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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

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in the US were not haggling for anything less than a car in the decades before the internet.

Not true. As recently the 90s expensive niche gear like a pro audio or video stuff was almost always subject to price negotiation, especially if you were a repeat customer or indicated an interest in possibly purchasing other stuff. It still is to some extent. In general the more knowledgeable the dealership/salespeople, the more likely negotiation is possible, especially if you present as a knowledgeable customer so…

I guess I was a kid back then, but I don’t remember any of the adults I hung around haggling in stores like circuit city, and my family are immigrants from a country where you haggle over vegetables.

As far as I understood, it wasn’t in the interest of the big retailers to spend time haggling with individuals.

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

#202

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…

> completely unmotivated

As one meme put it: I am a part time seasonal employee half way through my 2-week notice. Do you think I care?

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

#203

Just had a golden idea of how to get inventory online. You crowd-source it by rewarding customers to log inventory. Essentially customers are setting up their own little drop-shipping stores with inventory found throughout retail stores around them. Let me know if anyone is interested in helping with this

Just replying to encourage you. I think this is a great idea.

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

#204

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…

Well, yeah.

The point is to sacrifice convenience to support local stores.

You want to do the right thing AND you want it to be more convenient? Sounds like you're just looking for convenience.

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

#205

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 find even the larger businesses have much poorer shopping experiences than Amazon. I wanted to buy a book last year. I found it on a major, non-amazon bookseller's website. However, no "Look-inside", not even a description, no reviews, no real information about it aside from the title and [very short] description. I ended up going to Amazon to find all this info and having a look at the "Look inside" first few pages, and then buying it from the other retailer. It worked, but not exactly great, people going to a competitor's website to research the product.

It sucks, because I want to support businesses other than Amazon and the like, ones that pay corporation tax and don't abuse their market position, but the other stores really have to raise their game. For better or worse, Amazon has definitely been a game-changer in retail and it's not enough to trade like it's the year 2000 any more. You have to be innovative and see software as a way to improve your offering.

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

#206
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if the only value provided by the "nice neighbourhood of mom and pop stores" is the warm fuzzy feelings, that's not enough value for me. i don't want to live in what's essentially a theme park full of fake stores that only exist because it makes the neighbourhood seem nicer, or where the shopkeepers are basically paid entertainers present for their aesthetic value. if that's the sort of city we're building, let's ski…

It's not just aesthetic value. Yes, there is aesthetic value but also there is the value of "People can afford to live and work here." A community that contains some shop owners, some office workers, some landscapers, etc. is a better community in my eyes.

i agree with you that a community where people can afford to live and work is good, but the work needs to actually be productive. if a retail store's only value is unrelated to their retail business, then i think it's fair to call them only aesthetic.

paying people to work in shops that are worse in every way than the alternative except for being local is not productive. no real value is being created. it's a make-work scheme, and paying those workers to not work would be more efficient.

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

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

The underlying problem with these anecdotes is that All of these experiences depend on who is working that day. It may even be influenced by who is working that week or that month or who runs the place this year. Ecommerce is imperfect in many ways, but it is far more consistent in its imperfection than local retail. W.C. Winks Hardware Inc. in Portland, Oregon has been around since 1909 and is amazing. You can go in…

[deleted]

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

#208
post #74
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. I saw that website were Bezos’ wealth was measured out in pixels. He could easily eradicate a disease, wipe out all student debt or something else you can dream of, but afaik he isn’t doing that.

Maybe because his wealth is measured by the stock he owns and the price would drop should he decide to dump it.

[deleted]

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

#209

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.

Plenty of online stores let to order stuff to fit them and return what doesn't fit.

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

#210

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 find even the larger businesses have much poorer shopping experiences than Amazon. I wanted to buy a book last year. I found it on a major, non-amazon bookseller's website. However, no "Look-inside", not even a description, no reviews, no real information about it aside from the title and [very short] description. I ended up going to Amazon to find all this info and having a look at the "Look inside" first few page…

Talking from the perspective of local business owner - it isn’t possible to compete with Amazon on ”online” features.

This needs two efforts - people have to be Ok with an inferior shopping experience to a certain extent. Can’t have cake and eat it.

Second, Software powered world needs a different kind of monopoly control - we shouldn’t talking about “breaking up Amazon” - that just creates busy work from yet another set of programmers to work on duplicating everything Amazon has. That is a waste of resources.

Instead regulation should force Amazon to share its “retail infra” and may be allow local business to relicense/partner with some of it.

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