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The Amazon tax

seths.blog

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Re: The Amazon tax

#461

Post by dlandis »

Brendinooo wrote: post #455

>If you’re searching for an air fryer, Amazon already knows quite a bit. They know the best-reviewed, least-returned, best-priced model. The only purpose of the ads is to get you to pick an air fryer that isn’t that one (or for the best air fryer, to keep you on track to buy the one you wanted in the first place). What if I made a new air fryer that hasn't received a lot of reviews and costs a little more because of…

There's also the fact that Amazon really doesn't know the best-reviewed item anyway, at least in any meaningful sense, since most reviews (including verified) are fake/inorganic.

Re: The Amazon tax

#462

Post by superxpro12 »

Brendinooo wrote: post #455

>If you’re searching for an air fryer, Amazon already knows quite a bit. They know the best-reviewed, least-returned, best-priced model. The only purpose of the ads is to get you to pick an air fryer that isn’t that one (or for the best air fryer, to keep you on track to buy the one you wanted in the first place). What if I made a new air fryer that hasn't received a lot of reviews and costs a little more because of…

The point of this article is that, if Amazon doesnt want you do, then you wont.

Re: The Amazon tax

#463

Post by hahahaa »

This is simply, a monopoly. Whatever mechanism they came up with to squeeze the final dollars out of the system, such a system would exist because they can.

Re: The Amazon tax

#464

Post by hahahaa »

kamarg wrote: post #451
autoexec wrote: post #438

> Amazon makes enough in search ad revenue to give every single one of their employees a $35,000 cash bonus and still have change left over. There was study not too long ago that showed that 48% of Amazon's employees were paid so little that they were forced to depend on some form of public assistance to meet their basic needs. Not only would an extra 35k a year prevent amazon employees from needing foodstamps and ho…

I've long felt that there needs to be a bill passed to charge companies $x additional tax each year where $x is the amount of government assistance their employees required in order to meet food/housing minimum standards. One way or the other, the companies that are making the rest of us pay for their employees to survive need to be funding these programs.

Or just increase minimum wage. 3x maybe?

Same thing, and simpler to do than making new law. I always prefer keeping tax simple!

Re: The Amazon tax

#465

Post by Brendinooo »

dlandis wrote: post #461
Brendinooo wrote: post #455

>If you’re searching for an air fryer, Amazon already knows quite a bit. They know the best-reviewed, least-returned, best-priced model. The only purpose of the ads is to get you to pick an air fryer that isn’t that one (or for the best air fryer, to keep you on track to buy the one you wanted in the first place). What if I made a new air fryer that hasn't received a lot of reviews and costs a little more because of…

There's also the fact that Amazon really doesn't know the best-reviewed item anyway, at least in any meaningful sense, since most reviews (including verified) are fake/inorganic.

Right. If the only metric was "best-reviewed" then more people would be faking reviews.

To be clear I'm not letting Amazon entirely off the hook here, but Seth's situation is somewhat unique in that "someone looking for a particular book" seems to me like a really different use case than "I want an air fryer".

And "Amazon’s theft makes products more expensive" falls a little flat when a main reason for shopping on Amazon is that their prices tend to be really good.

Re: The Amazon tax

#466

Post by Tangurena2 »

delegate wrote: post #224

This has been true for years on Amazon and is true for most big services now. Over time the concept of search has mutated from 'locate the exact item I'm looking for' to 'show me a list of semantic search results'. Somehow nobody noticed. Oh and of course those are not random results - you can literally feel how the platform is trying to nudge you into buying what IT wants, not what you wanted. The search is just pur…

As bad as Google's searches have become, they still do a better job finding the book on Amazon when Amazon's search can't find a book when I put in the title and author's last name. It is common for "sponsored results" to include trousers when I am searching for a book.

Re: The Amazon tax

#467

Post by MengerSponge »

johnnyApplePRNG wrote: post #147
MengerSponge wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most likely they're sticking it to a delivery contractor. Amazon gets paid, you get your free stuff, and some working class stiff is peeing in a bottle driving a leased truck and not getting paid for their labor. Win win win, right?

You seriously believe the guy peeing in the bottle during deliveries is the one who eats the charge? This isn't a restaurant and they're not waiters.

I bet they don't see a line-item deduction, but they're paid a lot less than they should be for their work.

What about Amazon's business and subcontracting practices makes you think they're willing to eat any operating expenses whatsoever?

Re: The Amazon tax

#468

Post by organsnyder »

QuantumGood wrote: post #459
stillpointlab wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dark pattern I've noticed a few times is the exact match I type into Amazon search doesn't even return the item I entered but 2 or 3 entire pages of alternatives. I know the item is there because Google returns it, either as a search response or in their "shopping" widget. I can click through Google to Amazon and see the item, sometimes even from the certified seller. But if I enter the exact search term in Amazo…

Amazon's AI search doesn't do that, however. For that reason, 90% of my searches are now prompts to the AI, instead of regular searches. But it occassionally freezes the app.

Interesting. I always click through to the regular search instead of waiting for the AI results to load, under the assumption that they'll be even worse (somehow) than normal search. Maybe I should give it a try.

Re: The Amazon tax

#469

Post by patmorgan23 »

AlanYx wrote: post #200
sleepyguy wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You live in Europe, where everything is harder, and when it comes to shopping, you have maybe one-fifth of the choices Americans have. I spend a good four months every year in Poland and Austria, and there’s really nowhere in the world except China that offers consumers as much choice and availability as the U.S. does.

>there’s really nowhere in the world except China that offers consumers as much choice and availability as the U.S. does. This is true, although I find it interesting that so many people then gravitate to Costco, where consumer choice in a given category is deliberately restricted to one or two product variations selected by the head office.

Quality vs variety trade off. Costco only has a couple options but they are well better and you don't have to do extra work to make sure you're not buying a piece of crap.

Also, you don't have to shop at Costco exclusively, you still have all the other options available. Costco is just a good default if you're not looking for something specific.

Re: The Amazon tax

#470

Post by raincole »

> If you’re searching for an air fryer, Amazon already knows quite a bit. They know the best-reviewed, least-returned, best-priced model. The only purpose of the ads is to get you to pick an air fryer that isn’t that one

At least ads give the sellers a chance to compete for eyeballs 'legitimately'. The same marketing budget will not just vaporize if there is no ad space. It will be spent on fake reviews and even fake customers.

People who hate ads don't realize buying ads is the least evil way to compete for customers' attention.

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