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People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

nytimes.com

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Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#61

Post by handrous »

dawnerd wrote: post #52
handrous wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does Target, I think. Becoming a shady online flea-market must be incredibly lucrative, since everyone who can seems to choose that over just being, like, a normal store, but online.

Target at least isn’t quite as bad and they do seem to vet their partner sellers a lot better than the other marketplaces. They also make it very clear it’s a partner instead of hiding it like Amazon does.

You're right that they're not all equivalently terrible, and Target's better about it than Amazon and Wal Mart.

Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#62

Post by castlecrasher2 »

silisili wrote: post #6
Grakel wrote: post #3

The article doesn't mention Walmart's website, which has become very good and widely used, especially as a more trustworthy source for real products than Amazon.com. Also the article is worded as if Walmart is in decline- the future is bright for both of these companies, not that anyone is concerned.

Walmart is getting better, but still way behind on the web front. They'll show you things in stock, then tell you it's out of stock upon checkout. Go back to product page, shows in stock again. They also use way, way too many captchas. Lastly, they divide walmart.com from walmart pickup and delivery for no reason. Some things you order on the .com side are only 'shippable' if your local store has it. So, it's pickup…

>Lastly, they divide walmart.com from walmart pickup and delivery for no reason.

This is actually changing very soon, and both results will be on the same site.

Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#63

Post by floxy »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #11
ethbr0 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they divide walmart.com from walmart pickup and delivery for no reason I can hazard an informed guess as to why that is -- they built .com as an independent company, in order to get it off the ground faster and with less interference from the brick and mortar side. End result: quick iteration, but now two completely separate supply chains. You'd be amazing how complicated warehousing, inventory, shipping, etc. get…

HomeDepot and Bestbuy are what I would hold up as the best websites. Target is decent too, except they started allowed resellers and I was not as easily able to find how to restrict to items sold only by Target.

>HomeDepot and Bestbuy are what I would hold up as the best websites.

https://www.mcmaster.com/

Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#64

Post by nebula8804 »

tangoed wrote: post #35
silisili wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart is getting better, but still way behind on the web front. They'll show you things in stock, then tell you it's out of stock upon checkout. Go back to product page, shows in stock again. They also use way, way too many captchas. Lastly, they divide walmart.com from walmart pickup and delivery for no reason. Some things you order on the .com side are only 'shippable' if your local store has it. So, it's pickup…

The Walmart.com and pickup/delivery division on their website is not a thing anymore. They seem to be testing a new beta version of the website, and I got to try it yesterday. I have Walmart plus and this is how it went: One seamless search option, no pickup/delivery and Walmart.com options. I added everything, including groceries and other non groceries to my cart. I selected delivery. Some items were not available…

How do I get access to this beta? I would shop at Walmart a lot more but their website has been hot garbage as far back as I can remember. The exact scenario you mentioned is what makes it a miserable experience. I just tried it again

1) I put in my zipcode and checkmark my store. 2) I search for "AA batteries" 1) I put in my zipcode again and checkmark my store because it forgot the previous search. 3) I select In store pickup 4) As I scroll it co-mingles results that are in store with results that require a shipment. Seems like it does this for items that are not sold by walmart so while it correctly filtered out items sold by walmart that require shipment, whats the point if items not sold by walmart are still there.

As a sidenote, it does not tell me where in the store the item is. I just want to get item location, go into the store and pick it up.

Back in 2016 I tried the ship to store service. When I arrived, I went to the back of the store in order to pick it up. I was the only one there. I signed in on their kiosk and then waited. The clerk disappeared into the back and I kid you not, it took 30 mins to retrieve my order. She couldn't care less about getting my package. Keep in mind that I was the only one there and their fancy screen was listing my name as the only one in the queue!

The cherry on top of all of this is that their prices and selection are not always competitive with Amazon in my experience. It would be fine given that I am guaranteed to get legitimate equipment and get it same day but all the issues above steal enough time that it makes it not worth it most of the time.

