27 ms·

Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

405 points by prostoalex 7y ago

nataz 7y ago
Amazon shipping hack - order what you want to order, wait 48 hours to see if it ships, and if it doesn't cancel and order elsewhere. This assumes you value ordering through Amazon (I do b/c prime shipping, easy return policy, and I have a large gift card balance) One thing I've noticed is that amazon may list a delivery date far out in the future, but it's possible you still get the product quickly, depending on what I can only assume are local warehouse logistic issues. Over the past two weeks I've ordered packing/shipping supplies, a high chair, some electronics, and a board game which all had expected delivery dates of +1 month, and they all arrived in 2 days. YMMV.
- jshevek 7y ago
  I've done this. It doesn't work for some third party shippers who claim to ship immediately (cancel option removed) even if they don't.
- secabeen 7y ago
  I've also noticed that if you order multiple items, and one of them has a short shipping time, they'll suddenly ship your other items that are waiting. Presumably if they're all at the same warehouse, and they're already shipping one thing, they put the other stuff in the box.
  - dawnerd 7y ago
    Flip side is sometimes something that could ship fast ends up being delayed so they can group it with something that comes from a further away warehouse.
    - fma 7y ago
      That makes no sense. If you order 2 items, and they're in 2 different warehouses, you'll get 2 packages. They aren't going to ship from 1 warehouse to a 2nd warehouse and then bundle them.
      - AnssiH 7y ago
        In my experience, they are (if more economical than sending 2 packages). That is often one reason when it takes long to ship. If you are a FBA seller, you can see these warehouse transfers in the event reports often between a new order coming in ("pending") and the order being shipped. This is obviously more common with slower shipping options - they won't have a lot of time to combine anything with 1-day shipping. I've also clearly seen the difference myself as a buyer between the shipping options - if I select faster shipping, the items tend to ship quicker but they are split into more shipments more often. Also, they may do the same when you order a single item as well - they first move the item to a nearer warehouse and only then ship, if cheaper than shipping directly and if they have the time.
- ehsankia 7y ago
  I really wish they could provide more clarity. I haven't tried ordering things that list as May, but browsing items, I randomly see individual items that for some reason have much closer dates. I even saw one with 1-day shipping. It makes no sense to me. I wish they could give a slightly better window prediction than "this may take a month"...
  - larrik 7y ago
    I needed some surge protectors. The ones I really wanted were all May, but then the AmazonBasics one was this week. Hmm...
  - airstrike 7y ago
    > I really wish they could provide more clarity. I'm not sure but I think this is because of some virus or something, from what I've heard
  - dangrossman 7y ago
    The 10% of items that show as available for 1-day or 2-day shipping are likely the ones in your nearest Amazon warehouse. There's 119 other warehouses products can be in that they would have to ship by UPS/FedEx/USPS instead of a local delivery by their own contracted drivers.
  - greenshackle2 7y ago
    They are shipping "priority items" quickly. Who knows how they determine what are "priority items". When I ordered hygiene items (shampoo, soap, etc.) they shipped the next day. But my order of kitchen equipment has expected delivery in May (which I'm totally fine with).
    - odysseus 7y ago
      This is going to be great, because the last time I ordered soap (in mid February, before most of the lockdowns started), it took Amazon 10 days to get it to me, even with Prime. Looking forward to seeing this improved on my next soap delivery ...
- serf 7y ago
  > Amazon shipping hack - order what you want to order, wait 48 hours to see if it ships, and if it doesn't cancel and order elsewhere. Amazon used to have a history of banning 'bad customers' (lots of returns, cancelled orders, etc), is this no longer the case?
  - dawnerd 7y ago
    Anecdotal but I've cancelled a TON of orders and haven't been banned. Returns I can see, but definitely not cancelled orders.
    - mod 7y ago
      > I've cancelled a TON of orders Out of curiosity, why?
      - asadhaider 7y ago
        Might depend on when you cancel, if you cancel after the order's been dispatched then they return it to the warehouse if possible. That may be treated the same as a 'customer return'. I've done this maybe twice.
  - mnm1 7y ago
    It is still the case.
complianceowl 7y ago
The HN is a very intelligent community, so I'd like to hear your thoughts out loud here. Do you guys think supply chains will move closer to home because of this pandemic? I'm hearing every narrative under the sun right now: "This will establish globalism even more", "No! This marks the abrupt END of globalism." What are your thoughts?
