Mauser12
Bronze Member
when the "little guy" can deliver a product to my home in two days at the same price as Amazon I will switch.
General Request to pretty much everybody (or so it seems).
- Thread starter Diggin It
- Start date
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dmccarty
Super Star Member
We used to have a family run hardware store in town. There was also a Sears franchise store that sold Craftsman tools and appliances. Then the Lowes opened up. :shocked: The guy that owned the Sear franchise locked up the store and walked away shortly after Lowes opened. The hardware store used to sell fuel and I think that was a big part of their business. However, the Fire Marshall said their installation was not up to code and shut down the fuel business until they were in compliance. They could not afford to bring the fuel installation into compliance so that part of the business was done. Then Lowes opened up and they were done. They rented out their hardware store and opened a different business in town which is blossoming. The hardware store had been in business for many years and run by multiple generations. Sad to see the hardware store go but the family is doing well.
In another town there used to be a farm coop that was started in the late 1800's. Loved going to the store because it was as much a history museum as a store but they were not near us and did not sell much of what we needed. One of the founding families had bought the store from the coop decades ago and it was run by a family member who was up there in age. I think she ran that store far longer than she should have just because she did not want it to close after all of these years. The store was downtown and downtown has been dying for decades after a major road was put through on the outskirts of town. The store was closed recently.
Businesses, like all living things, are born, have a middle age, and then die. As has happened to A&P, TG&Y, Marshall's, Blockbuster's, and soon to Sears/Kmart. Amazon will die as well. Tis really ironically funny to me that Sears, a business that was a mail order company and one of the largest companies in the world, is being partly killed off by Amazon, another mail order company.
Later,
Dan
OP
Diggin It
Super Star Member
I've seen speculation that Sears is being intentionally killed off from within the upper echelon.
/pine
Super Star Member
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buckeyefarmer
Epic Contributor
This is happening all over. Sometimes we look back, and think it has always been like that, but it wasnt. Things have always changed with the times. When my dad was young, he rode to town with a horse and buggy. There was a livery stable, large feed mill, oil well supply stores, a train station and a railroad. That all went away before my time, except i have a little memory of the feed mill. In my time a chevy dealer , A&P, and sears came and went. several small grocery stores closed.We used to have a family run hardware store in town. There was also a Sears franchise store that sold Craftsman tools and appliances. Then the Lowes opened up. :shocked: The guy that owned the Sear franchise locked up the store and walked away shortly after Lowes opened. The hardware store used to sell fuel and I think that was a big part of their business. However, the Fire Marshall said their installation was not up to code and shut down the fuel business until they were in compliance. They could not afford to bring the fuel installation into compliance so that part of the business was done. Then Lowes opened up and they were done. They rented out their hardware store and opened a different business in town which is blossoming. The hardware store had been in business for many years and run by multiple generations. Sad to see the hardware store go but the family is doing well.
In another town there used to be a farm coop that was started in the late 1800's. Loved going to the store because it was as much a history museum as a store but they were not near us and did not sell much of what we needed. One of the founding families had bought the store from the coop decades ago and it was run by a family member who was up there in age. I think she ran that store far longer than she should have just because she did not want it to close after all of these years. The store was downtown and downtown has been dying for decades after a major road was put through on the outskirts of town. The store was closed recently.
Businesses, like all living things, are born, have a middle age, and then die. As has happened to A&P, TG&Y, Marshall's, Blockbuster's, and soon to Sears/Kmart. Amazon will die as well. Tis really ironically funny to me that Sears, a business that was a mail order company and one of the largest companies in the world, is being partly killed off by Amazon, another mail order company.
Later,
Dan
Times change, and you have to go with the flow.
daugen
Epic Contributor
Prime and Fulfilled by Amazon are just two more ways Amazon is squeezing small sellers. Sell on Amazon and they take a huge cut of each sale. Go Prime and they take another cut. Go Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) and they take another cut plus warehousing charges, etc. And they are systematically and gradually forcing all sellers to do all of this. This reduces sellers to the role of simply shipping their products to Amazon warehouses, and Amazon does everything else and takes all the profits. Because of the extremely slim profit margin left for any seller doing the Prime FBA thing, guess who can most easily afford to do this? Yep, Chinese sellers are slowly taking over Amazon. Just like Walmart, it is becoming a marketplace for China. Not saying that's good or bad.
And btw, there is no such thing as free shipping.
I agree with you totally. Close friends have a coffee business and by the time they pay 20 percent to Amazon plus plus they said they can only make a few bucks on shipping. 20 percent is a seriously high commission to pay a seller of huge quantities. They could easily afford to do it for 10 percent.
I mean how much money does Bezos want?
all of it?
OP
Diggin It
Super Star Member
^^^
He's not alone though.
I will spend more money on Amazon when;
I have overheated my snowsled, almost seizing the motor; and they send someone out to help me, then refuse to take any money.
I have an electrical, mechanical, or carpentry question; and their representative takes the time to answer my questions.
There is a real person on the phone when I call with a question before taking my order.
They don't charge me $99, to tell their vendor to put me at the front of the line in front of all of the other paying customers.
He's not alone though.
I will spend more money on Amazon when;
I have overheated my snowsled, almost seizing the motor; and they send someone out to help me, then refuse to take any money.
I have an electrical, mechanical, or carpentry question; and their representative takes the time to answer my questions.
There is a real person on the phone when I call with a question before taking my order.
They don't charge me $99, to tell their vendor to put me at the front of the line in front of all of the other paying customers.
GirlWhoWantsTractor
Platinum Member
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Yup. In business you have to constantly change, innovate, adjust. And part of the problem is, as you get larger, those thing become harder. I run a lean, mean little business. We enjoy facing each new challenge (and it is brutal out there). So far, for 11 years, we have had phenomenal growth!
IMO Sears' big mistake was when they looked at Walmart and K-mart killin' it selling cheap Chinese junk, and decided: "Hey, let's drop what everyone has loved about us for over a hundred years--made in America and lifetime money-back guarantee--and just sell cheap Chinese junk too! And of course the clueless old farts sitting at the conference table who made that decision will retire with their golden parachutes regardless....
Agree 100% that Amazon may be at it's peak now, but will inevitably face their own challenges. Have noticed a definite decline in quality in the last 6 months. Orders sloppily and inaccurately packed, for one.
HillStreet
Veteran Member
I miss Sears, you know the way it was. People cared, the merchandise was good. I got my very first credit card from a Sears store in Michigan’s UP. I think the limit was $200 and my wife and I bought an area rug for about $20. That got us our start.