5 ms·

They should also let you filter by country of origin.

by dqpb 7y ago

saagarjha 7y ago
This will likely not be useful: now you can't buy iPhones, and many companies will perform "assembly" in the United States to get around these kinds of things.
- dd36 7y ago
  Markets can’t work their market signal magic if information is concealed. If I don’t want to support an authoritarian regime, I shouldn’t have to.
  - geofft 7y ago
    I don't disagree, but why can't the market itself solve that instead of requiring government intervention? Just don't buy from people who don't disclose their supply chain (and perhaps rely on government to punish those who commit fraud by lying).
    - dd36 7y ago
      Because it’s cheaper to lie and accountability would require the government anyways. If forced arbitration and class action bans weren’t a thing then maybe private citizens could band together and sue but that method of accountability has been effectively killed.
    - dd36 7y ago
      Also, you wouldn’t have nutrition facts on labels without regulation. Some things the market just can’t solve.
    - jahewson 7y ago
      Then you just get people lying about their supply chain. Markets require a certain amount of trust to function and that requires strong institutions to keep bad behaviour in check. Without that foundation you don’t really have a market, at least not for long. I wouldn’t expect a market to stop this kind of behaviour but to simply put a price on it - “oh you want the non-toxic version? That’s an extra $20 please.”
      - thaumasiotes 7y ago
        > I wouldn’t expect a market to stop this kind of behaviour but to simply put a price on it - “oh you want the non-toxic version? That’s an extra $20 please.” That isn't a market solution, it's a bad-faith caricature. Obviously, no vendor is going to offer you a choice between toxic and non-toxic, because doing so would mean admitting one of their products was toxic. The market solution is branding; some vendors will build up reputations, and those good reputations will let them charge a higher price. This very minute you're commenting in a thread that's mostly about how Amazon's poor offerings are blackening its name.
        luckylion 7y ago
        > The market solution is branding; some vendors will build up reputations, and those good reputations will let them charge a higher price. And the scammer will simply use the brand without license and profit from the reputation of the original manufacturer. Nobody can do anything about because there's no government to enforce laws.
        thaumasiotes 7y ago
        Trademark protection is a pretty different set of law than product standards is.
        luckylion 7y ago
        Sure, but I understood the idea was "we don't need governments and laws, the market can take care of all of that, people will choose wisely".
        geofft 7y ago
        But isn't that the same thing in effect? There will be two vendors, one of whom is trusted to provide non-toxic options, and one of whom is lesser known and $20 cheaper. This happens today. A friend of mine is particularly sensitive to slightly-bad milk, so they buy a more expensive, known, organic brand of milk at the store instead of the store brand / local farmer's brand, because they have problems with store brand milk often enough.
  - chrischen 7y ago
    What about supporting the poor people in the authoritarian regime?
    - dd36 7y ago
      Comfort won’t result in regime change. Isn’t that why we sanction?
      - chrischen 7y ago