- twblalock 7y ago
  Supply chains need to be more resilient, and that probably means making them more global rather than less. A pandemic could originate in any country. Making things "at home" would turn out to be a bad idea if the pandemic originates at home. If that happened we would like to be able to get help from other countries.
  - jshevek 7y ago
    De-globalization, in this case, brings redundancy. This is less efficient, but more fault tolerant. Striving for domestic manufacturing does not prevent imports from occurring if deemed necessary. Tariffs are easy to wave, in an emergency.
- jshevek 7y ago
  Certain products will be made and/or stock-piled closer to home. The effect this has on globalism overall depends on how various factions battle over narratives.
- pjc50 7y ago
  "Globalism"? It's very hard to say right now. Money will be tight, so the pressure to buy the cheapest will remain. A lot of producers and consumer businesses will go bust. Shortage and oversupply will ping pong around for a while. A lot depends what the effect of deaths is on politics - do any leaders get killed? Differential effect on older voters? Hopefully the number of those will be small enough not to matter.
- stuff4ben 7y ago
  It's certainly going to shift manufacturing of some "essential items" for emergencies closer to home. But you can't do a knee-jerk reaction based on something like this. This is a very rare event and it would be foolish to annihilate your existing global supply chain over this. It will probably mean that countries (the smart ones anyways) will start to stockpile and ensure they have plans to follow in the event something like this happens again.
Kaibeezy 7y ago
paywall, whatever :( yep, amazon has been useless lately - ebay, on the other hand, all those independent sellers, very responsive!
- jshevek 7y ago
  http://archive.md/k3zNE http://archive.md/k3zNE
  - Kaibeezy 7y ago
    thank you
- Diederich 7y ago
  http://archive.md/k3zNE http://archive.md/k3zNE
  - Kaibeezy 7y ago
    thank you
jedberg 7y ago
Yeah I’ve ordered a few things now directly from the manufacturer. The problem is in a lot of cases I’ll see stuff that’s slightly cheaper on their site but then shipping is ridiculous. I ordered a mono price stand up desk recently. The price on Amazon was $10 more, but Monoprice wanted $45 for domestic shipping! So I waited three extra days and saved $35. It’s kind of a toss up now between speed and price depending on the item. I mean, it always was, but when prime is functioning normally, the speed is almost always worth the price (to me).
- bluetidepro 7y ago
  I agree 100% with this. It's appalling how many other sites (esp. the direct manufacturer ones, like you mentioned) use dark patterns with their shipping/handling prices. It really does make you understand why everyone wants to use the big sites like Amazon, at least they are pretty straight fwd when it comes to the price, shipping, fees, etc. Nothing worse than getting down an e-commerce funnel only to find you wasted 10+ mins filling out stages of forms to then find the shipping/handling cost is absolutely ridiculous, and have to bail.
  - ghostpepper 7y ago
    I’m convinced they do this on purpose. The more time you’ve invested, the more likely you are to acquiesce and pay their exorbitant shipping fee.
    - hurricanetc 7y ago
      I guess I am in the minority because as soon as I see a shipping fee more than 7-10% of the cost of the item I immediately start looking elsewhere. Numerous times I've just decided to not buy an item because I didn't want to pay the shipping costs.
  - KaoruAoiShiho 7y ago
    Or.... small companies don't have economy of scale logistics operations?
thebean11 7y ago
The estimates on Amazon right now seem way longer than the reality. I'm getting all my packages in 2-3 days despite Amazon estimating a week or more.
- mritun 7y ago
  Same for me. 3 items earlier estimated for Apr 27 are already sitting in a box in my living room.
  - frank086 7y ago
    Same. I put in a big order figuring if I have a three week turn around, better buy three weeks of stuff. Two days later I see the poor delivery guy unloading all my stuff. Now I am an inadvertent horder.
- irrational 7y ago
  Not me. Amazon is estimating 2-3 weeks on most things now, and so far are sticking by their estimates.
  - eshyong 7y ago
    I'm guessing a lot of this is location dependent, and based on warehouse-proximity.
