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Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

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Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#51

Post by lotsofpulp »

______- wrote: post #15

I can see the reasoning behind this. People don't want to help Bezos get another holiday home; they would rather funnel money into local businesses for obvious reasons (like helping a little boy buy his team jersey or a little girl get dance lessons for example). One caveat to the local alternatives is the friction involved if it's an e-commerce store where users have to register their details. Most will happily regi…

> People don't want to help Bezos get another holiday home; they would rather funnel money into local businesses for obvious reasons (like helping a little boy buy his team jersey or a little girl get dance lessons for example).

That’s not the world I’ve been living in in the US. People would rather go to national stores like Target, Home Depot, etc. Also, order online and pickup in store is even better than Amazon for me.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#52

Post by antihero »

usrusr wrote: post #32
corytheboyd wrote: post #11

This is a really good idea! I love my small businesses but being coddled by the internet is so real, you get used to immediately finding exactly what you want. With local stores, you have to put in some work sometimes, and ghasp talk to real people, potentially a few, at different stores, to get what you need. It sounds like a lot written out like that, but the important bits are that the people you talk to, you lear…

> and ghasp talk to real people, potentially a few, at different stores, to get what you need. That's really an issue: if you aren't the hard-boiled, super unemphatic negotiator type you'll likely buy the very first thing a salesperson has invested face-minutes in, if it just gets the easy 80% of requirements/desires right. "Thanks for your time, but I'll go see if there's another offer that is maybe 3% better or 2%…

Pretty sure a lot of people just see "Amazon's Choice" and hit Buy Now

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#53

Post by usrusr »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #42
usrusr wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and ghasp talk to real people, potentially a few, at different stores, to get what you need. That's really an issue: if you aren't the hard-boiled, super unemphatic negotiator type you'll likely buy the very first thing a salesperson has invested face-minutes in, if it just gets the easy 80% of requirements/desires right. "Thanks for your time, but I'll go see if there's another offer that is maybe 3% better or 2%…

People in the US were not haggling for anything less than a car in the decades before the internet.

Exactly! And the same fate is waiting for "thanks for the time you just wasted, but I'd rather check out the competition next door some more".

For most people, this has already happened. It's just not as visible as haggle/no haggle (even to the people doing/not doing themselves)

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#54

Post by Swizec »

usrusr wrote: post #48
Swizec wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other end of the spectrum you have items where expert help is necessary. When I bought my first motorcycle gear, I had little idea what to look for, what I need, or how to verify it does the job. Going to a store that specializes in motorcycles and gear was fantastic. They showed me how to fit a helmet, what to look for in a jacket, gloves, etc. I could try multiple items to find which brands fit my body, what…

Unfortunately, things can get quite messy when expert advice gets conflated with inventory management. And most shops struggling to survive against online doesn't make that better at at all. We really need to find some middle ground where foot-on-the-ground shop continue to exist, but not as an antithesis to online but as an extension. For bikes (of the pedal-pushing variety), there's now a market for what is effecti…

You're right, the inventory management part gets tricky. On the other hand they claim to only have inventory they trust and promote. So it becomes a question of "Do I trust this influencer's opinion?"

I've seen modern direct-to-consumer brands use the approach you mention. Their revenue stream is instagram ads and online retail, but they also have physical shops in bougie locations where you can go browse and talk to their [sales] staff. They only rep 1 brand which can be an issue.

Personally I've had good luck with specialist stores. You have to go in with a satisficing instead of maximizing mentality and it works great. The average on offer is about 10x better than the average you find online. (because inventory & space are expensive)

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#56

Post by alimbada »

Acrobatic_Road wrote: post #26
dane-pgp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're looking for an open source Chrome or Firefox extension that helps people lessen their support of Amazon, then there's this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/not-today-jeff/hoa... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/not-today-jef... https://github.com/codders/not-today-jeff

If you don't want to use Amazon...then just stop using Amazon. No browser extension required.

Odd you're getting downvotes for this. As if to say people have so little self-control that they absolutely can't boycott Amazon without involiving a technical solution.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#58

Post by wffurr »

usrusr wrote: post #32
corytheboyd wrote: post #11

This is a really good idea! I love my small businesses but being coddled by the internet is so real, you get used to immediately finding exactly what you want. With local stores, you have to put in some work sometimes, and ghasp talk to real people, potentially a few, at different stores, to get what you need. It sounds like a lot written out like that, but the important bits are that the people you talk to, you lear…

> and ghasp talk to real people, potentially a few, at different stores, to get what you need. That's really an issue: if you aren't the hard-boiled, super unemphatic negotiator type you'll likely buy the very first thing a salesperson has invested face-minutes in, if it just gets the easy 80% of requirements/desires right. "Thanks for your time, but I'll go see if there's another offer that is maybe 3% better or 2%…

That's Google shopping, and the inventory integration is pretty hard. Lots of stores don't or didn't use reliabile inventory systems. I wonder if the pandemic and in person closures have pushed some shops into maintaining their inventory databases.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#59

Post by mumblemumble »

jahewson wrote: post #41
reidjs wrote: post #29

I think I’m the only person who considers online shopping less convenient than just going to a local store and buying it. In person you just walk or drive over to the store, select the item, pay, and go home with the correct product. Online I have to turn on my computer or open an app. Type in a bunch of stuff, Search around, click cookie consent buttons, avoid newsletters, log in, enter your address, put in your cre…

> In person you just walk or drive over to the store, select the item, pay, and go home with the correct product. I think you mean get the kids ready and put them in the car, drive for 20 minutes to Target, spend another 5 trying to park, schlep from the back of the parking lot to the store in 90 degree heat, wander endlessly around the store because they moved one of your usual purchases into and end-cap. Inevitably…

Two thoughts there. First, my partner and I always send one person to the store, so that we don't have to load up the kids or deal with them in the store.

Second, I think that this shopping experience you describe is a uniquely suburban experience. Going to Target is indeed awful. But, where I live in the city, it's a reasonably pleasant 10 minute walk to the neighborhood hardware store, which has had the same layout for probably 30 years, and you can be in and out in a few minutes. Grocery store is an even more pleasant 5 minute bike ride, and it's also a human-friendly size and easy to get through fairly quickly. Shopping for clothing is still awful, but shopping for clothing is inherently awful but thankfully infrequent.

At my partner's folks' out in a small town, I guess some people do drive an hour round trip to the nearest big box store, but I've always liked that it's a short hop into town, and all the stores are reasonably sized and within a block of each other. With the town's park just a couple blocks away, so we can take turns hanging out with the kids in the playground while the other goes into the store. I guess we don't have as many options, but I'm genuinely happy to choose convenience and happiness over a selection of 73 different kinds of breakfast cereal.

Similar when we're visiting my mom, also in a small town, except that the playground is unfortunately on the complete other side of town from the commercial district.

Then, at my dad's house in a suburban community, it's nothing but big box stores and misery.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#60

Post by londons_explore »

Small business near me never seem to have online catalogues or stock levels.

Hunting for a specific product (for example a washing line) might involve walking into 3 different shops and guessing which shop might sell what you need. When you arrive in the shop, they always arrange aisles differently so unless you have 20 minutes to hunt you might not find it either.

Whereas online it's a simple search and click "buy now". It's probably cheaper too.

Bricks and mortar shops need to do a lot of work on the shopping experience before they're competitive. The only time bricks and mortar shops win are when I need something right now or groceries.

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