I assume Walmart Labs is developing all this stuff. They must have better work life balance because their output is nowhere near the quality of Amazon.

I find this problem with Target to an extent as well. They have a better ship to store experience but I have found that their inventory status on their website has no correlation to reality whatsoever and their search is terrible. I have been trying to build an app to scrape all their items so I could build a personal tool that works better. I really want to avoid Amazon if I can but the competitors just make it so hard to do so.

Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#65

Post by lotsofpulp »

floxy wrote: post #63
lotsofpulp wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HomeDepot and Bestbuy are what I would hold up as the best websites. Target is decent too, except they started allowed resellers and I was not as easily able to find how to restrict to items sold only by Target.

>HomeDepot and Bestbuy are what I would hold up as the best websites. https://www.mcmaster.com/

McMaster is certainly very nice, but I was considering broad retail businesses with lots of physical locations and lots of variety in items sold.

Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#66

Post by lotsofpulp »

slownews45 wrote: post #59
lotsofpulp wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HomeDepot and Bestbuy are what I would hold up as the best websites. Target is decent too, except they started allowed resellers and I was not as easily able to find how to restrict to items sold only by Target.

I was bummed about the target third party stuff - how hard is it to add a target only toggle?

There is currently a Sold By filter where you can choose Target when I just checked, but it has also not been there so I wonder if they are doing A/B testing or something. Or maybe I missed it.

Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#67

Post by endisneigh »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #12
lotsofpulp wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HomeDepot and Bestbuy are what I would hold up as the best websites. Target is decent too, except they started allowed resellers and I was not as easily able to find how to restrict to items sold only by Target.

Home Depot is good, but their iOS app still lacks a lot of polish around selecting a store, payments, and list management.

I’m genuinely curious - why use the app instead of the website?

Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#68

Post by nebula8804 »

silisili wrote: post #26
nerfhammer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I appreciate about home depot's web site: they'll tell you not only whether the item is in stock, but exactly where in a given store it's located

Walmart app does this too actually. The main problem is that their inventory tracker is wildly inaccurate. I went looking for an item they claimed to have 4 of, and they in fact had none. I think for a store as busy and understaffed as Walmart, real inventory gets to be a big guessing game.

Why? They know what items are being delivered to the store, they know when they are delivered and they know what they sold. Ignoring inventory numbers being slightly off due to shrinkage, if you just connect the systems you can get a pretty accurate real time count.

Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#69

Post by toomuchtodo »

endisneigh wrote: post #67
toomuchtodo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home Depot is good, but their iOS app still lacks a lot of polish around selecting a store, payments, and list management.

I’m genuinely curious - why use the app instead of the website?

iPhone is always with me, a computer less so. If I’m scanning an item’s barcode to source or add to cart, need a camera on the phone. If I’m looking in aisles for a part, need the phone for aisle and bin #. I remember something while I’m spending time out with the family or running errands? Mobile app. “Mobile first lifestyle.”

Re: People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

#70

Post by silisili »

nebula8804 wrote: post #64
tangoed wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Walmart.com and pickup/delivery division on their website is not a thing anymore. They seem to be testing a new beta version of the website, and I got to try it yesterday. I have Walmart plus and this is how it went: One seamless search option, no pickup/delivery and Walmart.com options. I added everything, including groceries and other non groceries to my cart. I selected delivery. Some items were not available…

How do I get access to this beta? I would shop at Walmart a lot more but their website has been hot garbage as far back as I can remember. The exact scenario you mentioned is what makes it a miserable experience. I just tried it again 1) I put in my zipcode and checkmark my store. 2) I search for "AA batteries" 1) I put in my zipcode again and checkmark my store because it forgot the previous search. 3) I select In s…

I can't say the experience has changed a lot on the pickup side. I bought a few hooks and thought I'd zip on by for curbside. Huge mistake. Every spot was filled, people hanging out of their car looking miserable like they'd been there a long time. I made a loop and parked while I assessed everything, and in the five or so minutes I was there, never saw an employee. This was just last week. I'll definitely not do pickup again.
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