to just order from the smaller shops lately because amazon's critical "prioritization" algorithm doesn't seem to know what is actually critical. Part to fix my cloths washing machine? 3 weeks from Amazon, two days from Granger. Problem solved, plus unlike a similar part…

>Part to fix my cloths washing machine?

Appliances are apparently "non-essential", according to several governmental orders. Local news here in Denver made a big deal about the city putting a padlock on the doors of an appliance retailer.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#274

Post by sneak » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

beamatronic wrote: post #198

Reading this entire thread, something became very clear to me: there is STILL a lot of room for improvement to be made for online e-commerce. Someone should invent a local-first inventory-first Amazon

Like a local delivery-only costco, perhaps?

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#275

Post by grimjack00 » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

StillBored wrote: post #48

jshevek wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Amazon was overwhelmed by people panic buying or preparing for shelter in place. The problem was not primarily the shipping industry, it was within Amazon. They've since hired large numbers of people and deprioritized [items deemed] non-essential so that people can get their essential needs in a timely manner.

How does amazon know what is essential?

At a high level, at least, anything in categories like "Groceries", "Health Care", "Personal Hygiene".

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#276

Post by chaz » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 9:55 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!

Dozens of times per day. It's on my bookmark bar, and I click it routinely: https://www.amazon.com/afx/slotselection/

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#277

Post by djrogers » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 9:56 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #207

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.

That depends entirely where you live - around me, this is aboslutely not true for all intents and purposes (no delivery windows available, or no products available, or both).

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#278

Post by lotsofpulp » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 9:57 PM UTC

jgust wrote: post #224

sambroner wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was always shocked by McMaster-Carr's delivery speed. I felt like the parts would arrive as quickly as I could have conceivably picked them up. This was 10 years ago now, so sort of like Amazon Prime before it became ubiquitous, but for materials and tools. However McMaster was and remains much better organized and much better spec-ed.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Amazon is re-solving problems that traditional supply chain companies like McMaster-Carr solved 1-2 decades ago. It would be fascinating to read a case study comparing the two.

Amazon is trying to shed all possible liability as a merchant and collect their 15% or whatever rent, since that’s where the margins are. That’s at odds with what I’m looking for as a buyer, which is a seller that will vet and stand behind their products.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#279

Post by CodeSheikh » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 9:58 PM UTC

Amazon's (+Wholefood) supply-chain failure is an eye-opener for me during COVID-19 crisis. I hate to acknowledge my dependability on Amazon Prime while living in a big city. I am not sure how I will break my habit but I know for a fact that I won't be ordering everything from Amazon Prime in the future.

For a company that commands e-commerce space in year 2020, it is really frustrating to find this workflow while ordering from WF while using Amazon's app, it is a joke and UI/UX 101 blunder. You add items to your cart. They run out of inventory. Items disappear from your cart. Either you place your order assuming all items were in your cart or you don't get a delivery slot and you have to add those items again. Why can't they just borrow the same feature from Amazon.com where unavailable items move conveniently to "Save later" section?

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#280

Post by fma » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 10:01 PM UTC

dawnerd wrote: post #125

secabeen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've also noticed that if you order multiple items, and one of them has a short shipping time, they'll suddenly ship your other items that are waiting. Presumably if they're all at the same warehouse, and they're already shipping one thing, they put the other stuff in the box.

Flip side is sometimes something that could ship fast ends up being delayed so they can group it with something that comes from a further away warehouse.

That makes no sense. If you order 2 items, and they're in 2 different warehouses, you'll get 2 packages. They aren't going to ship from 1 warehouse to a 2nd warehouse and then bundle them.