    - bradlys 7y ago
      It's also based on the items you're ordering. Some stuff we've ordered arrives within a few days or less. Other items that I've ordered (tools) has taken about 3 weeks to arrive. Some items keep getting pushed back. I would cancel and buy elsewhere but I'd pay a lot in shipping since these aren't all items I can buy from one place online. I have shopped online for other items though. I bought some insoles for really cheap from a UK based bicycle store, the items got here in less than a week... all the way from the UK! It's not like all shipping is broken down - just Amazon.
jdlyga 7y ago
Well then give us a list! Nearly everything else I've checked is either out of stock or doesn't deliver to my house.
- markkanof 7y ago
  Maybe not the type of items you are shopping for, but I just ordered a sink and faucet from build.com and got free 2-day delivery.
- gambler 7y ago
  Most chain stores and even some local stores have online storefront and still ship items. It's a good time to support them. You don't want to live in the world where Amazon is the only game left in town. Also, Ebay.
jshevek 7y ago
Edit: Article can be read here: http://archive.md/k3zNE http://archive.md/k3zNE It seems like WSJ.com should not be the link used without a follow-up link giving access to the whole community. >Are paywalls ok? It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds.
loser777 7y ago
I’ve observed this with big and small business alike: + bought a baking steel direct from the seller (shipping time ~5 days vs. 1 month+, so I canceled the amazon order) + monitor out of stock for over a week on amazon (in stock at bnh, shipping time ~4 days) + monitor arm I didn’t even bother looking at on amazon (shipping time direct from seller ~2 days)
- CaliforniaKarl 7y ago
  I never heard of "baking steel". Looking online, it seems to be like a pizza stone? If yes, that's cool!
  - Shebanator 7y ago
    it is a pizza stone, but metal. I have one and it is super heavy, which makes it inconvenient to use, but it does improve the crust quality of oven-baked pizzas.
    - odysseus 7y ago
      How much of an improvement is it? I was considering getting "the original baking steel" for crispier crusts but wasn't sure if it was worth ~$80 for a hunk of metal. Is it significantly crispier crust than a regular old oven rack (which really isn't very crispy at all)?
      - Shebanator 7y ago
        yes, it retains way more heat than your oven rack or a typical sheet pan. The real question is how much better is it than a ceramic pizza stone? Better, but probably not a huge amount better.
- chrisweekly 7y ago
  bnh?
  - 7y ago
daniel_reetz 7y ago
I really felt this. Seeing things go out-of-stock or become unavailable for months was a strong reminder of how things used to be online - when I purchased different types of items from different independent web retailers. I went searching for many of them, most are gone. Does anyone remember Pricewatch? Old school computer parts sellers like CompGeeks? Those were really interesting times.
bombledmonk 7y ago
I just bought something from Best Buy online when Amazon said the same item was in stock, but would not arrive until April 27th. BB said it be here Thursday, though is usually a day early because of proximity to the warehouse.
manigandham 7y ago
http://archive.is/k3zNE http://archive.is/k3zNE
bluGill 7y ago
I always search for alternative sellers. They are more likely to have someone who knows the product. A plumbing supplier will know something about pipes and I have some reason to trust them when they give advantages to their different price levels. I don't need 200 different brands of 1/2 inch pipe connections, I need the 3 different levels of pressure they are rated for, and the choice of material they are made from. They also tend to provide reasonable sorting so that I can find what I need without scrolling for ages.
blensor 7y ago
I have started to fall back to a shopping site run by our postal service [1] which has been trying for several months through TV ads to get people to use the more regional shopping site rather than Amazon. I guess they could not have hoped for a better scenario than a countrywide lockdown paired with shipping delays at Amazon [1] shoepping.at
Finnucane 7y ago
Too bad they didn't mention bookshop.org for getting books.
- binaryorganic 7y ago
  I recently learned about bookshop, and was super excited until I actually started making a wishlist of stuff I wanted and found half of it to either be back ordered or not exist in their system at all. Turns out all orders are processed through a single book supplier and if they don’t have it bookshop won’t either. As someone who doesn’t use Amazon, I tend to use indiebound, which just pairs you with the closest independent bookstore who has the thing you want.
