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I find online shopping far more frustrating than in-person because there's seemingly no minimum standard, or at least if there is, I'm not attuned to it. There

I find online shopping far more frustrating than in-person because there's seemingly no minimum standard, or at least if there is, I'm not attuned to it. There's just too much absolute codswallop out there. Amazon and eBay are the pound shop/dollar store for low value items. I can go to a supermarket and buy an economy brand tin of beans and it's going to be.. a tin of beans. It might, if I'm not careful and don't check, have added salt or sugar or something. By contrast if I go and buy a low value item on Amazon like, say, a USB cable, 3.5mm cable, whatever, there's a really good probability of it being utter bollocks. Either broken in some way or just terrible to begin with. I really, really wish this sort of thing could somehow be eliminated. Reviews don't cut it because even if they're not fake, I don't want to read reviews. I want your store to not sell dogshit items.

noahmoss 7y ago
That's a false equivalency. The USB cables I buy in random shops off the street are usually much worse, and more expensive, than any I've gotten from Amazon. And I'd wager that if you got a can of beans on Amazon it would taste perfectly fine. Maybe there is lower quality on Amazon, but comparing such different products is essentially meaningless.
- llamataboot 7y ago
  A random "junk shop" perhaps, but I'm to the point where I'd much rather go down the street to Target and pick up some slightly higher priced piece of electronics because I know it is quality controlled, than wade through Amazon. If I'm shopping for a particular brand, okay Amazon, if it's just needing something in particular that's guaranteed to have hundreds of Chinese knockoffs with no way of differentiating between reviews (like a bike headlight, or LEDs, or a USB adapter), I go to a B&M that stocks those things.
  - jpindar 7y ago
    Or order it from Target.com?
- esotericn 7y ago
  Right, exactly. I don't buy, well, basically anything, from random corner shops because it's likely to be crap. Does Amazon actually want to be like that? They don't have to be Waitrose, they just have to be even like, Lidl.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  So in this analogy, Amazon is basically a junk shop. Yet they have a much better reputation than that, somehow. Note that I don't buy things at junk shops in real life.
ikeboy 7y ago
That's what name brands are for. Buy Anker or Apple or Samsung or Sony or Panasonic or whatever and you won't get crap. It's not difficult to buy name brands. "But name brand is charging $20 and generic is $8" Yes, that's the price of wanting to avoid reading reviews. "But there are counterfeits" You can avoid 99% of counterfeits by buying only from sellers with good feedback. Just look if it's at least 95% and over say 100 feedback. Yes, some sellers that meet that will sell counterfeits and it's possible that commingling will mean it's a different seller's unit that gets sent but those are rare.
- esotericn 7y ago
  Imagine a world in which buying food at the supermarket were like this. You could only ever buy name brand anything, otherwise your cereal might be cardboard or your baked beans might taste like vinegar or whatever. I'd much rather there were just a nonshit Amazon that didn't gouge. Maybe it's that UK supermarkets' economy ranges are just really good.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    Food isn't a valid comparison for many reasons. If you buy food from Amazon you'll be fine. And if you go to your local flea market and buy random electronics you're likely to get just as bad a result as if you do that on Amazon. If you want a curated selection go to a place that curates it.
  - fullshark 7y ago
    >I'd much rather there were just a nonshit Amazon that didn't gouge. Aren't most online retailers that control their supply like this? Amazon and Ebay are platforms, but walmart and target for example have actual warehouses full of every item they sell right?
    - ImprovedSilence 7y ago
      I think Walmart’s online store works the same way amazon does. It’s full of third party crap too.
Xcelerate 7y ago
It would be nice if there was a website like Amazon, but that had some sort of editorially vetted product line. I just want a cheese grater that works well and isn't counterfeit. I'm willing to pay a few dollars more for the work that goes into verifying the products. It really seems like there would be a market opportunity here...
- lowercased 7y ago
  isn't that a website like williamssonoma.com?
  - Xcelerate 7y ago
    Yeah, I normally use Sur la Table for cookware. But I meant more of a "general purpose" site like Amazon, rather than niche sites for each category of product.
    - kortilla 7y ago
      Wirecutter seems to be good
- ikeboy 7y ago
  Search for review sites for the product you're looking for. There are a shocking number of such sites all chasing Amazon's affiliate cash for sending traffic there.
  - zxcmx 7y ago
    Right but they tend to phone it in! 9/10 if you pick a review site off google, they never looked at the product. I can’t say how many times I’ve been looking at product comparison sites where it’s clear the content is written by a farm writer comparing box specs, who has never used or even held in their hand the type of product they are reviewing let alone the actual items. So what we need is a review site for review sites, I guess...(?)

