5 ms·

> Also the yearly membership locks people to amazon to an extent. True, but I see that as a strike against Amazon. I was really pissed off recently when I foun

by mrec 9y ago

> Also the yearly membership locks people to amazon to an extent. True, but I see that as a strike against Amazon. I was really pissed off recently when I found Amazon were selling the DVD/BD of a popular recent movie as a Prime exclusive; non-Prime customers can't buy it from them at all, unless they want to roll the dice on that wretched hive of scum and piracy which is the Amazon thirdparty market. If Prime becomes effectively unavoidable, and Amazon's sticker prices get to amortize the Prime fee as "discounts", then they no longer have much of an incentive to compete on true price. As a customer, that's not even a tiny bit compelling.

dragonwriter 9y ago
> non-Prime customers can't buy it from them at all, unless they want to roll the dice on that wretched hive of scum and piracy which is the Amazon thirdparty market. Doesn't Amazon use shared inventory between first party and fulfilled-by-Amazon third party sellers, so that the first party market is potentially as much a hive of scum and piracy as the third party market. I'm quite sure that's been raised as an issue many times with regard to counterfeits.
- cvwright 9y ago
  Do they really? That's horrible! It would also explain so much bad/strange behavior where Amazon gets caught selling fraudulent merchandise. For a good example of this, look up reviews on CR2032 coin cell batteries sometime. In a nutshell, regardless of which brand you pick or who you buy from on Amazon, it seems you're very likely to get re-packaged and possibly counterfeit goods.
- htrp 9y ago
  Yep..... as a FBA seller on amazon you have to explicitly specify to not co-mingle inventory. Look at the do a search for amazon comingling and look at the FBA forums
bobthepanda 9y ago
I mean, there are plenty of products that you can get at both Amazon and Walmart today, and you could get those at Walmart instantly. Prime just allows you to get that product from Amazon in two days, without worrying about the cost of extra shipping, the hassle of actually getting to a Walmart (traffic, parking, weather, etc.), having to wait for someone to go get it, etc. Amazon just pushes all those unpleasant 'wait' factors to the experience of the deliverer, not the receiver.
- mrec 9y ago
  But "the cost of extra shipping" has to be offset against the annual Prime fee, and all the perks you list apply just as much to vanilla (non-Prime) Amazon. In recent years I've found myself swinging back towards buying things in brick-and-mortar shops, mostly because the delivery experience can be so horrible. Maybe things are better in the US, but in the UK getting things delivered is non-trivial when you work during the day, and even if you're at home, it's very common for UK postmen to not bother even bringing your parcel with them; they just leave a "while you were out" card forcing you to arrange redelivery. Delivery woes of various kinds have been a staple of /r/britishproblems since the start.
- RUG3Y 9y ago
  I like to buy big/heavy items from Walmart.com. Buying a full weight set from Amazon would not have free shipping. I can have the heavy stuff sent to any Walmart store for free and go pick it up. And yes, Walmart.com has a huge amount of stuff that isn't sold in their stores.

by mrec 9y ago

dragonwriter 9y ago

> non-Prime customers can't buy it from them at all, unless they want to roll the dice on that wretched hive of scum and piracy which is the Amazon thirdparty market. Doesn't Amazon use shared inventory between first party and fulfilled-by-Amazon third party sellers, so that the first party market is potentially as much a hive of scum and piracy as the third party market. I'm quite sure that's been raised as an issue many times with regard to counterfeits.

cvwright 9y ago
Do they really? That's horrible! It would also explain so much bad/strange behavior where Amazon gets caught selling fraudulent merchandise. For a good example of this, look up reviews on CR2032 coin cell batteries sometime. In a nutshell, regardless of which brand you pick or who you buy from on Amazon, it seems you're very likely to get re-packaged and possibly counterfeit goods.
htrp 9y ago
Yep..... as a FBA seller on amazon you have to explicitly specify to not co-mingle inventory. Look at the do a search for amazon comingling and look at the FBA forums

bobthepanda 9y ago

I mean, there are plenty of products that you can get at both Amazon and Walmart today, and you could get those at Walmart instantly. Prime just allows you to get that product from Amazon in two days, without worrying about the cost of extra shipping, the hassle of actually getting to a Walmart (traffic, parking, weather, etc.), having to wait for someone to go get it, etc. Amazon just pushes all those unpleasant 'wait' factors to the experience of the deliverer, not the receiver.

mrec 9y ago
But "the cost of extra shipping" has to be offset against the annual Prime fee, and all the perks you list apply just as much to vanilla (non-Prime) Amazon. In recent years I've found myself swinging back towards buying things in brick-and-mortar shops, mostly because the delivery experience can be so horrible. Maybe things are better in the US, but in the UK getting things delivered is non-trivial when you work during the day, and even if you're at home, it's very common for UK postmen to not bother even bringing your parcel with them; they just leave a "while you were out" card forcing you to arrange redelivery. Delivery woes of various kinds have been a staple of /r/britishproblems since the start.
RUG3Y 9y ago
I like to buy big/heavy items from Walmart.com. Buying a full weight set from Amazon would not have free shipping. I can have the heavy stuff sent to any Walmart store for free and go pick it up. And yes, Walmart.com has a huge amount of stuff that isn't sold in their stores.