- iedddkke 7y ago
  or alibris.com
ebg13 7y ago
I tried ordering some things from Home Depot the other day, and they silently cancelled half of my order while still charging me the same amount for delivery from the store and while saying that some things can only be delivered from a warehouse and that some things can only be delivered from a specific store and that delivery from each store has a $45 minimum purchase before they'll even consider delivery despite the fact that they're charging the same amount for delivery from the store no matter how much you order. That of course makes it difficult to then order the remaining items even if you call them and demand a refund for the first delivery fee, because the remaining items now don't meet the minimum. Then the delivery from the warehouse is some weird arbitrary calculation involving a nominal+ amount that then gets divided up across the items you're ordering (3.77 here, 2.83 there, and so on) such that if you remove any item the delivery fees for the other items all go up, and then there are some items that deliver for free if you order more than $45 worth from the warehouse which of course doesn't help you if some items can only be purchased from the individual stores. And then there are still things like cans of spraypaint that you can't get delivered at all and you're only allowed to pick up in person. I know that right now is an exceptional time, but this kind of shopping experience is part of why people choose Amazon first.
- x0x0 7y ago
  My favorite is how home depot lists stuff in stock on the search results page, but then when you click the individual item it's out of stock. It's a store. Why the fuck would a store ever show me an item -- at least by default -- that it isn't willing to sell me? Like who exactly wants that "feature"? It makes attempting to buy something from home depot's site an infuriating experience.
  - ebg13 7y ago
    One of the items I tried ordering that was cancelled showed 34 in stock at that store while I was on the phone with them (immediately after the delivery person left) trying to find out why they cancelled my items and they were saying the items were probably out of stock in that store. And if you have three stores within a couple of miles of you that all claim to have a bunch of stock of an item but you order from one that suddenly (allegedly) runs out, you get to go all the way back down the hill because they don't migrate stock between stores.
tanilama 7y ago
If Amazon has shipping delay in US, then it is unlikely other smaller shops can fare it better.
- behringer 7y ago
  Ebay is generally cheaper and arriving on time.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Ebay seems to be doing fine. I make about five orders a week through them (this week it's mostly hardware and electronics supplies). Having the platform truly just be a transaction facilitator means the hard, linearly scaling, work of actually shipping merchandise is distributed among tens of thousands of sellers instead of hundreds of warehouses.
- jshevek 7y ago
  At the beginning of the pandemic, Amazon was overwhelmed by people panic buying or preparing for shelter in place. The problem was not primarily the shipping industry, it was within Amazon. They've since hired large numbers of people and deprioritized [items deemed] non-essential so that people can get their essential needs in a timely manner.
  - StillBored 7y ago
    How does amazon know what is essential?
    - jshevek 7y ago
      Edit: I thought you said "determine" rather than "know", answered accordingly below. Of course they don't "know", that's not a helpful question. The same way everyone does when trying to solve this problem systemically (vs individually), by making imperfect decisions and leaning on categories. My UVC lamp was delayed. I think that's more important than someone else's "third month" bunker food, but what are you going to do.
    - 7y ago
MisterTea 7y ago
Can someone please explain to me like I'm 5 why adults have to be told that other retail outlets exist besides Amazon? If you are one of these people, please kindly explain to me how you forgot there are other shops.
- throwanem 7y ago
  For the same reason people who use Facebook tend to forget about people who don't. Convenience is sticky. Amazon, like Facebook, spends a lot to subsidize that convenience and thus that stickiness. It's the online equivalent of the Wal-Mart effect.
- chillacy 7y ago
  Well... there's a thing called the "literal meaning" and sometimes there's another "figurative meaning"... and as you grow up you'll end up knowing the figurative meaning of a phrase quicker until it's second nature.
- maerF0x0 7y ago
  > please kindly explain to me how you forgot there are other shops. I will provide one anecdata. Often times the first place I look for the existence of an item is Amazon. That is if I want a certain cable, I do not open and search 5-10 different places (overstock, target, bestbuy et al). I just go to amazon and choose from what they have. There may be better, there may be cheaper, but unlikely with a sufficient margin to compensate for the overhead of searching more places, learning more nuances (return policy, shipping) etc.
- kube-system 7y ago
  Many people who shop online have only become online shoppers after Amazon became the dominant online retailer. For some people, Amazon is online shopping.