noahmoss 7y ago

That's a false equivalency. The USB cables I buy in random shops off the street are usually much worse, and more expensive, than any I've gotten from Amazon. And I'd wager that if you got a can of beans on Amazon it would taste perfectly fine. Maybe there is lower quality on Amazon, but comparing such different products is essentially meaningless.

llamataboot 7y ago
A random "junk shop" perhaps, but I'm to the point where I'd much rather go down the street to Target and pick up some slightly higher priced piece of electronics because I know it is quality controlled, than wade through Amazon. If I'm shopping for a particular brand, okay Amazon, if it's just needing something in particular that's guaranteed to have hundreds of Chinese knockoffs with no way of differentiating between reviews (like a bike headlight, or LEDs, or a USB adapter), I go to a B&M that stocks those things.
- jpindar 7y ago
  Or order it from Target.com?
esotericn 7y ago
Right, exactly. I don't buy, well, basically anything, from random corner shops because it's likely to be crap. Does Amazon actually want to be like that? They don't have to be Waitrose, they just have to be even like, Lidl.
CydeWeys 7y ago
So in this analogy, Amazon is basically a junk shop. Yet they have a much better reputation than that, somehow. Note that I don't buy things at junk shops in real life.

ikeboy 7y ago

That's what name brands are for. Buy Anker or Apple or Samsung or Sony or Panasonic or whatever and you won't get crap. It's not difficult to buy name brands. "But name brand is charging $20 and generic is $8" Yes, that's the price of wanting to avoid reading reviews. "But there are counterfeits" You can avoid 99% of counterfeits by buying only from sellers with good feedback. Just look if it's at least 95% and over say 100 feedback. Yes, some sellers that meet that will sell counterfeits and it's possible that commingling will mean it's a different seller's unit that gets sent but those are rare.

esotericn 7y ago
Imagine a world in which buying food at the supermarket were like this. You could only ever buy name brand anything, otherwise your cereal might be cardboard or your baked beans might taste like vinegar or whatever. I'd much rather there were just a nonshit Amazon that didn't gouge. Maybe it's that UK supermarkets' economy ranges are just really good.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  Food isn't a valid comparison for many reasons. If you buy food from Amazon you'll be fine. And if you go to your local flea market and buy random electronics you're likely to get just as bad a result as if you do that on Amazon. If you want a curated selection go to a place that curates it.
- fullshark 7y ago
  >I'd much rather there were just a nonshit Amazon that didn't gouge. Aren't most online retailers that control their supply like this? Amazon and Ebay are platforms, but walmart and target for example have actual warehouses full of every item they sell right?
  - ImprovedSilence 7y ago
    I think Walmart’s online store works the same way amazon does. It’s full of third party crap too.

Xcelerate 7y ago

It would be nice if there was a website like Amazon, but that had some sort of editorially vetted product line. I just want a cheese grater that works well and isn't counterfeit. I'm willing to pay a few dollars more for the work that goes into verifying the products. It really seems like there would be a market opportunity here...

lowercased 7y ago
isn't that a website like williamssonoma.com?
- Xcelerate 7y ago
  Yeah, I normally use Sur la Table for cookware. But I meant more of a "general purpose" site like Amazon, rather than niche sites for each category of product.
  - kortilla 7y ago
    Wirecutter seems to be good
ikeboy 7y ago
Search for review sites for the product you're looking for. There are a shocking number of such sites all chasing Amazon's affiliate cash for sending traffic there.
- zxcmx 7y ago
  Right but they tend to phone it in! 9/10 if you pick a review site off google, they never looked at the product. I can’t say how many times I’ve been looking at product comparison sites where it’s clear the content is written by a farm writer comparing box specs, who has never used or even held in their hand the type of product they are reviewing let alone the actual items. So what we need is a review site for review sites, I guess...(?)