Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#401

Post by refurb » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:16 AM UTC

dv_dt wrote: post #376

refurb wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn’t find Gini going back that far, but other measures of inequality show we’re below that of the 1930’s. And interestingly, the poverty rate is near a century low. https://www.chartbookofeconomicinequality.com/inequality-by-...

Look at the poverty curve again. We basically have made zero progress on the poverty rate since the 1970s and actually are drifting higher. Yet from our technology base, and continuously rising productivity, it really should be easier than ever to ensure everyone has shelter and food, and yet homelessness is exploding right now too.

The poverty rate is 1/3rd what it was in 1950. Remarkable progress.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#402

Post by rhizome » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:24 PM UTC

avgDev wrote: post #149

habosa wrote: post #77

My favorite Amazon scam is the Amazon Ship of Theseus[0]. You sell a product, normally a cheap electronic, and build up a decent corpus of positive reviews. A good example is a USB-C cable or something. Then you decide you want to sell a new product in a more competitive subcategory, like Bluetooth Headphones. You then take the _existing_ listing and change it piece by piece. First the pictures, then the title, then…

Thanks, I like the convenience of amazon but will be cancelling my membership this weekend and just use walmart or something else. It is $120 a year and I'm tired of it. I have seen cases where my pricing was higher than non-prime members for the same item/seller, going to same address.

That's the crux, right? There used to be a benefit from choosing Amazon over Walmart and other bigbox chains.

It's like Amazon has spent their savings from having relatively no infrastructure expenses (stores, parking lots) on an inventory of pure crap, like Nieman-Marcus selling their stores and moving completely online, only to start selling cheap underwear and Ed Hardy tees.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#403

Post by Akababa » Sun, Nov 24, 2019, 6:59 AM UTC

i_am_nomad wrote: post #241

Akababa wrote: post #62

It's the same as Wish and all the other "third-party" online marketplaces. They don't give a shit because they're making so much money from the "unsuspecting consumer" segment.

Most people using Wish are well aware of what they’re buying and how authentic it is.

That might very well be true for the repeat customers and people who buy clothing, but I doubt anybody wants a 2TB USB stick that starts overwriting itself after 100MB.