Walmart says it will discontinue Jet • Hacker News Board

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#111

Post by dumbfounder » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

MangoCoffee wrote: post #54

nojito wrote: post #36

Pretty sure Walmart has absorbed and replicated jet's backend throughout its (Walmart’s) entire backend. Interesting talk from Scott Havens here about why WalMart acquired them and what Walmart problems they were able to solve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FskIb9SariI There simply isn't a need for jet.com branding anymore.

it seem like a waste not to continue the jet.com. its a simple domain that is easy to remember.

I am sure Walmart did the requisite analysis to figure out it was a smart move to shut the brand down. Cost to maintain brand, trajectory, number of loyal customers, etc. That isn't to say they couldn't have made a mistake, but this isn't their first rodeo, so I think you can assume some smart people looked at a bunch of angles before making the decision.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#112

Post by crawdog » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

Jet was purchased for one thing. Marc Lore. The executive team missed their chance to Amazon with Quisdi and were not about to make the same mistake again.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#113

Post by mindslight » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

Why not just spin it back out, bring back the 20% off coupons (especially for things drop shipped from Zoro and Ingram), and sell it to someone else for $3B?

I especially liked the buy one get one-half free specials on heavy items, for them having no clue how to pack things. Thankfully Chewy seems to have taken up that mantle. (/s)

Rest in peace Jet. Thank you for getting me used to buying toilet paper 4 packs at a time, preparing me for the COVID shortages.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#114

Post by ardy42 » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

MangoCoffee wrote: post #54

nojito wrote: post #36

Pretty sure Walmart has absorbed and replicated jet's backend throughout its (Walmart’s) entire backend. Interesting talk from Scott Havens here about why WalMart acquired them and what Walmart problems they were able to solve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FskIb9SariI There simply isn't a need for jet.com branding anymore.

it seem like a waste not to continue the jet.com. its a simple domain that is easy to remember.

> it seem like a waste not to continue the jet.com. its a simple domain that is easy to remember.

Seems like it would be useful to market to other demographics or customers that don't have positive associations with Walmart.

I already have a preference for Target, Walmart's competitor, because I associate Walmart with prioritizing cheap over everything, including quality and style.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#115

Post by erikig » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:16 PM UTC

vsskanth wrote: post #60

Story time! When Jet.com launched they had some promos going on so I wanted to check out what it was all about and ordered a bunch of stuff. I think at that point they had 2 day shipping over 25 without a membership. Their signature purple package arrives on time, in a larger than expected box. I open it, and there's a smaller Amazon box inside. I open THAT and it has all my items. I got two receipts, one from jet.co…

I can see how this would happen. When working in inventory and fulfillment we'd often see our competitors price their goods below our wholesale. Sometimes it was because of the manufacturer incentives, other times because the product was a loss leader and was used as a promo. Either way, it seems that Jet.com was able to leverage this and use the Amazon pricing to keep their client happy. Fair play to all involved.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#116

Post by manaskarekar » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:16 PM UTC

vsskanth wrote: post #60

Story time! When Jet.com launched they had some promos going on so I wanted to check out what it was all about and ordered a bunch of stuff. I think at that point they had 2 day shipping over 25 without a membership. Their signature purple package arrives on time, in a larger than expected box. I open it, and there's a smaller Amazon box inside. I open THAT and it has all my items. I got two receipts, one from jet.co…

This reminds me of the Silicon Valley episode where the start up 'Sliceline' sells repackaged Domino's pizzas.

Don't recall if they explicitly stated 'they'll make it up in volume.'

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#117

Post by ARandomerDude » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:17 PM UTC

vsskanth wrote: post #60

Story time! When Jet.com launched they had some promos going on so I wanted to check out what it was all about and ordered a bunch of stuff. I think at that point they had 2 day shipping over 25 without a membership. Their signature purple package arrives on time, in a larger than expected box. I open it, and there's a smaller Amazon box inside. I open THAT and it has all my items. I got two receipts, one from jet.co…

I recently had the reverse experience. I ordered something from Amazon and there was a Walmart box inside the Amazon box. I was not expecting that!

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#118

Post by arkades » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:20 PM UTC

dumbfounder wrote: post #111

MangoCoffee wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it seem like a waste not to continue the jet.com. its a simple domain that is easy to remember.

I am sure Walmart did the requisite analysis to figure out it was a smart move to shut the brand down. Cost to maintain brand, trajectory, number of loyal customers, etc. That isn't to say they couldn't have made a mistake, but this isn't their first rodeo, so I think you can assume some smart people looked at a bunch of angles before making the decision.

Nah. Walmart totally makes multi-million dollar business decisions with less diligence and critical analysis than random HN posters.

I think of this as the social media Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. You see comments from folks with zero insight and no doubt no specialized knowledge of the relevant industry, recognize that they are likely just making an off-the-cuff comment without any value, open the next thread where it's less obvious how little industry knowledge the posters have, and resume giving their comments the benefit of the doubt.

I fall victim to it with some frequency. Almost any comments here about the medical industry, of which I'm a veteran, are just wildly ignorant - and spoken with the same strident confidence as comments about the airline industry (for example), about which commenters are likely just as profoundly ignorant. But then I don't know they're profoundly ignorant, and suddenly I think, gosh, that person has some incisive insights.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#119

Post by jcims » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:20 PM UTC

dawnerd wrote: post #110

sct202 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon I think is sandbagging the estimates. We got a gift card during the holidays and decided to spend it, and we're non-prime and put in 2 orders. Both shipping estimates were 1 month out and then suddenly delivered 2 days after the order.

I dunno. I think you just got lucky. I’m still waiting on some packages. But also I think they’re using it as an excuse to use cheaper shipping. I know bestbuy is doing this for sure. I think they figure no one will notice they’re using smartpost and if you complain just blaming the speed on the pandemic.

I'm in the middle of a large project at home. I've made probably 10-15 orders from Amazon in the past six weeks as I find my way through it. All but two of them arrived within 3 days, despite most showing weeks out. No difference in shipper, shipping tier or anything else that I could see. Of the two outliers, one arrived within the estimated time and the other was lost in shipping.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#120

Post by H1Supreme » Tue, May 19, 2020, 2:22 PM UTC

snarf21 wrote: post #65

herman_toothrot wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have an example of an item being sold at Walmart which is a cheaper version packaged as the more expensive version? Genuinely curious, I'm unaware of this...

I can give you a specific example. Hanes T-shirts, for use as under shirts. They version you get at Walmart is thinner fabric, the seams are single stitched, not double. My understanding is that Walmart usually sets the price for these kinds of things and it is up to the vendor to make a version they can sell at that price and make money.

I actually like the thinner fabric undershirts. My issue with the one's I've bought from walmart is there's basically no consistency. I bought the v-neck versions to wear under a button up shirt, and had to turn half of them into rags because necks were so wide/deep.