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The Anti-Amazon Alliance

stratechery.com

341–350 of 419 posts

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#341
post #272
post #14

>as John Gruber put it on Daring Fireball, “Amazon isn’t hurting for revenue (especially now), but they are hurting for trust.” This is empirically false. Amazon is the second most-trusted brand in America . https://morningconsult.com/most-trusted-brands/ It's wild how easily SV types will tweet things like "No one trusts Amazon!" when the reality outside the Bay Area is so radically and demonstrably opposite.

Last year I made 349 orders on Amazon and cannot think of a single time I got a counterfeit item or felt tricked by the reviews. I would really like to wonder of the people encountering frequent fake products on Amazon, what categories are you shopping in? Is it fashion items or something similar? My main Amazon purchases are household items/toiletries and then hobby electronic parts. I haven't had any issues with th…

I purchased in the last year or so an Intel Core i5 processor. You know what came? A cardboard box that looked like an Intel box, but was filled with four packs of Chinese playing cards. When I called to request a WTF? The nice lady insisted it was a mistaken order to which I steadfastly replied no, this is fraud. It was pretty ridiculous.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#342
post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last year I made 349 orders on Amazon and cannot think of a single time I got a counterfeit item or felt tricked by the reviews. I would really like to wonder of the people encountering frequent fake products on Amazon, what categories are you shopping in? Is it fashion items or something similar? My main Amazon purchases are household items/toiletries and then hobby electronic parts. I haven't had any issues with th…

My distrust of Amazon started when I had a baby. It felt like about 80% of the stuff I ordered at first was junk. Maybe not fake, I don't know, maybe I was just being too trusting with what I was ordering, but either way it was total junk. So I started reading reviews a lot more carefully. This didn't help, I still just got junk. So then I started only ordering things from brand names I recognized. A couple times I m…

Target's delivery service is surprisingly usable, especially if you have their card (lowers the minimum for free shipping).

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> frustrated by shipping times Personally, this is the issue with the largest effect on my willingness to try other e-commerce sites. When 1-2 day shipping becomes normal, it's hard to want to shop somewhere else like eBay when shipping times are usually in the 1-2+ week time frame. So when Amazon started telling me it would be 3-4 weeks before I got what I ordered (because apparently their definition of essential do…

This is why I'm looking forward to Shopify Fulfillment Network [1] helping to level the distribution playing field. [1] https://www.shopify.com/fulfillment

That's great to hear. I hope they have big funding, because they will need it.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying Amazons business model is comparable to someone who murders people for a living? Lol what?

Is your comment motivated by actual confusion, misguided rhetorical posturing, or trolling? If the first, I'm happy to walk you through the reasoning should camelite's comment prove insufficient.

I don’t think Amazon is doing anything comparable to “murder”, and it’s disappointing that HN discussions are turning into a Reddit like hive mind to downvote and censor discordant views.

RE: “Misguided rhetorical posturing“ and “trolling”.

You’re basically writing indirect personal attacks. If you really wanted to “walk me through the reasoning” you could have just posted that reasoning instead of what you actually wrote.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#345
At this point I'd argue it's better to shop at alibaba or aliexpress. Sure it might come from China, and sure it might be fake or broken, or a scam, but at least you _know_ you might get screwed.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#347

Most non-Amazon businesses are mediocre. Most grocery stores still don't have online ordering. Years, and years, and years, after Amazon entered the field, the other grocers have just decided to lie down and die. Still waiting for Chapters (a bookstore in Canada) to start sending me reading good reading recommendations. Still waiting on VISA to make generalized gift cards which are not miserable to use. I'm trying to…

> Most grocery stores still don't have online ordering. Years, and years, and years, after Amazon entered the field, the other grocers have just decided to lie down and die. Everyone but Trader Joe’s delivers where I love (SF). I don’t think this is true. > I'm trying to think of any industry Amazon took out when even tried to fight back. Most just whined their way into oblivion. Remember the Fire Phone? Amazon doesn…

> where I love (SF). I don’t think this is true.

So... the most technically forward city in North America? I'm in Calgary, which is not a tech hub.

> Remember the Fire Phone? Amazon doesn’t always hit home runs, they have a ton of money so they can afford to fail fast and reinvest elsewhere.

And these companies start as the incumbents, which gives them time to at least copy and respond. Amazon had to steal every customer from them.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either you missed the point of that survey or you're deliberately misrepresenting its results. Did you miss the sentence that said 'This ranking is determined by share of "a lot" responses.'? Amazon is the 2nd most trusted brand, according to that survey.

I might have translated that survey result more into something like “No major brand deemed trustworthy by majority of consumers. Amazon a little less distrusted than most other major brands”.

I can't find anything specific about the survey methodology related to this data, but there being an 'a lot' response implies to me the existence of answers like 'a little' as well that convey trust

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their prices aren't competitive anymore... What do you mean by this? Amazon has had the lowest price for basically everything I’ve shopped for in the last 4 years. When it is higher on Amazon, it’s by pennies (because algorithms) and not for very long. At home there’s a grocery store at the bottom of my elevator. It costs less money for me to buy groceries on Amazon Fresh with same-day delivery, than it does for me…

I was curious about the lower prices you mentioned. And it isn't the case for items I usually buy. For instance, my local grocery store has 2 liter Diet Coke Caffeine Free for $0.99 (on sale, sure, but it occurs like clockwork every 2 weeks), while Amazon Fresh has it for $1.74. Plain bagels are $1.99 at the grocery store, while AF charges $3.24. Could it be the case that your local grocery store is simply overpriced…

Same with me. The cheaper factor is just brainwash marketing machine or very short term campaign till people trust blindly.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#350
post #14

>as John Gruber put it on Daring Fireball, “Amazon isn’t hurting for revenue (especially now), but they are hurting for trust.” This is empirically false. Amazon is the second most-trusted brand in America . https://morningconsult.com/most-trusted-brands/ It's wild how easily SV types will tweet things like "No one trusts Amazon!" when the reality outside the Bay Area is so radically and demonstrably opposite.

I have noticed that they haven't hopped on the "cancel" train (led by Twitter, Facebook, and Google/YouTube). I'm not exactly an Amazon fanboy, but that in itself inspires a certain level of trust. (Bezos does own WaPo, though.)

Well. They don't have much to cancel really... I don't know if they would, if they could. No way to know that really. Just that they're really in a different business than the others.
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