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Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

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Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#92
I figured out what is going on here. Walmart thinks to themselves "we want to be like amazon, we want to be huge online" and then jet comes along and is something of an almost competitor to amazon, so corporate thinks "oh we should snap this up" but...my gut reaction here is this is going to be a terrible deal for walmart, what are they going to do, keep dumping $500M/yr for it at a loss or what? Pretty desperate, but whatever.. :)

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#93

Is anyone here using Jet on a regular basis? I tried it once a few months back and dismissed it as nothing innovative enough to be a sustainable Amazon competitor. I must have been very wrong. I don't see how Jet justifies 3B from Walmart. I will credit them on one point - They do seem have great employee sat that is a result of investing lots of time and energy to create a healthy environment.

I am. However, it depends on if you're a current Prime user or not.

If you don't have Amazon's Prime, you'll see why Jet.com is worth it.

Amazon's free shipping for non-prime users are now 50$, takes 2-3 weeks to get anything, and they're limited the good deals to Prime users.

I've bought more from Jet.com than Amazon lately because the above issues.

If I was willing to pay 100$ for Prime, Jet.com isn't worth it.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#94
post #67
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use them pretty regularly, since I discontinued my Amazon Prime membership. Amazon without Prime is a shipping fee quagmire. Jet is terrible for ordering books, but other than that they are pretty prompt on delivering stuff within 2 days. You get discount for using debit card (1.5%) and using a larger cart drops prices(which stops after you added a bunch of items).

Amazon also gives you free shipping once you spend above $49. And if you have a business account you get two day shipping as well at the same threshold.

But it doesn't work for items from third party sellers that don't participate in Fulfillment by Amazon. Jet's has no such restriction.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#95
post #81

Is anyone here using Jet on a regular basis? I tried it once a few months back and dismissed it as nothing innovative enough to be a sustainable Amazon competitor. I must have been very wrong. I don't see how Jet justifies 3B from Walmart. I will credit them on one point - They do seem have great employee sat that is a result of investing lots of time and energy to create a healthy environment.

I use Jet on a regular basis. I try to avoid Amazon wherever possible, they're good but they have too much power so I try to help any alternative. Their selection isn't as good as Amazon, but usually it arrives quicker. Books are not quick, but cheaper than BN (even though BN ships them) They must be burning lots of cash though. I placed a $100 order with about 7 items and it came in 6 different boxes.

That's interesting. Mine have always arrived together in one box per order. Are you ordering a lot of books or some broad variety of items?

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#96

I figured out what is going on here. Walmart thinks to themselves "we want to be like amazon, we want to be huge online" and then jet comes along and is something of an almost competitor to amazon, so corporate thinks "oh we should snap this up" but...my gut reaction here is this is going to be a terrible deal for walmart, what are they going to do, keep dumping $500M/yr for it at a loss or what? Pretty desperate, bu…

If you're a cynical person that is an easy thought... but something tells me a 3B acquisition of a company that is losing money in so many places isn't a decision taken lightly. A public company like Walmart, there's some people doing some math here.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#97
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would this violate? They are giving a reward, no value implied or stated.

In general, the unregistered "general solicitation" for the purchase of securities is prohibited. You can't go on TV and ask people to buy your stock in exchange for money unless you have registered to do so--an IPO or subsequent S1. Stock is certainly a security. Stock options are just call options of a security, and also a security. Obviously there is some (future, conditional) value implied since it's a reward. It…

Well he was just referring people to sign up for the website. The money was money he spent advertising the website(?), so the money only went to getting new members. The stocks were given as the reward for the most sign ups, not in exchange for money.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#98
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's what makes HN so great. Even the original Dropbox "Show HN" pitch was agressively cynical about it; "I can do the same thing with a linux box and some scripts...", etc.

I'll never understand remarks like that. The people who can put together something with similar functionality to Dropbox are by far in the minority. It's like having access to tons of scrap and be able to weld and dismissing metal bed frames because "I can do the same thing with some welding and scraps". Also the claim that it would eliminate my need for a USB drive was 100% on point.

"No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame."[0]

[0] https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i...

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#99
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They cap the total you can get in a year at $1000.

Most (all?) programs have a global cap. Where this one is unique is lack of per transaction caps. A $2k roundtrip ticket gets you flat $2.25 from Orbitz [0], or $112.00 from Jet. To hit $1k per year off the 5.6% rate is ~$18k spent on flights & hotels. I think most people won't come close. [0]: http://www.ebates.com/coupons/orbitz/index.htm

I've made more than $1000 on more than one program (discover deals, shopathome, possibly splendor or close, somewhere in the same range on topcashback). None of those have per transaction or total limits.

I don't spend on travel, though, so rules may be different there.

I resell, so I'm also explicitly excluded from jet's program.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#100
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon also gives you free shipping once you spend above $49. And if you have a business account you get two day shipping as well at the same threshold.

But it doesn't work for items from third party sellers that don't participate in Fulfillment by Amazon. Jet's has no such restriction.

Jet's third party sellers will just add shipping into their cost. You aren't getting the discount unless the items are shipping together.
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