Live data from Hacker News

5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk

amazon.co.uk

31–40 of 167 posts

Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk

#31
post #19

4000% increate in the sale of Coleman PefectFlow 1-Burner Stoves on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/movers-and-shakers/sporting-goods It must be significant.

27,000% percent increase in flashlights in Japan. Clearly the rioters threaten our power plants. http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/movers-and-shakers/378-9075017-80...

Awful; neither funny nor relevant, and disrespectful to boot.

Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk

#35
post #14

Might become a Business Ethics Class classic. From my point of view, Amazon should not deliver. It is obvious the bats are intended to be used as weapons, which is illegal at least in Germany, no matter what circumstances.

Ah, so upstanding citizens should have no tools for defending themselves, loved ones, homes & businesses? Business Ethics Class classic indeed, and with no clear-cut answer. I'd contend that anyone ordering such products online under such circumstances is not part of the criminal element (who would instead just raid a sporting-goods store, or pick up any comparable object) ... and thus Amazon would do customers well…

We should sell them AK-47s and grenades. Probably higher profit margins.

Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk

#36
post #5

Are the rioters buying these or the people and shop owners who want to protect their property?

Surely rioters? I find it hard to believe a shop owner is seriously going to try and hold the line by themselves against a mob. Also, a baseball bat is a classic disguised weapon but a shopkeeper will have no justification in having one so it is probably an offensive weapon in UK law. I've heard it said that D-cell Maglite torches are used by security guards not because they necessarily need a torch (a headtorch is g…

I find it quite believable that a poor immigrant whos entire economic security depends on his shop is going to defend it with is life.

Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk

#37
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't thousands, it's only a few hundred. Remember, the British don't play much baseball so they would normally only be selling a handful of any given bat per day.

A handful of bats = one?

My best guess would be less than a dozen, based on my experiences using RankTracer. But I haven't actually looked it up.

Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk

#38
At least one of the items (the only explicitly martial one) appears to have been pulled, #2 as of my viewing, "Military Police Telescopic Tonfa - 21" was up 4,291% to #136, now 404s and doesn't return from search either. Doesn't seem to be the case of just being out of stock, as another one of the bats in the top 10 just shows as unavailable/out of stock.

Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk

#39
post #5

Are the rioters buying these or the people and shop owners who want to protect their property?

(UK poster here - living away from the riots though, thankfully) There was apparently a decently large group of Turkish business owners in London last night who got together with baseball bats to protect their businesses (which apparently worked). I'd say it's a bit of both.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN