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I don't mind it at all. I've been relatively impressed with the price to quality ratio and I usually seek the Amazon label brand where I can and the price is ri

I don't mind it at all. I've been relatively impressed with the price to quality ratio and I usually seek the Amazon label brand where I can and the price is right—just like any other store brand. - It started with batteries, which are awesome for the price - I bought a throwaway comforter + sheets to use for couch-sharing with the dog and they're my favorite set now. Better than my Ikea set which cost 2x as much. I could go on but for random items the Amazon brand is often pretty decent.

Shivetya 8y ago
It would be nice for sellers to be required to disclose that the product is their private label. some are very obvious but it is similar when grocery shopping, it can be difficult to know who is making the product you buy.
- user3359 8y ago
  This would defeat the purpose of private labeling, which is to make you rely on the private label brand and not the manufacturer. The private label brands wants the freedom to change manufacturers and have you stick with them instead of going to the manufacturer.
  - eli 8y ago
    And the manufacturer doesn't want you to know you can buy exactly the same potato chips in two different bags at two different price points
    - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
      But why should we accept that?
      - rickdeckard 8y ago
        Because even though the product might be from the same supplier, it is not a product of this brand. There is a big difference. The customer-expectation of a brand-product is based on the perception, the history and the presence of that brand, a well-crafted association and experience that is funded with the profit of the product. The private-label product is cutting this funding. It will not finance the supplier-brand and it sets its own expectation and quality-thresholds on the product. The supplier accepts that and waives his control to get the volume-order and fill production-gaps in its factory. In this kind of deal there is no direct relationship between the original brand and the private-label product anymore. Edit, for clarification: It's not said that the potato-chips will be exactly the same. The minimum requirements of the brands may not match with the minimum-requirements of the private-label, i.e. for the private-label a different grade of potato, oil, salt might be used.
    - bluGill 8y ago
      The manufacture also reserves the right to package a lower quality product. I've bought generic cereal that I'm sure was Kelloggs, most of the time I couldn't tell the difference - every once in a while there was a slight burnt taste. Still food safe, but not as high quality.
  - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    Ok, but the whole concept of capitalism optimising resource use is based on availability of information, so it's surely essential for a properly functioning market? Isn't it time we grew up as society, get forthright and stop trying to trick people into buying stuff by hiding information so sellers can bait-and-switch, cut quantities, cut ingredient value, etc.. Isn't it embarrassing? You sell great batteries at a good price, but only long enough to capture the market so you can push bad value on millions of people and cause excess damage to the environment .. so you can make a personal fortune. Straight theft seems almost moral compared to this. I bought biscuits yesterday, same box, same price, 17% less biscuits. Just now the packaging is very wasteful, but they managed to use extra plastic to disguise the reduction of food content. Oh, and apparently as the small print on the back gives the contents this is all fine. Some manager got a bonus for that I imagine.
    - TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
      We're still living in the Stone Age, only instead of using rocks to cannibalise each other we use language, marketing, economics, and politics. Cognitive Violence is a thing. It won't (usually) kill you as directly as a blow to the skull, but it's not exactly life enhancing either.
  - ajmurmann 8y ago
    So the point is to deceive the customer and because that's the entire point is OK and needs to be tolerated?
    - rickdeckard 8y ago
      No, deception has nothing to do with that. The point is to disconnect the product from its brand and connect it to another (in-house) brand instead, practically negotiating away the brand/marketing portion of the price by committing to an attractive purchase-volume. If I'm Pepsi and you want to white-label my product but then again still want to tell everyone it's Pepsi, you still make your sales on the back of my brand-investment, so you'll have to pay for the brand as well.
- yAnonymous 8y ago
  That would cause quite a lot of changes. A lot of stuff in super markets, at least here in Europe, is private label, too. The manufacturers use it to test different prices, taste, etc. and I guess also to deter competition from entering the market.
user3359 8y ago
The problem with this is that it's built in the backs of brands who were at one point well recognized brands on Amazon. Amazon took their sales data, determined it was a good market to move into, created specifications and reached out to their hundreds of sellers for a "private label opportunity". Cue making dozens of companies compete to supply Amazon with the manufacturing contract and constant downward pressure and you get a good product from Amazon at a good price. Not a problem right? Until the private label brand forces 90% of those formerly quality-focused small brands to shut down and due to their "algorithms" detecting less competition, begins raising prices again. And now the expertise of small brands is gone and no competition springs up in the market. I've seen this happen in a couple product lines over the year and is one reason we pulled off Amazon. Amazon customers are entitled pains in the ass, and the margin there isn't sustainable. The only way for small brands to make Amazon work is to aggressively sell a single SKU and put in remarketing/back-channel outreach to customers and make the conversions to the rest of your product line off Amazon. This is explicitly against Amazon's policy, but their policy is in place to ensure they profit and you never gain traction so you remain reliant on them until they day they put you out of business with their own private label line.
- GarrisonPrime 8y ago
  “Star Trek abundance” is coming ever faster, but the transitional period will be painful for many. Let’s hope to make it brief.
  - mmirate 8y ago
    Citation needed. As far as I can tell, post-scarcity is almost fundamentally unachievable; and, at best, achievable with technology that today's eyes would confuse for magic.
    - ceejayoz 8y ago
      > best achievable with technology that today's eyes would confuse for magic That's a pretty low bar, isn't it? Show an iPhone's capabilities to, say, a WWII soldier or industrial revolution textile worker, and they'll deem it pretty magical.
liveoneggs 8y ago
amazonbasics batteries recently started moving from japan to china; so I've heard
- discreditable 8y ago
  I've heard that too. I think I have some of the China batteries. I haven't really been able to tell the difference. They still last 2x as long as the crappy bulk hardware store batteries I used to buy.
adrr 8y ago
Amazon label stuff is mid-tier quality at best. An example using batteries as you mentioned. Costco's private label(Kirkland signature) is so much better and cheaper. Costco's batteries are rebranded Engergizers. I
whoisjuan 8y ago
Amazon Basic batteries are surprisingly good for their price.

