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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

#71

Post by code_duck »

sentientslug wrote: post #67
code_duck wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prices of some things on Amazon such as hot sauce or soap can be absurdly high, while other times it’s the same as I’d pay at a local store. Definitely not bargains any more. I can’t trust any of the prices I see without double checking them, plus they do that thing where prices fluctuate based on how much they think you might pay. One month some bandages were $9, then $7, then $10, then $13, then $5. Sometimes the h…

Unfortunately the real price is what someone is willing to pay. The same people that pay 2x as much for the same McDonald's via Uber Eats are the ones probably paying 2x as much for soap on Amazon for the "convenience" (laziness) factor.

Sure, if they can sell as many as they want for twice the regular price,it makes Amazon less useful for me, but that’s up to them. My objection is mainly the sizable constant fluctuations.

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

#72

Post by resolutebat »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #65
resolutebat wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in Australia Temu hits the sweet spot of offering almost-China prices with reasonably speedy delivery (under a week). If you buy the same crap on Amazon.au, you pay a 3-4x premium for local warehousing, and if you buy it off AliExpress, it often takes a month or longer to deliver. That said, I presume the only way Temu can pull this off logistically is air freight, so I also have my doubts about his sustaina…

Aliexpress have been great recently with shipping times. A lot of stuff is dispatched from their local warehouses (or at least flown in from China and consolidated locally) and distributed by their own courier network. Sounds similar to Temu, and TBH is probably exactly the same network. If you get tracking updates from "Fast Horse Express", it's definitely the same network. :)

Yeah, Aliexpress "premium shipping" is by air, and like Temu they have a minimum order threshold to trigger it. But Aliexpress is a messy jumble of tiny merchants with their own shipping fees etc etc, whereas Temu abstracts away all that complexity.

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

#73

Post by makeitdouble »

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?

I don't see notion of brands themseves staying a viable differentiator for most online purchases.

Sure you could remember a name you decide to trust, and never ever care to do research from there. But I see it the same way we had a period on usenet where you'd put your real name and phone number in your posts signature.

Too sad Amazon allowed reviews to be gamed, but I think third party reviews are still the way forward to identify good products.

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

#74

Post by pests »

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…

Those companies are not always trying to build up a brand and grow though. Some are just fronts until they accumulate enough bad reputation or reviews until they make a new front. The weird names are to keep things unique and help with searches. They are nonsensical so no due diligence has to be done on name collision issues.

Not saying always but it's definitely a thing.

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

#75

Post by gilmore606 »

thelittleone wrote: post #50
AmVess wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm just surprised that this hasn't become a big issue for Amazon. Is it that most people aren't aware? Isn't it a big enough story for some news outlet to investigate and report? If it became generally known that a large % of products on amazon are fakes, surely it would affect sales.

I bet the Washington Post will get right on that.

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

#76

Post by hakfoo »

gamblor956 wrote: post #33
salad-tycoon wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve seen them air ship my cheap crap from China to USA for “free.” I thought I read it was a national subsidy/strategy but can’t find article now. Maybe economic warfare? Can’t see how flying my $10 order of giant plastic balls is economic. Not the one I was looking for but somewhat related: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/contributor-content/articl...

Note that the linked piece is just an opinion piece from a professional writer who doesn't actually know what he's talking about and appears to just be making things up. It may even be paid for by Temu. Chinese shipping is cheap because the Chinese government subsidies it for exported goods, and because due to a postal treaty the U.S. government was forced to honor those rates for goods shipped to U.S. addresses. Thi…

If it means something, I've occasionally seen orders from AliExpress (where you'd expect the goods to be 99% Chinese-made) where the customs declarations/shipping label lists an even lower GDP country as the nominal return address. I wonder if they literally route around the higher CN -> US shipping by doing, say China -> Tajikstan -> US?

I'm finding the shipping times are less terrible than they used to be-- often 2-3 weeks, with surprisingly good tracking. (The big black hole seems to be when the package arrives in Compton, and then usually spends a few days before being handed over to the USPS; I imagine they crack open a shipping container and re-wrap everyone's purchases for the last 1000km through a domestic carrier.

It's interesting that nobody's ever proposed a big fat USPS subsidy for domestic mail as a way to make American business more competitive. There are plenty of items (anything in the "small, unbranded, low-performance-needed hardware/accessories/toys" category) where the options are often "$2 + free shipping from Shenzhen in 2-3 weeks" or "$2 + $4.50 shipping in 3-4 days for a comparable item sold by a guy in Tacoma". I might be willing to pay $1 more for the convenience of having it sooner, but much more than that and I'll just compensate for slow delivery times by always having a project or two in the pipeline.

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

#77

Post by glonq »

pests wrote: post #74
xyzzy123 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Those companies are not always trying to build up a brand and grow though. Some are just fronts until they accumulate enough bad reputation or reviews until they make a new front. The weird names are to keep things unique and help with searches. They are nonsensical so no due diligence has to be done on name collision issues. Not saying always but it's definitely a thing.

I bought some headphones on Amazon that came with a note offering a $10 refund if I left a 5-star review. I didn't. But several months later when I decided to leave a real review, I found that the product was no longer listed. But an identical product was now sold from a vendor with a near-identical name as the previous vendor. Digging deeper, I see that they even had another different name before I even bought it.

So that's at least 3 different times that this vendor has boosted their reputation and sales by paying for reviews and then switcheroo'd after things slow down.

Meanwhile Amazon happily collects its fees and doesn't give a damn.

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

#78

Post by glonq »

UberFly wrote: post #36
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?

Isn't Temu just another dodgy brands from China site?

They are, but unlike Amazon they don't pretend to NOT be.

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

#79

Post by worrycue »

massysett wrote: post #62
xyzzy123 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is the whole problem with Amazon and why I call it a flea market. Other retailers put their reputation on the line with their merchandise. Sure, the same factory that manufactures for Old Navy makes QRYGGS. But Old Navy vets it. Amazon’s issue is that it tosses its hands up and says “Sold by QRYGGS, fulfilled by Amazon.” Amazon says: if it’s garbage, not our fault, but you can return it. That’s just wandering a…

> “Sold by QRYGGS, fulfilled by Amazon.”

Do you think we can side step the issue by only buying stuff that’s “sold by” Amazon or one of its global subsidiaries?

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

#80

Post by lazycouchpotato »

djoldman wrote: post #2

Alternate link: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/companies/amazon-cuts-dozens...

> Some companies have accused Amazon of selling copycats under its own brands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbxWGjQ2szQ Here's a fun video for those looking for a ripoff by Amazon.

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