General Request to pretty much everybody (or so it seems).

[buckeyefarmer]

We bailed Chrysler out twice, as I recall.

One that i know of, and they paid it back. the govt didnt step in and take them over like another regime did with GM.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

What Amazon has done is spawned many millions of small businesses, the Sellers who sell on Amazon.
I feel that the costs I pay to Amazon are worth it even though like everybody I wish the costs were less :laughing:.

The predatory thing Amazon does do is, if you are a Seller and you list a new product and if you start getting a lot of sales, Amazon sees that because they see your business records, and then Amazon comes in buys inventory and sells against you. I am protected since we are our own brand, but I have interacted with many many Sellers this has happened to. When you sign up to sell on Amazon you have to give them permission to have access to all of your sales records so what they are doing is legal. I do not believe it is morally right though. I think the whole world would be better off if Amazon was forced to split in 2, one half where they source and sell products on their own platform and another half where they offer the selling platform to other Sellers and do not share your sales data with the Selling part of Amazon. Does this make sense? The way I described it?

As a Seller if you can handle the aggravation factor of their constant software upgrades that many times screw with you listings it is a great platform to sell on. Your local hardware store who closed down? Many of them have started a new business selling on Amazon. Big brands used to sell to, Circuit City (now closed) K-Mart (on life support) etc. etc. as their dealers dried up they to are directly selling on Amazon also.

I could write a lot lot more but I think I will leave this here with just one more thought. Our olive oil, you would not be able to locally buy our olive oil so Amazon is providing a way for you to buy a product you would not be able to get locally.

Yes. Amazon offered a great opportunity for small sellers to reach millions of buyers......then they started squeezing them to death. Amazon is still (mostly) great for buyers, but now awful for sellers. TRUST ME, once they have squeezed out all the small sellers, they won't be so great for buyers either. Get it????

I have an Amazon store and a webstore. We offer lower prices and better service on our webstore. However, many sellers have no clue about how to have an effective webstore. We actively mentor etailers on how to do this. For free of course.

Rox, start your own website. If you need advice on that, PM me.

 

[prichard]

Apparently Amazon is the evil empire out to rule the world. Who knew?

 

[MossRoad]

I watched this in 2005..... scared the crap out of me.

 

[daugen]

For a number of years I was GM of a data company doing most of the electronic title searching in NJ. Just regular public records, but my what you can find out about folks, your neighbors, etc. But now, this is a whole new world with merged mega-bases. It's why I don't own a Lowes Card, a TSC card, or any card that tracks my purchases. Bad enough Visa sells all the info...

Have been reading sci fi for fifty years. AI is here. AI is our future. We need to manage it...and not let it manage us.
Stay out of my bedroom, stay out of my home. And keep your drones away too.

I'm totally open to the concerns here, but am still waiting for specific suggestions on where else to find merchandise.
How about a new thread on favorite places to shop online? Hopefully with direct connection to small businesses so the hungry domineering middleman can get cut out.

I sold some of my Amazon stock too...talk about capital gains...

 

[Gunny]

Since they've started upgrading/building their new facility at the Cincinnati Airport, we've been getting our Amazon orders in two days on a regular basis. I can order something from them on Thursday night and it is delivered on Saturday. Seems they fly the items into the airport, hand it over to FedEx and FedEx delivers it to the local post office.

Even though some don't like Amazon, it's my go to for the things I need that I can't source locally. I don't know how many times I've driven an hour one way to purchase something and the store won't have it in stock when I get there. Even though Lowes and HomeDeport websites will tell you that the store you're shopping has XX number of the items in stock, I've gotten there so darned many times and it's not available, so I get to deadhead back home for another hour.

At least with Amazon, if it's not in stock, they'll tell you, I usually get it cheaper than I can from the town an hour away and I don't have to invest from 2-3 hours of my time and diesel looking for it. I order it at night, track it the next day and I know that it'll come in the 10:30am mail the day after that.

 

[daugen]

That sure sounds familiar Gunny. A lot of us drive trucks and if you are getting 15mpg, there really is a cost factor to getting there
not even considering the hours of extra time usually involved vs clicking the mouse button. I live near a very small city, my downtown is thankfully only 20 minutes away. But there's nothing there...Lowes, Walmart and TSC. That's all I've got.
so who you gonna call Ghostbusters?

 

[MossRoad]

Since they've started upgrading/building their new facility at the Cincinnati Airport, we've been getting our Amazon orders in two days on a regular basis. I can order something from them on Thursday night and it is delivered on Saturday. Seems they fly the items into the airport, hand it over to FedEx and FedEx delivers it to the local post office.

Even though some don't like Amazon, it's my go to for the things I need that I can't source locally. I don't know how many times I've driven an hour one way to purchase something and the store won't have it in stock when I get there. Even though Lowes and HomeDeport websites will tell you that the store you're shopping has XX number of the items in stock, I've gotten there so darned many times and it's not available, so I get to deadhead back home for another hour.

At least with Amazon, if it's not in stock, they'll tell you, I usually get it cheaper than I can from the town an hour away and I don't have to invest from 2-3 hours of my time and diesel looking for it. I order it at night, track it the next day and I know that it'll come in the 10:30am mail the day after that.

If it's in a store that's a significant drive from my house, I'll call that store and ask them to verify that it is indeed in stock and ask them to hold if for me at the service counter.

 

[prichard]

If it's in a store that's a significant drive from my house, I'll call that store and ask them to verify that it is indeed in stock and ask them to hold if for me at the service counter.

Absolute requirement for TSC. Their online inventory is horrible. Even in store they have inventory issues. I've bought fencing there and get out to the yard to find it doesn't exist. I ask them to have someone physically check. They don't seem to have an issue with this since they know their system sucks.

 

[Diggin It]

If it's in a store that's a significant drive from my house, I'll call that store and ask them to verify that it is indeed in stock and ask them to hold if for me at the service counter.

Or, I'll 'buy on web and pick up in store'. If they find they don't have something, they call me and ask if I want to cancel or have them order it and let me know when it arrives. I can also sometimes get better discounts by using web-only coupons or promos.