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Amazon.com: Cutting down on Wrap Rage

24 points by cwan 16y ago

uuoc 16y ago
Please do not post links to the NYT paywall.
- SpikeGronim 16y ago
  You can register for free and use a fake email address. Your browser gets a cookie and you never have to deal with it again. I agree that the signup wall on nyt is hella annoying. I'd love to see the results of an A/B test on disabling it. When they do go fully paywall [1] I'll likely stop visiting their site. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/media/21times.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/media/21times.htm...
  - jamesbritt 16y ago
    One nice thing is that if you do get around to some sot of registration it seems to last a really long time. (Downside: You might post links not realizing you are only seeing something because you're signed in with some bogus account). But otherwise I count on bugmenot to get me in.
- _delirium 16y ago
  Does this vary by region? I get no registration wall when I click through, and I haven't registered on nytimes.com. Just tried in another browser I never use, and in Chrome's incognito mode, to make sure I didn't accidentally have a login cookie saved. I'm in the US, fwiw.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
mhb 16y ago
A nice side benefit for Amazon is that their customers will see the drab packaging only after buying the product. In contrast, customers browsing in the b&m stores of Amazon's competitors will take the less appealing packaging into account before buying.
- angusgr 16y ago
  I got the impression that the "drab packaging" options were only intended for distribution to internet resellers, not for all-purpose use. Which I suspect is one of the reasons why this is slow to catch on. I've heard that one of the reasons why marketing & demo packaging ships in every box for goods like expensive electronics is that vendors don't know for sure which cardboard box the B&M retailer will open for display (as opposed to the dozens out the back), so they just make sure they're all the same. I bet a similar disincentive applies here, not to mention the extra inventory-tracking complexity if you suddenly have twice as many product variants.
brianbreslin 16y ago
i think the reason they don't see frustration free versions at target and walmart is they are probably using the same products in online retail they would ship to local stores. So having two product sets cuts down on their efficiency/economies of scale. I wish all products on amazon were frustration free packaging. There was a story a while back about the guy who invented/worked on the clamshell packaging getting frustrated, quitting, and starting a company that sold a special knife to open those packages. fwiw

24 points by cwan 16y ago

uuoc 16y ago

Please do not post links to the NYT paywall.

SpikeGronim 16y ago
You can register for free and use a fake email address. Your browser gets a cookie and you never have to deal with it again. I agree that the signup wall on nyt is hella annoying. I'd love to see the results of an A/B test on disabling it. When they do go fully paywall [1] I'll likely stop visiting their site. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/media/21times.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/media/21times.htm...
- jamesbritt 16y ago
  One nice thing is that if you do get around to some sot of registration it seems to last a really long time. (Downside: You might post links not realizing you are only seeing something because you're signed in with some bogus account). But otherwise I count on bugmenot to get me in.
_delirium 16y ago
Does this vary by region? I get no registration wall when I click through, and I haven't registered on nytimes.com. Just tried in another browser I never use, and in Chrome's incognito mode, to make sure I didn't accidentally have a login cookie saved. I'm in the US, fwiw.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

mhb 16y ago

A nice side benefit for Amazon is that their customers will see the drab packaging only after buying the product. In contrast, customers browsing in the b&m stores of Amazon's competitors will take the less appealing packaging into account before buying.

angusgr 16y ago
I got the impression that the "drab packaging" options were only intended for distribution to internet resellers, not for all-purpose use. Which I suspect is one of the reasons why this is slow to catch on. I've heard that one of the reasons why marketing & demo packaging ships in every box for goods like expensive electronics is that vendors don't know for sure which cardboard box the B&M retailer will open for display (as opposed to the dozens out the back), so they just make sure they're all the same. I bet a similar disincentive applies here, not to mention the extra inventory-tracking complexity if you suddenly have twice as many product variants.

brianbreslin 16y ago

i think the reason they don't see frustration free versions at target and walmart is they are probably using the same products in online retail they would ship to local stores. So having two product sets cuts down on their efficiency/economies of scale. I wish all products on amazon were frustration free packaging. There was a story a while back about the guy who invented/worked on the clamshell packaging getting frustrated, quitting, and starting a company that sold a special knife to open those packages. fwiw