Diederich 7y ago
Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting food. We have a fair quantity of emergency supplies, but we'd rather not tap into those. At first it was the various delivery options: instacart, various others, but they became less usable. Early last week we started doing Amazon Prime Now, which allowed us to place and pay for orders at Whole Foods, then wait in the parking lot for them to put the orders in our trunk. Over the past few days, this has gotten less viable. We'd find ourselves driving 50 miles to pickup a $30 order. So, we're open to suggestions. We live in Mountain View, the SF Bay Area. We have been able to buy quite a bit of chicken and beef, and we have a 50 pound bag of flour coming in, so we're certainly not in any danger of starvation. It's just kind of a low-grade anxiety that kind of sucks. Thanks! PS: We have a pretty rigorous decontamination process that everything goes through before it comes into the house, so we feel pretty good about that.
- swsieber 7y ago
  > we have a fair quantity of emergency supplies. If you won't use them now, when will you? Are we talking days, weeks or months?
  - Diederich 7y ago
    There are few universal truths, but one of them is this: Things can always get worse. (Even if that might be unlikely at any given time.) At this moment, we have enough normal food to not need to dip into the emergency stuff, though it's getting more challenging. Plus, we rather prefer normal food. Basically, we don't consider our current situation an emergency yet.
  - smileysteve 7y ago
    When someone in the house gets sick and nobody is supposed to leave because they've been exposed.
neonate 7y ago
https://archive.md/k3zNE https://archive.md/k3zNE
- monkpit 7y ago
  Https cert error
Animats 7y ago
Amazon is holding up much better than other online retailers. Ordering works fine. My Amazon orders are showing up, although slowly. Safeway and Smart and Final can't even give me a delivery slot. Smart and Final's web site was failing over the weekend - Cloudflare timeouts, login timeouts, false credit card declines, HTTP error 461 (there is no standard 461 error.), and a "Site undergoing maintenance" message from their "DevOps Team". Back up now, though.
StillBored 7y ago
Yah, the only thing that's been arriving from Amazon lately are the things sold and shipped by 3rd party sellers. Frankly, i've been paying the extra to just order from the smaller shops lately because amazon's critical "prioritization" algorithm doesn't seem to know what is actually critical. Part to fix my cloths washing machine? 3 weeks from Amazon, two days from Granger. Problem solved, plus unlike a similar part I ordered a couple months ago from amazon, I'm pretty sure the granger parts aren't counterfeit. The box stamped "Made in U.S.A" is likely legitimate.
- grimjack00 7y ago
  >Part to fix my cloths washing machine? Appliances are apparently "non-essential", according to several governmental orders. Local news here in Denver made a big deal about the city putting a padlock on the doors of an appliance retailer.
- gniv 7y ago
  Did you mean grainger.com ?
  - StillBored 7y ago
    Yes, I managed to type it incorrectly twice, and noticed it after the edit button expired.
larrik 7y ago
Right when this all was starting, I had finally chosen a bass guitar I wanted. I decided to try and support a non-Amazon business in GuitarCenter (the local music shops focus a lot more on school band instruments). So, I order online, and pick the "pick up at store" option, since it says they are in stock. I show up, and an hour later they figure out that they don't have it in stock, they only have the floor model (which I can have for a whopping 5% off...). Apparently, the system (a green screen app, no less) can't tell the difference between "new in stock" and "floor model". I got the rundown of their logistics chain (which is basically just UPS), and I lost confidence that even ordering ship-to-home online again would even work. So, I bought it from Amazon for the same price and got it later that week...
- selykg 7y ago
  Check out Sweetwater next time. They are significantly better. Their site actually shows you each guitar/bass they have in stock and they have an entire gallery Of photos for each. If you order one they’ll send a zip or the whole collection of photos. If you call and talk to the sales rep for you (you’re assigned one) they can usually knock 5-15% off. They also make sure each guitar/bass is setup to factory spec before sending it out.
  - larrik 7y ago
    Never really heard of them before. Looks like everything I bought is out of stock anyway, but it's good to know there are alternatives.
