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

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#381

Post by 373hbedudu » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 1:48 AM UTC

RuleOfBirds wrote: post #324

bradenb wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I respect your right to not give "military contractors" your business, I just don't see how you can use it as justification. The military is a resource and isn't inherently good or bad.

The U.S. (and others') military may be, by definition, a resource that isn't inherently good or bad. But the military is most certainly good or bad in actuality (i.e. the real world) according to many peoples' definition. I can see how anyone could use that as justification.

In the real world most people's definitions are based on arbitrarily limited frames of reference. I meet lots of Californians who identify as anti-war and who have little if any awareness of how the US military is wielded outside of the Middle East.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#382

Post by bosswipe » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 1:53 AM UTC

Wistar wrote: post #323

Although the focus is somewhat narrower than amazon, for my professional needs I have had nothing but an excellent online experience with bhphotovideo. I have ordered hundreds of items worth tens of thousands of dollars from them starting about 2007. Their site can be a little frustrating, mostly from not narrow-enough categorization, but their app for iOS is very good. Their prices are usually as good and often bett…

I avoid them because of their known racist and sexist employee segregation.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#383

Post by dexterdog » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 1:59 AM UTC

FireBeyond wrote: post #311

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One possible reason is that eliminates a whole category of unskilled labor? (full disclosure, writing this from Oregon, where we can't pump our own gas to preserve another category of unskilled labor jobs - except right now, thanks COVID-19?) I personally would probably prefer to have a human checker for that reason, I don't notice much improvement in speed or ease of checking out when I do it myself, there's just a…

> writing this from Oregon, where we can't pump our own gas I thought that got changed a couple of years ago?

Not that I know of. And NJ is still full serve only as well.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#384

Post by dexterdog » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 2:01 AM UTC

omilu wrote: post #348

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…

I ordered a car port tent thing, showed as in stock, shipping in a few days. 8 weeks later never arrived, no notifications, only an order confirmation that said shipping in a few days. I called Home Depot and they said they don't have them in stock, they refunded me and gave me a $200 credit so I was happy. Couldn't believe how broke the ordering process was though.

I never get why there is not a department in charge of checking orders that are obviously stuck before they become a support issue.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#385

Post by filoleg » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 2:09 AM UTC

boomboomsubban wrote: post #375

filoleg wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just that, but like, the parent commenter actually got his items rung up in the store. So the parent wouldnt have even noticed they didn’t get charged for those items unless they were constantly checking their bank account for actual dollar amounts charged for every purchase. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would be able to claim that the parent commenter is at fault here.

I said they weren't at fault legally or morally. That doesn't mean it wasn't stolen.

I mean, imagine this.

I walk up to a cashier, and he by accident drops $10 in my shopping cart (without me noticing). Then he proceeds to inconspicuously take those $10, look at it, and silently put it back in the bag (again, without me noticing). I discover those $10 only when I get home. I had no idea it was even there, and the store employee definitely looked through every single item in my bag and saw those $10, but just decided to put it back there. Did I steal those $10?

I struggle to even call it something like "theft by accident", which would be if the cashier forgets to scan an item because they didn't notice it. In my hypothetical scenario, the cashier noticed and picked up the item.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#386

Post by t-writescode » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 2:12 AM UTC

odysseus wrote: post #316

plorkyeran wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest sites let you enter a zip code at the very start of the shopping process and display an estimated shipping cost as you're looking at items. Dishonest sites make no mention of shipping costs until you're at the very end of the checkout process.

I think in many cases it's not a matter of dishonesty, but of laziness, lack of care, or not wanting to pay for a better checkout experience.

Also, there’s probably A/B testing that shows orders of magnitude less engagement if you put any blockers in the way of seeing the product.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#387

Post by t-writescode » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 2:15 AM UTC

bluetidepro wrote: post #25

jedberg wrote: post #18

Yeah I’ve ordered a few things now directly from the manufacturer. The problem is in a lot of cases I’ll see stuff that’s slightly cheaper on their site but then shipping is ridiculous. I ordered a mono price stand up desk recently. The price on Amazon was $10 more, but Monoprice wanted $45 for domestic shipping! So I waited three extra days and saved $35. It’s kind of a toss up now between speed and price depending…

I agree 100% with this. It's appalling how many other sites (esp. the direct manufacturer ones, like you mentioned) use dark patterns with their shipping/handling prices. It really does make you understand why everyone wants to use the big sites like Amazon, at least they are pretty straight fwd when it comes to the price, shipping, fees, etc. Nothing worse than getting down an e-commerce funnel only to find you wast…

Tell the truth: if you went to a website, browsing for something you might buy; and, before you were shown their catalog, you were required to enter your postal information (can’t just be zip, since you might be in another country), and you couldn’t even see prices, would you stay on the website? Or close it?

I know what I would do. They’re putting too many annoying barriers on my idle browsing.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#388

Post by fernly » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 2:21 AM 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…

The Market at Edgewood (Embarcadero at 101 in Palo Alto) has an online order form and brings the order out to your car.

https://www.marketatedgewood.com/delivery

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#389

Post by grosswait » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 2:22 AM UTC

drewzero1 wrote: post #296

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…

I hope Rock Auto never replaces their website. Sure I have to scroll down the whole page to find my manufacturer in the alphabetical sidebar listing, and then open the nested categories like I'm looking for a folder in Windows 3.1, but once I get there I find a list of parts that I know will fit my car arranged so I can tell the quality vs. price trade-offs. I used to look for parts on Advance and O'Reilly's sites, h…

Overall I agree, but I've found it wise to cross-reference their part numbers as they are sometimes wrong for lower volume models. Eg: offering standard Ford Focus brake pads when the model searched is a Focus ST

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#390

Post by unethical_ban » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 2:25 AM 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.

Lowe's shopping site is an abomination, a tome of anti-patterns to be researched in design classes on what not to implement in e-commerce. It is a shame, because I really would like to purchase more from non-Amazon sources.