Shivetya 8y ago

It would be nice for sellers to be required to disclose that the product is their private label. some are very obvious but it is similar when grocery shopping, it can be difficult to know who is making the product you buy.

user3359 8y ago
This would defeat the purpose of private labeling, which is to make you rely on the private label brand and not the manufacturer. The private label brands wants the freedom to change manufacturers and have you stick with them instead of going to the manufacturer.
- eli 8y ago
  And the manufacturer doesn't want you to know you can buy exactly the same potato chips in two different bags at two different price points
  - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    But why should we accept that?
    - rickdeckard 8y ago
      Because even though the product might be from the same supplier, it is not a product of this brand. There is a big difference. The customer-expectation of a brand-product is based on the perception, the history and the presence of that brand, a well-crafted association and experience that is funded with the profit of the product. The private-label product is cutting this funding. It will not finance the supplier-brand and it sets its own expectation and quality-thresholds on the product. The supplier accepts that and waives his control to get the volume-order and fill production-gaps in its factory. In this kind of deal there is no direct relationship between the original brand and the private-label product anymore. Edit, for clarification: It's not said that the potato-chips will be exactly the same. The minimum requirements of the brands may not match with the minimum-requirements of the private-label, i.e. for the private-label a different grade of potato, oil, salt might be used.
  - bluGill 8y ago
    The manufacture also reserves the right to package a lower quality product. I've bought generic cereal that I'm sure was Kelloggs, most of the time I couldn't tell the difference - every once in a while there was a slight burnt taste. Still food safe, but not as high quality.
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  Ok, but the whole concept of capitalism optimising resource use is based on availability of information, so it's surely essential for a properly functioning market? Isn't it time we grew up as society, get forthright and stop trying to trick people into buying stuff by hiding information so sellers can bait-and-switch, cut quantities, cut ingredient value, etc.. Isn't it embarrassing? You sell great batteries at a good price, but only long enough to capture the market so you can push bad value on millions of people and cause excess damage to the environment .. so you can make a personal fortune. Straight theft seems almost moral compared to this. I bought biscuits yesterday, same box, same price, 17% less biscuits. Just now the packaging is very wasteful, but they managed to use extra plastic to disguise the reduction of food content. Oh, and apparently as the small print on the back gives the contents this is all fine. Some manager got a bonus for that I imagine.
  - TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
    We're still living in the Stone Age, only instead of using rocks to cannibalise each other we use language, marketing, economics, and politics. Cognitive Violence is a thing. It won't (usually) kill you as directly as a blow to the skull, but it's not exactly life enhancing either.
- ajmurmann 8y ago
  So the point is to deceive the customer and because that's the entire point is OK and needs to be tolerated?
  - rickdeckard 8y ago
    No, deception has nothing to do with that. The point is to disconnect the product from its brand and connect it to another (in-house) brand instead, practically negotiating away the brand/marketing portion of the price by committing to an attractive purchase-volume. If I'm Pepsi and you want to white-label my product but then again still want to tell everyone it's Pepsi, you still make your sales on the back of my brand-investment, so you'll have to pay for the brand as well.
yAnonymous 8y ago
That would cause quite a lot of changes. A lot of stuff in super markets, at least here in Europe, is private label, too. The manufacturers use it to test different prices, taste, etc. and I guess also to deter competition from entering the market.

user3359 8y ago

The problem with this is that it's built in the backs of brands who were at one point well recognized brands on Amazon. Amazon took their sales data, determined it was a good market to move into, created specifications and reached out to their hundreds of sellers for a "private label opportunity". Cue making dozens of companies compete to supply Amazon with the manufacturing contract and constant downward pressure and you get a good product from Amazon at a good price. Not a problem right? Until the private label brand forces 90% of those formerly quality-focused small brands to shut down and due to their "algorithms" detecting less competition, begins raising prices again. And now the expertise of small brands is gone and no competition springs up in the market. I've seen this happen in a couple product lines over the year and is one reason we pulled off Amazon. Amazon customers are entitled pains in the ass, and the margin there isn't sustainable. The only way for small brands to make Amazon work is to aggressively sell a single SKU and put in remarketing/back-channel outreach to customers and make the conversions to the rest of your product line off Amazon. This is explicitly against Amazon's policy, but their policy is in place to ensure they profit and you never gain traction so you remain reliant on them until they day they put you out of business with their own private label line.

GarrisonPrime 8y ago
“Star Trek abundance” is coming ever faster, but the transitional period will be painful for many. Let’s hope to make it brief.
- mmirate 8y ago
  Citation needed. As far as I can tell, post-scarcity is almost fundamentally unachievable; and, at best, achievable with technology that today's eyes would confuse for magic.
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    > best achievable with technology that today's eyes would confuse for magic That's a pretty low bar, isn't it? Show an iPhone's capabilities to, say, a WWII soldier or industrial revolution textile worker, and they'll deem it pretty magical.

liveoneggs 8y ago

amazonbasics batteries recently started moving from japan to china; so I've heard

discreditable 8y ago
I've heard that too. I think I have some of the China batteries. I haven't really been able to tell the difference. They still last 2x as long as the crappy bulk hardware store batteries I used to buy.

adrr 8y ago

Amazon label stuff is mid-tier quality at best. An example using batteries as you mentioned. Costco's private label(Kirkland signature) is so much better and cheaper. Costco's batteries are rebranded Engergizers. I

whoisjuan 8y ago

Amazon Basic batteries are surprisingly good for their price.