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A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

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Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#51

Post by mschuster91 »

whb07 wrote: post #27
juskrey wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you prefer local business employed and pay more for everything, or pay less for everything and have unemployed unhappy people around?

Honestly answer this, would an average person with more money in their account spend it or leave it there?

That depends if your average person is poor or not. Poor people will spend their money (and thus increase consumption) while wealthy people will hoard it. This is incidentally also why "trickle down economics" do not work - there is no incentive for rich people to spend more money than they need, but (thanks to interest) there is the incentive of hoarding it for (virtual) growth.

Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#52

Post by filoleg »

igrekel wrote: post #25
belval wrote: post #21

The main issue with this approach is that it fails to address my biggest grip with local online shopping: delivery speed. Amazon offers 48h delivery for most products even with COVID. On the other hand, I ordered stuff from a shop based in Montreal and it took 5 days to arrive. Even though it was physically much closer to me. We can argue on the "necessity" of 2-day shipping, but it is still a massive differentiator.

Honestly, so far the quickest delivery I've experienced was from local businesses. Some local stores switched too what is almost pizza delivery. I ordered gear at lunchtime and got it delivered in the afternoon. But it really depends on the supplier. 48h delivery has been hit and miss too recently. Now what the article doesn't say is that a lot of the businesses on "Le Panier Bleu" do not even have an online catalog…

Out of curiosity, what kind of shop was that local store that gave you a same day delivery and had a good inventory system?

Asking because I noticed that here (Seattle), a couple of specialized niche stores do that, and it works really well, but i feel like there might be some reason for why only those kinds of stores do that.

The one that comes to mind is Patchwerks (analog synthesizer store; disclaimer: I have zero affiliation with that store aside from being a happy customer). Their own online inventory system is a pleasure to work with, and they stock all kinds of rare items that are accurately reflected in their online system. Ordered around noon, picked up a couple hours later, it was a true pleasure to work with. What their website displays is in stock has always been in stock. Not even once the state of the inventory on their website didn’t match the reality. And yet, not any other more general store I’ve seen could even match it, whether it is a local or a larger scale store.

For example, Guitar Center’s online inventory system is a straight up joke. What the website says is in stock at my local store is not in stock 99% of the time. And it cuts the other way around too. Which renders the whole website useless, as i have to call to find out what they actually have, so they can spend 10 mins of my life on hold while they are searching for an item. Then rinse and repeat if I want to check on another item or if i want to check another Guitar Center that is a bit further away in a nearby town.

Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#53

Post by m-p-3 »

jfk13 wrote: post #39
user5994461 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> it provides a good customer experience: good prices Amazon had not offered better prices than the main brick-and-mortar shops for a long long time. Try comparing the items you see in shops with the same on Amazon and be Amazed. The best are small household items. Sellers buy from Ikea and resell on Amazon. Sometimes customers find out and they post reviews you can imagine, "OMG this is the £4 cutlery pack from Ik…

They do the same on eBay, too. I've had to warn friends that finding the cheapest seller for a given item on eBay may still be substantially more expensive than buying the same item directly from Ikea. (Sometimes it does make sense to buy from the eBay or Amazon marketplace reseller, if it's a small item where their markup + shipping is less than Ikea's per-order delivery charge.)

Agreed. Just because you can get it from Amazon doesn't mean it's the cheapest way to get it because even though the provide free shipping, the price is substantially higher to compensate that.

Buying at a brick and mortar store reduce that need for individualized shipping, and the economies of scale of buying and delivering a large amount of product from the manufacturers by the retailer which is physically close to the customers help reducing costs.

Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#54

Post by aurizon »

Quebec corruption in almost all organized labour adds a layer of cost to all Quebeckers. Then the high taxes and enourmously overpaid civil serpents adds another. Where does the $$ come from to cover this? There are two major revenue sourcesL; One is the Canadian federal revenue sharing with Quebec, called Equalization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equalization_payments_in_Canad...). All Canadians subsidize Quebec - mainly Ontario and the oil riches on Manitoba and others with oil (used to be oil rich at any case). The other main source of Quebec revenue is the rape of Labrador Water power revenues(part of Newfoundland). This was a huge win for Quebec, as it gets the power at $3 per MWh, compared to what Quebec sells it for $40-45 per MWh. Once this run out in 2041 = death of this huge cash cow for the most part, as Labrador will finish a large EHV DC line to the USA under the sea by then, one hopes. (it is planned and as you can see, can finance itself easily) So Quebec will find itself in real trouble by then.

Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#55

Post by seszett »

jefft255 wrote: post #50
seszett wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just saying that Quebec is not the only French speaking place in America, nothing more.

>> There are quite a few other French-speaking places in America and most of them are (or see themselves) under no cultural threat. Well... This reads to me like you're saying something more.

