Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by jazu » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:26 PM UTC

halikular wrote: post #117

londons_explore wrote: post #60

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 n…

Being able to test clothes before you buy them to so if they fit is so much more convenient than ordering the wrong size online.

You can try them on in the local store and then buy the same size online. Works wonders for some products like brand sneakers or jeans.

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

#122

Post by Arainach » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:26 PM UTC

mamaluigie wrote: post #113

crazygringo wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's hilarious! Do you... try that regularly? Stores are so understaffed, you're lucky to get them to pick up the phone at all, and if they do you often won't get accurate information. They'll never walk to an aisle to see if something is physically there, they'll tell you if it's "in the system", but frequently "the system" will show 3 in stock while the reality is zero on the shelf. Or 48 in stock but they're all…

Yes. Just tell the guy to get off his butt and go and see if the item is in stock. This has worked every time for me. I call walmart on a reg to see if an item is in stock before having to drive all the way there.

So my choice is to harass/insult a minimum wage employee and distract them from their already-overloaded and already-minmaxed job so that I can spend more, get in my vehicle and spew carbon into the atmosphere to......give money to a family of ultra-billionaires instead of one ultrabillionaire? And that's helping my local economy?

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

#123

Post by Karunamon » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

mamaluigie wrote: post #113

crazygringo wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's hilarious! Do you... try that regularly? Stores are so understaffed, you're lucky to get them to pick up the phone at all, and if they do you often won't get accurate information. They'll never walk to an aisle to see if something is physically there, they'll tell you if it's "in the system", but frequently "the system" will show 3 in stock while the reality is zero on the shelf. Or 48 in stock but they're all…

Yes. Just tell the guy to get off his butt and go and see if the item is in stock. This has worked every time for me. I call walmart on a reg to see if an item is in stock before having to drive all the way there.

Not sure I’d consider Walmart the kind of local business being discussed here...

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

#124

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

halikular wrote: post #117

londons_explore wrote: post #60

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 n…

Being able to test clothes before you buy them to so if they fit is so much more convenient than ordering the wrong size online.

Kohls solves this by giving you 120 day returns so I disagree. Plus you don't have to sort through everything and check the prices in store. Just wait for it to show up, try it out. Keep it if it's good, ditch it if it's not.

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

#125

Post by pythonaut_16 » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

usrusr wrote: post #53

lotsofpulp wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Sales needs to adjust to the new reality. Recognize that people have options and other sources of information and focus on answering their actual questions instead of trying to sell them on something.

If I walk into a car dealership it's because I need specific information not available online, even if it's just to see the car in person.

What I don't need is a whole sales pitch. That's wasting my time and the salesman's.

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

#126

Post by meroes » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

nactivint wrote: post #110

crazygringo wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's hilarious! Do you... try that regularly? Stores are so understaffed, you're lucky to get them to pick up the phone at all, and if they do you often won't get accurate information. They'll never walk to an aisle to see if something is physically there, they'll tell you if it's "in the system", but frequently "the system" will show 3 in stock while the reality is zero on the shelf. Or 48 in stock but they're all…

Actually my wife does this all the time and it works, especially for small businesses. Larger companies have websites, and small businesses care enough to do things like check the stock for you. So I guess my anecdote cancels yours out?

This goes for San Francisco retail shops but also I'm sure other places: Some of the stores don't open till noon. Some are only open 3 days a week. Some stores are open the days the other stores are closed. I'm talking about some of the most popular retail storefronts in SF.

There are no good options. I went through this recently where I had to call different stores on 3 separate days, waiting till 10am, 11am, or 12pm. And you still don't know the product you are asking about is really the one you are after. There are so many versions of products and specific use cases nowadays.

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

#127

Post by VBprogrammer » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

nactivint wrote: post #110

crazygringo wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's hilarious! Do you... try that regularly? Stores are so understaffed, you're lucky to get them to pick up the phone at all, and if they do you often won't get accurate information. They'll never walk to an aisle to see if something is physically there, they'll tell you if it's "in the system", but frequently "the system" will show 3 in stock while the reality is zero on the shelf. Or 48 in stock but they're all…

Actually my wife does this all the time and it works, especially for small businesses. Larger companies have websites, and small businesses care enough to do things like check the stock for you. So I guess my anecdote cancels yours out?

The previous posters experience resonates much more with me than your experience.

Even when you do go to a shop you are often redirected online. That item isn't in stock on the computer. No attempt to upsell you or suggest an alternative which they might have in stock. It's no wonder high street stores are dying out.

To be fair, small specialist stores are usually much better. I even got a call back from a company the last time I was trying to buy a specific BBQ. Sadly they didn't have it in stock and a day or two later I found it online.

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

#128

Post by bigth » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #122

mamaluigie wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Just tell the guy to get off his butt and go and see if the item is in stock. This has worked every time for me. I call walmart on a reg to see if an item is in stock before having to drive all the way there.

So my choice is to harass/insult a minimum wage employee and distract them from their already-overloaded and already-minmaxed job so that I can spend more, get in my vehicle and spew carbon into the atmosphere to......give money to a family of ultra-billionaires instead of one ultrabillionaire? And that's helping my local economy?

Why are you harassing and insulting them in the first place? Nobody taught you how to speak politely?

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

#129

Post by defaultname » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

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"

Why add the "gasp" bit? A lot of people don't want to have to talk to people unnecessarily and they certainly don't need to justify themselves. And let's be real: When you talk to someone at a local store you're usually talking to some completely unmotivated teenager who knows positively nothing about the domain and makes everything take much, much longer.

Buying local versus online is playing out identically to the buy downtown rather than at the mall transition: Instead of offering concrete benefits, there is an attempt to control behavior by shaming. It is completely ineffective. "Why efficiently find exactly what you're looking for at a competitive price when you can instead waste your time talking to a lot of different people, doing what you very much don't want to do, to eventually buy something not quite right for more?"

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

#130

Post by BeFlatXIII » Sat, May 08, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

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%…

Even if you are a hard-boiled negotiator, the additional time it takes to visit different stores to make the comparison often isn’t worth it compared to buying the whatever the first floor associate recommends to you.