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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

#141

Post by iamevn »

greenie_beans wrote: post #69
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…

I’m sorry, I can’t help but point out that you could call the store before you left your house. And when in the store, you could ask a sales associate for help. Just sayin!

Tried this when I wanted a tool to help pick a tubular lock that was being difficult with the improvised stuff I was trying and which I didn't want to drill out. Of all the hardware stores and hobby shops I called, only one actually took me seriously and checked to be sure they didn't have it. All the rest falsely told me that lock picking was illegal and seemed to take offense.

Ended up buying some cheap shit off ebay that got the job done.

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

#142

Post by UncleMeat »

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?

I live in a fairly small town. Almost every store is minimally staffed, often by a single person. Phones regularly go to voicemail. Calling up the local shoe store to ask whether they have something in my size will get an interesting response. I’m also thinner than average here, so entire pants racks at the local clothing stores just don’t carry a single piece in my size.

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

#143

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#144

Post by mdaniel »

Yhippa wrote: post #45

Would be cool if there was something like Grubhub/Doordash/Uber Eats for local businesses where you could buy "stuff". Might work a little bit better since you could get it quicker than Amazon. I know I've discovered so many new restaurants in my area because of those services that I wouldn't have tried before.

Isn't that the problem Instacart is attempting to solve? I readily admit I'm not a user in order to know if any business is available to be ordered from, but toward that end I don't believe just any business is available for those food delivery ones, either

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

#146

Post by cto_of_antifa »

orhmeh09 wrote: post #137
manigandham wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haggling is tiring and mostly useless considering the time and energy expended. There's a reason most shopping has gone towards standardized list prices without negotiation, and this happened way before Amazon existed. Even the large purchases like cars and real estate are trending towards upfront pricing now. Now recommendations by a store expert are a different thing, but local businesses are again limited by recom…

Is this really true for real estate? In the U.S., I regularly hear how people must offer tens of thousands of dollars over a house’s listed price to get any consideration (Seattle).

that's depressing! I've heard similar things as well

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

#147

Post by nsainaney »

jazu wrote: post #121
halikular wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed. Doesn't anyone go out in their neighbourhood anymore. What's with wanting everything to come to you. I like going out and know the names of the bar managers and store staff at the places I shop....

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

#148

Post by BenjiWiebe »

bluishgreen wrote: post #22

Try returning something you didn’t like to your friendly neighborhood warm fuzzy store and come back to this thread, let’s continue the conversation

I've returned stuff to physical stores and it's usually pretty easy. And online returns, even if always accepted, are a hassle of repackaging the product and bringing it to a shipping drop-off location.

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

#149

Post by cto_of_antifa »

taivare wrote: post #78
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer to buy at brick and mortar but I question this reason for it. The guy in the plumbing section of the hardware store probably knows where things are on the shelf there, but probably has not done plumbing themselves and probably can't answer my DIY question about what product to use. For that, I end up needing YouTube.

Last Saturday I decided to fix the leaky kitchen faucet installed in the 80's. YouTube had me replacing cartridges @ $22 for pair. They had a former plumber working who down sold me the real fix, a pair of rubber seals w/springs $3.25 This guy told me the cartridges rarely are the problem . . he was right! he also instructed me on how to make the repair.

right - the thing about YouTube is that you can only search for things you know you don't know. talking to a human interactively allows for troubleshooting feedback in real time.

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

#150

Post by robbrown451 »

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.

As long as you can find your size. I'm tall and thin, so if I want to buy something as basic as Levi's jeans, I have to go to a ton of stores and have limited choices. Now I just get them on Amazon, problem solved.

This is a problem that should have been solved years ago. You should be able to measure yourself very accurately and thoroughly, keep it on some sort of file that you can share what you need, and then use tools on the online sites to learn exactly how their products will fit.

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