Jen Sorensen for February 08, 2023

Yep. Absolutely. On the other hand, people ARE voting with their wallets. Example: We don’t shop much at our local Bed Bath and Beyond (and their quality this year seems to be down). But we won’t ever be buying there again: They’re closing. And there’s no “mom and pop” equivalent. Now it’s $-tree or the like which makes “junky” it’s main category.

(Bah. Humbug!)

As a plaque from a top line ad agency hereabouts noted:

SPEED. QUALITY. PRICE. PICK ANY TWO.

Quality was left behind — perhaps decades before online commerce began.

What’s important is that we have more and more market concentration. The end goal is oligarchy in every industry, not just oil, pharmacy, agriculture, and a few others.

It’s also why patriotic multinational corporations pay little to no taxes.

.

The Republican base all believe that not taxing corporations benefits them personally.

When I’ve tried to avoid Amazon and go directly to the source, Amazon often has a much better price.

There used to be a Borders bookstore in my neighborhood. My spouse checked their site and found a book he wanted and decided to go to the store to buy it. The price was considerably higher. When he asked about this, the clerk said that the price is better online and that he couldn’t charge the lower price. Gee, I wonder why the Borders store closed.

I just got an email asking me to remove my bad review because it was the manufacturer’s fault and they were getting a new one to make the product correctly. If I did so then they would compensate me later.

Wow! What a deal!

Reviews should always be taken tongue and cheek.

Size guides not remotely accurate

FYI This site purports to tell you for a given product what % of Amazon reviews are fake https://reviewmeta.com/

I remember those days. . .

I sometimes wonder if I am the only person in the world who misses actually going to stores where I can actually see and inspect items (and ask questions of a knowledgeable staff person) before I buy them. Especially when the mall is loaded with signs saying “This store is permanently closed. Come visit us at www.******.com.”

Reviews are an ok tool.

What can we do with a heater, a motor, and a sharp edge?

One opinion from a shop owner about the quality of a melon baller is just one person talking. Online reviews may be misleading, but if you spend enough time sifting through the chaff, you’ll find what you’re looking for. Then, if you want to support small businesses and don’t care about paying high prices, buy it there. For me, I live in a rural area, so home delivery is a godsend.

Amazon particularly has gone way downhill – search for something and they give you a bunch of other things

I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find the product with the least worrisome negative reviews, and I always feel like I am making a mistake when I order something.

Also, I’m sure Amazon could make their search engine more accurate, if they wanted to. It’s almost as if it benefits them to have people spinning around and around on their site trying to find things.

The retail clerk who was getting a commission to push a particular product or got a bonus for upselling you something you didn’t need? Yeah, they were completely reliable

The search engine on Amazon and other sites is totally gamed. Most blatant is the number of results returned when they don’t carry the item you’re looking for. You can get hundreds. Including a specific feature in the search argument is a mug’s game. I was a programmer for a specialty retailer that went bankrupt in 2008. One of my friends did the maintenance on the search engine. One of the management requirements was that every search had to return the 3 most popular products at the top of the first screen regardless of whether or not they fit the search criteria. The internet side of the business had nothing to do with their failure.

I agree. I upgraded my PC during the Great Scarcity and it took me a year and a half. I refused to go to Amazon and went to a local business. At least some of the money I spent stayed in my town.

Although I often go online to research products and find availability, I try to actually buy things from real stores. Been burned too many times by false advertising… at least at the store I can usually see and feel what I’m buying…

i lost my favorite melon baller when the flood came. i still miss it.

At my model train & ship store (13 yrs before closing) I offered many discount deals and free services (minor locomotive repairs), relatively easy return/exchange policy and technical advice. MANY local hobby stores closed down in the years after 2008, partly from the economic implosion, and more & more people wanted to buy online. And, fewer people, especially the young, are not attracted to craft hobbies.

Channeling Andy Rooney: “Didja ever notice how many commercials play and ya don’t even know what the hill product they’re tryin’ to hawk on ya???”

Small local businesses don’t have the products I buy online.

Much as I shop QVC, I like shopping at small businesses because of their attention to detail.

I was banned from doing reviews on Amazon. All 20 years of reviews were removed. I had rarely reviewed items (I had maybe 30 reviews) until I got a Kindle. The authors ask us to review their books so they can get traffic. Apparently the star doesn’t illicit as much. I am not very good at writing, even though I am supposedly a genius. I am a HORRIBLE!! typist, so that makes it even worse. I had reviewed over 200 books without issue. Then in November I had a review get kicked back for violating TOS. I couldn’t figure out what was bad especially since I had read reviews by others that had used language that was quite offensive. I thought perhaps my using the term “pervy” was what had caused the problem, so I took that out and resubmitted. Then 6 weeks later I got another e-mail saying that it was bad as well. I figured screw it. I just won’t review that book. All of this was quite odd. They usually send me an e-mail saying my review is live within a day. The fact that it took 6 weeks was weird. Then 3 hours later I got another e-mail saying that due to my repeated infractions I was banned for life!!! I was in tears. I know it is stupid to cry over something like this. I am mostly home-bound, so this was one of the few things I did to be “outside”. Anyway I called them and was sent through different people. Nobody could tell me what I had done wrong. I was told to try emailing them again. I was then told the issue was closed and my ban would remain. Two months later and I still get upset thinking about it. My reviews stayed up at GoodReads, so at least I am helping the authors there, but still. I am a goody-two-shoes so I really wish I could know what I did wrong.