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I'll be worried about a potential Amazon monopoly if they keep increasing market share for the next 20 years. But I don't think that will happen -- the Internet

I'll be worried about a potential Amazon monopoly if they keep increasing market share for the next 20 years. But I don't think that will happen -- the Internet seems to have a way of shaking even apparently unassailable monopolies on very short timelines. As a personal example, I've already moved a lot of my purchasing from Amazon to AliExpress. For anything small, fairly cheap, and that I don't need this week, I search AliExpress first. Quality can be uneven and you sometimes have to read between the lines on the reviews, but you can often find items identical to those on Amazon at 1/5-1/10 the price (eg. I just bought 3 sleeved baby bibs on AliExpress for $1.80/ea -- the going price on Amazon seems to be $16).

gumby 10y ago
> (eg. I just bought 3 sleeved baby bibs on AliExpress for $1.80/ea -- the going price on Amazon seems to be $16). I couldn't help but wonder if there is such an explosion of babies with more than two arms that there could be a competitive market in bibs with three sleeves!
nuane 10y ago
With RadioShack going under, AliExpress is my goto for basic electronic components, but it can be painful when you need to wait 3 weeks for a new part to arrive. But I don't like how Amazon because of how they treat their workers. Maybe the engineering positions are awesome, but warehouse workers and deliverers seem to be worse off than a Wal-Mart employee 10 years ago
- JCharante 10y ago
  > Maybe the engineering positions are awesome I've read only some teams are awesome while the rest are in an infinite loop waiting for more stock to vest.
- grogenaut 10y ago
  why not digikey?
- eagletusk 10y ago
  3 weeks for electronic components, you have extreme patience, I would have mostly given up on the project if that much time elapsed.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
    It's a temporary hit. I get around that problem by purchasing 10x what I need. Prices are so low that it's not an issue. And realistically, I may not have gotten back to the project in 3 weeks even if the parts were already on hand.
prklmn 10y ago
Alibaba is going to step on their toes in a major way within the next few years after they start building out a more robust presence of their own in the US (that's purely conjecture and hope)

gumby 10y ago

> (eg. I just bought 3 sleeved baby bibs on AliExpress for $1.80/ea -- the going price on Amazon seems to be $16). I couldn't help but wonder if there is such an explosion of babies with more than two arms that there could be a competitive market in bibs with three sleeves!

nuane 10y ago

With RadioShack going under, AliExpress is my goto for basic electronic components, but it can be painful when you need to wait 3 weeks for a new part to arrive. But I don't like how Amazon because of how they treat their workers. Maybe the engineering positions are awesome, but warehouse workers and deliverers seem to be worse off than a Wal-Mart employee 10 years ago

JCharante 10y ago
> Maybe the engineering positions are awesome I've read only some teams are awesome while the rest are in an infinite loop waiting for more stock to vest.
grogenaut 10y ago
why not digikey?
eagletusk 10y ago
3 weeks for electronic components, you have extreme patience, I would have mostly given up on the project if that much time elapsed.
- HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
  It's a temporary hit. I get around that problem by purchasing 10x what I need. Prices are so low that it's not an issue. And realistically, I may not have gotten back to the project in 3 weeks even if the parts were already on hand.

prklmn 10y ago

Alibaba is going to step on their toes in a major way within the next few years after they start building out a more robust presence of their own in the US (that's purely conjecture and hope)