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

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

#51

Post by NBJack »

AmVess wrote: post #43
glonq wrote: 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?

My last two orders from Amazon were counterfeits. One was a pack of Sandisk thumbdrives that were very obviously fakes. I determined that Amazon simply doesn't care anymore. The value proposition was completely lost because I had to drive into town to return them. Twice in a row. Further, their prices have gotten horrible on a lot of things. I looked at some of their lawncare items, and most of them were 2-3x more th…

This rings true for my own experience.

While I have avoided most of the counterfeit dupes (of which I will broaden beyond just selling clones; there are plenty of shady products with questionable descriptions that don't match reality), they have been steadily increasing prices on many products to the point that I am often better off driving to a Lowes or Home Depot for faster service and better deals on things. I also can't emphasize enough that they haven't been that competitive in the laptop market or the home desktop PC market either for years now. Parts and DIY, sure, but I frequently find better deals elsewhere on what is usually the same hardware. I suspect the suppliers are the real root cause of this, but either way it ends up a bad deal. Additionally, finding things with targeted specs is surprisingly difficult at times, and can easily lead to choices that aren't even correct when search starts looking at adjacent products.

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

#52

Post by neilalexander »

xyzzy123 wrote: post #39
glonq wrote: 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?

Home brands of durable goods in the last 10 years have pretty much always been "Chinese crap" (I use this term loosely, sometimes the products are pretty good). BUT, and this is the key part - buyer teams from major brands vet the supplier, make cost/quality tradeoffs and do all the supplier due diligence (like making them attest the products are not made by "modern slavery", don't have lead in them, etc). They also…

It's often also impossible to get after-sales support for many of these mystery "brands" and they don't tend to stay around for long before they change names again. I am sure this is by design.

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

#53

Post by thegaulofthem »

1-more wrote: post #45
vasco wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've been getting ads on social media to buy silencers on Temu. Ok not silencers, but adapters where one end has the female thread of a soda bottle on it, and the other has the female thread to match the external thread available on a Ruger 10/22. While silencers are federally legal in the U.S., they are illegal in many states and subject to a federal transfer tax. I could see this being a problem for Temu, and I cou…

Suppressors are only Federally legal with a tax stamp, typically acquired with a “Form 1” self manufacture or a Form 4” transfer (purchase) along with a $200 tax for the stamp, per item.

The seller would need special ATF licensure and follow an onerous process to sell what is typically considered safety equipment in Europe, ironically. This involves submitting fingerprints, passport photos, and a lengthy (9+ month) approval process on the part of the ATF.

For the self-manufacture, this has been de-factor outlawed by the current regime with DIY kits being arbitrarily reclassified as suppressors themselves. Most if not all Form 1 builds are outright denied.

So, in short, Temu cannot sell these at all. Of course they also occasionally sell selector switches to concert Glock handguns to fully automatic. This is even more comically illegal than a suppressor workaround.

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

#54

Post by happycube »

AmVess wrote: post #43
glonq wrote: 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?

My last two orders from Amazon were counterfeits. One was a pack of Sandisk thumbdrives that were very obviously fakes. I determined that Amazon simply doesn't care anymore. The value proposition was completely lost because I had to drive into town to return them. Twice in a row. Further, their prices have gotten horrible on a lot of things. I looked at some of their lawncare items, and most of them were 2-3x more th…

(side-note: You can get Sandisk stuff directly from Western Digital.)

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

#55

Post by [deleted] »

glonq wrote: 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?

[deleted]

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

#57

Post by adamsmark »

sudosysgen wrote: post #49
vasco wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Temu is fundamentally different than Wish - it has local warehouses and therefore much faster delivery. It's a competitor to Amazon, not Wish/AliExpress. It trades this off by having a much smaller selection of goods.

Its a mix is it not? Both local and global? Some of the prices and lead times look like inventory is coming from China via ePacket.

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

#58

Post by adamsmark »

JohnBooty wrote: post #27
Drblessing wrote: post #11

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.

Second this on Goodthreads quality. There was a pricing error back in July of 2020. I got dress shirts and pants for $7 - $12. Incredible.

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

#59

Post by bradleyjg »

glonq wrote: 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?

At this point you have to both go with a “real” brand and investigate if any of their lines are still designed in house, or whether it’s a zombie brand that only badges white-box items.

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

#60

Post by Tarball10 »

clpm4j wrote: post #56

Ironically I'm back to using amazon.com solely for it's original use case - buying books.

Except it's terrible for that (if you care about the condition of your books) because they did away with their book-specific packaging, and now just toss books in a box or bubble mailer with no protection. The majority of the time they arrive banged up. You may as well buy them second-hand for cheaper.
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