        Yes, by applying external pressure in our interests to get what we want from another population.
    - programmarchy 7y ago
      By unwittingly purchasing cheap, poisonous crap?
- nyolfen 7y ago
  manufactured in china isn't the same as shipped from a chinese seller. i think it would be difficult to profitably use the assembly workaround for small cheap stuff that gets sold by junk peddlers a la this press release
- bastawhiz 7y ago
  If I'm buying clothes for the gym, I don't want to buy "ROWILUX" or "YAKER" or "YSENTO" brand. I've bought enough to know they're all junk. Just show me the stuff that people actually put effort into! If I'm looking for an iPhone, I'll search for iPhones. If I'm looking for tank tops, show me the ones that aren't going to disintegrate after a month.
  - astura 7y ago
    Jeez, I thought you were making up those brand names. Turns out they are real https://www.amazon.com/sp?seller=A3P9TYWGAPWJQM https://www.amazon.com/sp?seller=A3P9TYWGAPWJQM https://www.amazon.com/stores/YAKER/node/13187735011 https://www.amazon.com/stores/YAKER/node/13187735011 https://www.amazon.com/stores/ROWILUX/主页/page/2DD5E212-93B0-458F-B4DF-1F73CE6A14F5 https://www.amazon.com/stores/ROWILUX/主页/page/2DD5E212-93B0-...
    - makomk 7y ago
      Oh, that's nothing. Try doing a search for ARSUXEO (mostly cycling clothing)...
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > If I'm buying clothes for the gym, I don't want to buy "ROWILUX" or "YAKER" or "YSENTO" brand. I've bought enough to know they're all junk. Just show me the stuff that people actually put effort into! This is actually how I feel about self-published books. Amazon won't stop recommending them to me. I bought a couple, and the writing quality is truly atrocious. So now self-published just means I am guaranteed not to buy the book unless it gets a meaningful recommendation from someone trustworthy. And I once bought the cheapest available toilet paper from Lucky. It was terrible, definitely not worth the minor savings. On the other hand, I don't really think it's wrong for Amazon to be selling self-published books, or for Lucky to be selling ultra-cheap toilet paper.
  - dawnerd 7y ago
    Those have ruined Amazon for me. Literally any search you do will yield pages of junk knockoff products with a name like that, all uppercase. It's ridiculous, really.
hedora 7y ago
Many of the items in the article look like they are licensed from major brands. I’d guess they are counterfeit, so filtering by where the real item is manufactured doesn’t really help with things like toxic materials. (I’m not arguing against such filters, just pointing out that they may not solve this problem.)
aitchnyu 7y ago
Spanish and Greek olive oils are sold as "Bottled in Italy". A country could game your supply chain desires. https://epochproducts.com/blog/is-your-italian-olive-oil-really-italian/ https://epochproducts.com/blog/is-your-italian-olive-oil-rea... https://www.foodbeast.com/news/olive-oil-spain/ https://www.foodbeast.com/news/olive-oil-spain/
- Symbiote 7y ago
  The EU's own laws don't distinguish between EU countries, you need only label something as "made in the EU". But, they still can't lie – "from Italian olives" had to mean that. You could buy olive oil from a producer in an area with protected origin status, similar to Champagne for wine. That's likely to cost more. https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/food-safety-and-quality/certification/quality-labels/quality-schemes-explained https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/food-safety...

