Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#311

Post by FireBeyond » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:08 PM UTC

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #293

ckosidows wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it's different with a store like Home Depot where products are much bigger and perhaps harder to scan, but do people actually dislike self checkouts? "Doing the work for the store" seems like such a non-argument to me. I would much prefer to scan things myself as I feel I can often do it faster, and I don't have to wait in a line if the store only has two cashiers staffed at a certain time. You pump your own…

One possible reason is that eliminates a whole category of unskilled labor? (full disclosure, writing this from Oregon, where we can't pump our own gas to preserve another category of unskilled labor jobs - except right now, thanks COVID-19?) I personally would probably prefer to have a human checker for that reason, I don't notice much improvement in speed or ease of checking out when I do it myself, there's just a…

> writing this from Oregon, where we can't pump our own gas

I thought that got changed a couple of years ago?

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#312

Post by alharith » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:08 PM UTC

mauvehaus wrote: post #175

jakearmitage wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HomeDepot's ecommerce is a joke. Not only the shopping experience is poor, they treat logistics as if they were doing you a favor. And, on top of all that, you get damaged items. I made 7 purchases and all 7, in different periods of time, had to be returned or replaced. Same for Lowe's. There's a reason people shop on Amazon. Other than BestBuy, no other retailer "gets" ecommerce.

I beg to differ. Rock Auto is where it's at for auto parts. The website is ugly as hammered shit, but it's fast, shows you the options grouped by rough quality level (economy/you cheapskate, daily driver, performance, etc), shows you what part to select so it ships from the same warehouse as the parts already in your cart and saves you shipping, and returns are painless (disclaimer: I've only ever done returns for co…

Also, one that many here should be familiar here with: Newegg.

Walmart shipping is pretty on point as well, and you don't need to pay 120$ a year for 2 day shipping.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#313

Post by arkades » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:09 PM UTC

jakearmitage wrote: post #72

ebg13 wrote: post #23

I tried ordering some things from Home Depot the other day, and they silently cancelled half of my order while still charging me the same amount for delivery from the store and while saying that some things can only be delivered from a warehouse and that some things can only be delivered from a specific store and that delivery from each store has a $45 minimum purchase before they'll even consider delivery despite th…

HomeDepot's ecommerce is a joke. Not only the shopping experience is poor, they treat logistics as if they were doing you a favor. And, on top of all that, you get damaged items. I made 7 purchases and all 7, in different periods of time, had to be returned or replaced. Same for Lowe's. There's a reason people shop on Amazon. Other than BestBuy, no other retailer "gets" ecommerce.

Try mcmaster-carr. They beat the stuffing out of home depot, lowe's and amazon all when it comes to hardware.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#314

Post by gtm1260 » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:09 PM UTC

Its so unfair to expect consumers to go through hell on these random websites with poor UI/UX, customer service, logistics, and inventory monitoring systems. I don't think amazon should be able to crush small businesses etc, but I don't think appealing to people's sense of personal responsibility is the answer.

There needs to be a viable way for other businesses to compete with amazon's level of service if they want consumers to change their habits.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#315

Post by quickthrower2 » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:10 PM UTC

ebg13 wrote: post #23

I tried ordering some things from Home Depot the other day, and they silently cancelled half of my order while still charging me the same amount for delivery from the store and while saying that some things can only be delivered from a warehouse and that some things can only be delivered from a specific store and that delivery from each store has a $45 minimum purchase before they'll even consider delivery despite th…

I live in Australia, and there is Amazon but they don't have that much stuff compared to UK/US. So I order from other places, and it is super rare to have any kind of ordering or delivery problem. Things just arrive! In 2020 they are all using some order processing and tracking tech and it seems to go smoothly.

Also same experience in the UK with both Amazon and non-Amazon going back to the year 1998 when I was ordering motherboards online. Ordering stuff online is never a problem where I would scream "agh! only Amazon can do this!".

The only problems I have had is in the mid-late 2000's with second hand stuff from ahats on ebay, and paypal siding with the non-quickthrower2 person in most cases, I guess I got bad luck there.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#316

Post by odysseus » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:11 PM UTC

plorkyeran wrote: post #195

dangrossman wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a dark pattern that shipping actually costs everyone that isn't Amazon a lot. Go get a shipping quote from UPS or FedEx for sending a desk across the country. It's not going to be any cheaper than these stores are charging. They're not hiding extra profit in their shipping fees. People are so used to Amazon Prime that they have no idea what things cost to ship any more. I run a small online store and every 1…

Honest sites let you enter a zip code at the very start of the shopping process and display an estimated shipping cost as you're looking at items. Dishonest sites make no mention of shipping costs until you're at the very end of the checkout process.

I think in many cases it's not a matter of dishonesty, but of laziness, lack of care, or not wanting to pay for a better checkout experience.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#317

Post by drivers99 » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:12 PM UTC

larrik wrote: post #47

Right when this all was starting, I had finally chosen a bass guitar I wanted. I decided to try and support a non-Amazon business in GuitarCenter (the local music shops focus a lot more on school band instruments). So, I order online, and pick the "pick up at store" option, since it says they are in stock. I show up, and an hour later they figure out that they don't have it in stock, they only have the floor model (w…

Of all the guitars and basses I've bought at Guitar Center and other places, it was always the "floor model" I bought. That seems pretty normal. I don't think "floor model" is the right term. You're trying out the exact ones you're buying off the floor.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#318

Post by odysseus » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:15 PM UTC

greenshackle2 wrote: post #130

ehsankia wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish they could provide more clarity. I haven't tried ordering things that list as May, but browsing items, I randomly see individual items that for some reason have much closer dates. I even saw one with 1-day shipping. It makes no sense to me. I wish they could give a slightly better window prediction than "this may take a month"...

They are shipping "priority items" quickly. Who knows how they determine what are "priority items". When I ordered hygiene items (shampoo, soap, etc.) they shipped the next day. But my order of kitchen equipment has expected delivery in May (which I'm totally fine with).

This is going to be great, because the last time I ordered soap (in mid February, before most of the lockdowns started), it took Amazon 10 days to get it to me, even with Prime. Looking forward to seeing this improved on my next soap delivery ...

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#319

Post by Kalium » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:15 PM UTC

gtm1260 wrote: post #314

Its so unfair to expect consumers to go through hell on these random websites with poor UI/UX, customer service, logistics, and inventory monitoring systems. I don't think amazon should be able to crush small businesses etc, but I don't think appealing to people's sense of personal responsibility is the answer. There needs to be a viable way for other businesses to compete with amazon's level of service if they want…

The logistics, inventory management, and customer service operations at the scale of Amazon are something that become possible with truly immense scale. They're crushingly expensive at small scale - call center, warehouses, pre-positioning goods, etc.

There are definitely ways to outsource any or all of these things, but at a cost in quality. I know I've often had unpleasant experiences with outsourced customer support call centers. Tools like Square or Shopify help, but only to a point.

So I think my conclusion might be different from yours - small, local businesses need a viable way to compete with Amazon in ways where Amazon doesn't have a vast advantage.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#320

Post by arkades » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:17 PM UTC

Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

Tried freshdirect?

It takes a bit to find an open slot for their Recurring Orders, but since we've gotten one they haven't let us down. It's the one-off order slots that don't exist.