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Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

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21–30 of 90 posts

Re: Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

#21
post #18

This is so sad. I live off of Amazon brands, because they're so cheap, convenient, and relatively good quality. I've NEVER had a quality issue from them. Call me a corporate stooge if you want, but their mattresses, clothing, drugs, etc. have been a lifesaver.

I find that generally I go for Amazon brands whenever possible. Honestly they are one of the few shorts I wear because it is so hard to find good cargo shorts for tall guys. Paper Towels, TP, vitamins, ibuprofen, etc. Much of it is solid quality, does what I need, and far cheaper than the alternatives even local ones. Looking at what is mentioned it is the staples like this that will be fine. The things that will be…

https://2tall.com if you’re in the UK.

Re: Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

#22
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's good from transparency point of view. It's one thing when a retailer has one or two house brands, like Kirkland brand at Costco. Then the consumer can know that's the retailers house brand. Amazon on the other hand had 30 clothing brands with names like Lark & Ro, Daily Ritual and Goodthreads with just a tiny "An Amazon brand" buried in the product description bullets. I'm not sure if it was designed thi…

It's not uncommon for big-box retailers to have multiple house brands. Walmart and Target both have dozens, for instance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Walmart_brands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Corporation#Private-lab...

Home Depot has tons of brands too. I didn't realize how many brands were theirs until I did a kitchen remodel, and got a bunch of cheaply built crap that started having problems after installation. Fuckin anything with "Bay" in the name is theirs. Hampton Bay, Glacier Bay, etc. Most of the stuff in their stores is their own brand. Most of it is trash too. Their doors have all been sagging on me, the stainless steel sink I bought keeps needing me to scrub off corrosion, their wood countertops have some shitty UV coating that just peels off.

Re: Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

#23
post #15
post #9

Once upon a time you could choose to buy good products from good brands on Amazon, or import cheap crap from China via Aliexpress or whatnot. But now that nearly every category on Amazon is dominated by cheap crap from dodgy brands in China, I'm feeling less reason to buy things from them (unless I need it tomorrow ). I suppose that's what's fuelling the popularity of new marketplaces like Temu?

To be honest Temu sounds like someone was watching the Wish.com saga and decided it was a great idea to burn a bunch of billions. It can grow a lot while it's new but I have my doubts about longevity of this type "we only sell crap" platforms.

You'd be surprised how many people fall for these kinds of unbelievable deals from ads on social media apps, over and over again.

Re: Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

#24
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Costco actually pioneered that approach. The traditional corporate strategy had always been to have a bunch of different house brands fpr different product categories.

Costco is generally cheaper and top shelf products. Not my experience with Amazon basics.

My experience is that Costco is cheaper and entirely adequate/sufficient quality products, but rarely/never "top shelf" products (assuming that's meant to mean "the best").

This makes sense, as Costco is trying to move a lot of units and you can move a lot more units into the market that's looking for "perfectly adequate" than the ones looking for "the best". Honda outsells Porsche, Ferrari, and Lamborghini combined and all that...

Re: Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

#25

This is so sad. I live off of Amazon brands, because they're so cheap, convenient, and relatively good quality. I've NEVER had a quality issue from them. Call me a corporate stooge if you want, but their mattresses, clothing, drugs, etc. have been a lifesaver.

I bought their bluetooth speaker that turns itself off when you haven't sent music through it for five minutes, and that you have to get up to turn back on. edit: The physical quality seemed fine, but it's obvious that they never tested it or even thought about it much.

Hm, my more brandy JBL one does the same, maybe it is 10 minutes, but I find it reasonable. I have a long set or playlists or choose something new when it gets silent, and otherwise I enjoy the luxury that I can just turn off the sender and know the battery won't be wasted for long?

Re: Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

#26
post #9

Once upon a time you could choose to buy good products from good brands on Amazon, or import cheap crap from China via Aliexpress or whatnot. But now that nearly every category on Amazon is dominated by cheap crap from dodgy brands in China, I'm feeling less reason to buy things from them (unless I need it tomorrow ). I suppose that's what's fuelling the popularity of new marketplaces like Temu?

Temu and Shein are at least improved versions of Wish. Idk how both companies did it but my last few orders have gotten to me in 8 days. Amazon for me is taking like 3-5 days without Prime, so the speed difference is not as big as it used to be when ordering from China would be a 1-2 month wait with everything showing up in a different package.

Re: Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

#27

This is so sad. I live off of Amazon brands, because they're so cheap, convenient, and relatively good quality. I've NEVER had a quality issue from them. Call me a corporate stooge if you want, but their mattresses, clothing, drugs, etc. have been a lifesaver.

Yeah, everything I ever bought through Goodthreads (or even the downmarket Amazon house brands) was really nice.

I mean, not nice nice, but fine for casual everyday wear. It was generally the most reliable way to shop for clothes on Amazon, IMO.

Re: Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

#28
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that generally I go for Amazon brands whenever possible. Honestly they are one of the few shorts I wear because it is so hard to find good cargo shorts for tall guys. Paper Towels, TP, vitamins, ibuprofen, etc. Much of it is solid quality, does what I need, and far cheaper than the alternatives even local ones. Looking at what is mentioned it is the staples like this that will be fine. The things that will be…

https://2tall.com if you’re in the UK.

That's a really cool brand.

Re: Amazon Cuts Dozens of House Brands as It Battles Costs, Regulators

#30

This is so sad. I live off of Amazon brands, because they're so cheap, convenient, and relatively good quality. I've NEVER had a quality issue from them. Call me a corporate stooge if you want, but their mattresses, clothing, drugs, etc. have been a lifesaver.

I bought their bluetooth speaker that turns itself off when you haven't sent music through it for five minutes, and that you have to get up to turn back on. edit: The physical quality seemed fine, but it's obvious that they never tested it or even thought about it much.

Nothing to do with Amazon but this has become endemic in tech in recent years and it grinds my gears. The amount of websites and services and remote control sessions that sign out or lock while I’m using them, because I’m not using them fast enough, it’s infuriating.

Yes I leave stuff open for a couple of hours while troubleshooting, not every problem is solved in five minutes and one device! No bank, you aren’t increasing security, I’m not in a library or a cafe. Especially infuriating if it happens while I'm waiting for the thing to check/update something and it signs me out because I'm not doing anything!

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