They should also let you filter by country of origin.

by dqpb 7y ago

They should also let you filter by country of origin.

This will likely not be useful: now you can't buy iPhones, and many companies will perform "assembly" in the United States to get around these kinds of things.

dd36 7y ago
Markets can’t work their market signal magic if information is concealed. If I don’t want to support an authoritarian regime, I shouldn’t have to.
- geofft 7y ago
  I don't disagree, but why can't the market itself solve that instead of requiring government intervention? Just don't buy from people who don't disclose their supply chain (and perhaps rely on government to punish those who commit fraud by lying).
  - dd36 7y ago
    Because it’s cheaper to lie and accountability would require the government anyways. If forced arbitration and class action bans weren’t a thing then maybe private citizens could band together and sue but that method of accountability has been effectively killed.
  - dd36 7y ago
    Also, you wouldn’t have nutrition facts on labels without regulation. Some things the market just can’t solve.
  - jahewson 7y ago
    Then you just get people lying about their supply chain. Markets require a certain amount of trust to function and that requires strong institutions to keep bad behaviour in check. Without that foundation you don’t really have a market, at least not for long. I wouldn’t expect a market to stop this kind of behaviour but to simply put a price on it - “oh you want the non-toxic version? That’s an extra $20 please.”
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      > I wouldn’t expect a market to stop this kind of behaviour but to simply put a price on it - “oh you want the non-toxic version? That’s an extra $20 please.” That isn't a market solution, it's a bad-faith caricature. Obviously, no vendor is going to offer you a choice between toxic and non-toxic, because doing so would mean admitting one of their products was toxic. The market solution is branding; some vendors will build up reputations, and those good reputations will let them charge a higher price. This very minute you're commenting in a thread that's mostly about how Amazon's poor offerings are blackening its name.
      - luckylion 7y ago
        > The market solution is branding; some vendors will build up reputations, and those good reputations will let them charge a higher price. And the scammer will simply use the brand without license and profit from the reputation of the original manufacturer. Nobody can do anything about because there's no government to enforce laws.
        thaumasiotes 7y ago
        Trademark protection is a pretty different set of law than product standards is.
        luckylion 7y ago
        Sure, but I understood the idea was "we don't need governments and laws, the market can take care of all of that, people will choose wisely".
      - geofft 7y ago
        But isn't that the same thing in effect? There will be two vendors, one of whom is trusted to provide non-toxic options, and one of whom is lesser known and $20 cheaper. This happens today. A friend of mine is particularly sensitive to slightly-bad milk, so they buy a more expensive, known, organic brand of milk at the store instead of the store brand / local farmer's brand, because they have problems with store brand milk often enough.
- chrischen 7y ago
  What about supporting the poor people in the authoritarian regime?
  - dd36 7y ago
    Comfort won’t result in regime change. Isn’t that why we sanction?
    - chrischen 7y ago
      Yes, by applying external pressure in our interests to get what we want from another population.
  - programmarchy 7y ago
    By unwittingly purchasing cheap, poisonous crap?
nyolfen 7y ago
manufactured in china isn't the same as shipped from a chinese seller. i think it would be difficult to profitably use the assembly workaround for small cheap stuff that gets sold by junk peddlers a la this press release
bastawhiz 7y ago
If I'm buying clothes for the gym, I don't want to buy "ROWILUX" or "YAKER" or "YSENTO" brand. I've bought enough to know they're all junk. Just show me the stuff that people actually put effort into! If I'm looking for an iPhone, I'll search for iPhones. If I'm looking for tank tops, show me the ones that aren't going to disintegrate after a month.
- astura 7y ago
  Jeez, I thought you were making up those brand names. Turns out they are real https://www.amazon.com/sp?seller=A3P9TYWGAPWJQM https://www.amazon.com/sp?seller=A3P9TYWGAPWJQM https://www.amazon.com/stores/YAKER/node/13187735011 https://www.amazon.com/stores/YAKER/node/13187735011 https://www.amazon.com/stores/ROWILUX/主页/page/2DD5E212-93B0-458F-B4DF-1F73CE6A14F5 https://www.amazon.com/stores/ROWILUX/主页/page/2DD5E212-93B0-...
  - makomk 7y ago
    Oh, that's nothing. Try doing a search for ARSUXEO (mostly cycling clothing)...
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > If I'm buying clothes for the gym, I don't want to buy "ROWILUX" or "YAKER" or "YSENTO" brand. I've bought enough to know they're all junk. Just show me the stuff that people actually put effort into! This is actually how I feel about self-published books. Amazon won't stop recommending them to me. I bought a couple, and the writing quality is truly atrocious. So now self-published just means I am guaranteed not to buy the book unless it gets a meaningful recommendation from someone trustworthy. And I once bought the cheapest available toilet paper from Lucky. It was terrible, definitely not worth the minor savings. On the other hand, I don't really think it's wrong for Amazon to be selling self-published books, or for Lucky to be selling ultra-cheap toilet paper.
- dawnerd 7y ago
  Those have ruined Amazon for me. Literally any search you do will yield pages of junk knockoff products with a name like that, all uppercase. It's ridiculous, really.

hedora 7y ago

Many of the items in the article look like they are licensed from major brands. I’d guess they are counterfeit, so filtering by where the real item is manufactured doesn’t really help with things like toxic materials. (I’m not arguing against such filters, just pointing out that they may not solve this problem.)

aitchnyu 7y ago

Spanish and Greek olive oils are sold as "Bottled in Italy". A country could game your supply chain desires. https://epochproducts.com/blog/is-your-italian-olive-oil-really-italian/ https://epochproducts.com/blog/is-your-italian-olive-oil-rea... https://www.foodbeast.com/news/olive-oil-spain/ https://www.foodbeast.com/news/olive-oil-spain/

Symbiote 7y ago
The EU's own laws don't distinguish between EU countries, you need only label something as "made in the EU". But, they still can't lie – "from Italian olives" had to mean that. You could buy olive oil from a producer in an area with protected origin status, similar to Champagne for wine. That's likely to cost more. https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/food-safety-and-quality/certification/quality-labels/quality-schemes-explained https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/food-safety...