Well I was saying that they don't seem to need bill 101, since you were saying that bill 101 was created to protect the only French speaking group in America.

Québec is not the only French speaking group in America and bill 101 is only a Québec law, that's what I wanted to say. Maybe that wasn't clear.

Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#56

Post by TulliusCicero »

user5994461 wrote: post #28
TulliusCicero wrote: post #16

This seems kind of doomed to fail. Amazon is appealing because it provides a good customer experience: good prices, fast shipping, wide variety of products, responsive customer service, etc. More local businesses fail to compete because they mostly offer the same things with worse prices and experience. It's one thing to appeal to people's sense of civic responsibility for the environment, another thing entirely for…

>>> it provides a good customer experience: good prices Amazon had not offered better prices than the main brick-and-mortar shops for a long long time. Try comparing the items you see in shops with the same on Amazon and be Amazed. The best are small household items. Sellers buy from Ikea and resell on Amazon. Sometimes customers find out and they post reviews you can imagine, "OMG this is the £4 cutlery pack from Ik…

That seems like kind of a cherry pick. Of course small cheap household goods like basic cutlery aren't gonna be much better on Amazon, if ever, but plenty of other categories are still better on Amazon than most B&M stores.

Like, good luck finding decent USB batteries/chargers locally, they're usually 50-100% more expensive while being substantially worse than the Anker/Aukey/Ravpower brand items popular on Amazon.

Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#57

Post by whb07 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #51
whb07 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly answer this, would an average person with more money in their account spend it or leave it there?

That depends if your average person is poor or not. Poor people will spend their money (and thus increase consumption) while wealthy people will hoard it. This is incidentally also why "trickle down economics" do not work - there is no incentive for rich people to spend more money than they need, but (thanks to interest) there is the incentive of hoarding it for (virtual) growth.

Most people would spend more. Here’s the best part, are you ready? Assuming people don’t bury the money or keep it under a mattress, that money gets pooled up in some sort of custodian account. Then that money gets loaned out and invested.

So you do want to get a cheaper service and it does benefit society.

Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#58

Post by amiga_500 »

betaby wrote: post #38
amiga_500 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in quebec. My kids go to a nice school. I live in a nice neighborhood. I get the nice metro to work. Or I cycle on the nice cycle network. I got my covid test, and result. I saw a really good doctor the same day. The same doctor rang me back 2 days later to check up on me at home. My kids would normally be in and out of a fantastic, modern library, or at the pool, or playing soccer in the great parks. Sadly th…

...and my kinds go to overcrowded 'secondaire' (with very questionable teaching quality all across the QC, yes I seen articles praising how good is QC in math) ...and I often stuck on overcrowded orange line (last year was was the worst in delays) ...had to travel for the medical reasons abroad, wait times in QC are really bad if you are not dying right now ...I also don't specifically avoid homeless people, but some…

Montreal homeless issue is nothing like the USA situation.

The orange line is a dream compared to the London tube.

Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#59

Post by amiga_500 »

jarjoura wrote: post #42
amiga_500 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in quebec. My kids go to a nice school. I live in a nice neighborhood. I get the nice metro to work. Or I cycle on the nice cycle network. I got my covid test, and result. I saw a really good doctor the same day. The same doctor rang me back 2 days later to check up on me at home. My kids would normally be in and out of a fantastic, modern library, or at the pool, or playing soccer in the great parks. Sadly th…

> If I go outside I'm not avoiding the homeless in huge numbers. Rent and housing are not absurdly expensive, allowing affordability for families. In a recent trip to Montreal I never saw more homeless people out on the streets, and they were nasty and mean, demanding my attention. The shocking part was how cold it was outside and how the city allowed that to happen.

This is anecdata. Homeless in the USA is far, far worse.

NY has 1 in 125 homeless, 70k. Montreal has 3.1k. (1 in 1000).

Yes Montreal can do better, but as per my original point, where the poster complained about the ease of registering a new business, making your province into a great place to register a business is not the path to a great society.

https://www.bowery.org/homelessness/

https://www.homelesshub.ca/community-profile/montreal

Progress and Poverty, the top selling book behind The Bible in the 1890s has more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty

Re: A fight against Amazon becomes a state matter in Quebec

#60

Post by betaby »

amiga_500 wrote: post #58
betaby wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...and my kinds go to overcrowded 'secondaire' (with very questionable teaching quality all across the QC, yes I seen articles praising how good is QC in math) ...and I often stuck on overcrowded orange line (last year was was the worst in delays) ...had to travel for the medical reasons abroad, wait times in QC are really bad if you are not dying right now ...I also don't specifically avoid homeless people, but some…

Montreal homeless issue is nothing like the USA situation. The orange line is a dream compared to the London tube.

That's a very Canadian reply - to compare with the worst examples, especially US ones. Not too many 3rd world countries can 'beat' US in homeless situation.
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