    - kube-system 7y ago
      All pro musicians know and love Sweetwater
      - abakker 7y ago
        My dad used to have a recording studio before he passed away. Our Sweetwater rep (the same one the whole time)called every couple months for 13 years just to see if I need any other equipment, and to tell me when older gear I had was going obsolete due to driver support etc. fantastic experience, and one of the best companies I’ve ever bought from.
benbristow 7y ago
I usually prefer to use Amazon just because the experience is so simple and in the UK their logistics delivery service is pretty good with live tracking when the parcel gets near to your home. Amazon can be annoying when using third party sellers though and might end up getting dispatched with an alternative delivery service, god forbid Royal Mail who don't have any live tracking feature. I'm always happy to help out smaller/alternative businesses though if they offer competitive prices and use decent delivery firms like DPD.
double0jimb0 7y ago
Amazon has massive network of 3rd Party Sellers who ship items directly from their own warehouses, not relying on Amazon’s currently-hobbled fulfillment centers You can find these by selecting “other sellers” on the Amazon product page. This has been the way to get stuff quickly on Amazon for the last 3 weeks. Then on Friday, with no warning or explanation, Amazon extended all shipping times quoted out to April 20th, including the shipping times provided by 3rd party sellers. This extension has no basis in reality, as 3rd party sellers have not experienced any shipping delays because they don’t use Amazon’s warehouses. This was a hugely anti-competitive move by Amazon that has severely impacted 3rd party sellers and directly misleads consumers. Numerous 3rd party sellers have reported this situation to the DOJ. If any reporters want more info, please reach out. Email in profile.
- CPLX 7y ago
  For what it's worth, the solution is just to order whatever you want anyways, and watch it ship to you 2-3 days later.
  - double0jimb0 7y ago
    Well of course, but most people go by what they read on the screen in front of them at the time of purchase.
buzzert 7y ago
If anyone is looking for computer parts, I gotta shoutout Newegg. Been using them for more than 15 years, and they’ve been extremely great at delivering during the pandemic.
- ShamelessC 7y ago
  With all the social distancing going on and my general laziness towards staying active without being forced to, paired with the massive hype surrounding Half-Life: Alyx, I decided to build a VR ready computer. Newegg was fine. I'd been using them since my first build 15 years ago. But this time I also had access to the amazing website pcpartpicker.com. Not only do they make it easy to find parts that are all compatible with each other, but you'll also be given multiple shopping options with discounts. Most of it I got from Newegg but I was able to save about 75$ by getting the PSU and MoBo from bhphotovideo.com which was a surprisingly good experience. BTW, HL Alyx is as amazing as they say and you really don't have to spend a fortune to play it. My entire build was only 650$ and my VR headset of choice (Samsung Odyssey) only 270$. I was worried I'd made a mistake by going with a cheap headset but it works very well.
vernie 7y ago
I've been using eBay lately. Sellers have been consistently delivering in 2 days and it feels just as likely that I'll get fake shit as from Amazon these days.
- dawnerd 7y ago
  I sell on eBay and it's pretty easy to beat Amazon. Most first class and priority packages arrive in under 3 days depending on your location to an airport. I'm right next to PDX and almost all of my packages go through there and end up on the other side of the US overnight. Those packages typically take two days. Also helps I ship same day so they're on a flight that night or the next morning. As for the fakes, they certainly exist on eBay but it's a lot easier to spot. If an item doesn't have good pictures, that's a huge red flag. I personally stay away from sellers that just use stock images. I want to know exactly what I'm getting.
  - kube-system 7y ago
    I avoid shady listings when I really need the item, but if I'm looking for a deal, I've never had an issue leaning on eBay's buyer protection. I've gotten all of my best deals from poorly-listed items.
renewiltord 7y ago
I was going to say how Amazon might as well be the only guys online but this article is really good and offers real alternatives. Very cool.
ww520 7y ago
Is it possible to ask for price reduction or refund on the Prime membership due to the long delivery time? The point of Prime is mostly moot without the speedy delivery.
- dawnerd 7y ago
  I cancelled my prime for the time being and it automatically refunded the 12.99
salvagedcircuit 7y ago
Ironically, I find that I am ordering more from Mcmastercarr and digikey more than ever.
chadash 7y ago
pro tip: I find that when things sell out on Amazon, there is often a lag before it sells out on sites that cater to businesses. The first place to check is staples.com, but I've even started placing a few orders with restaurant supply stores and such.
rsync 7y ago
Mcmaster-carr is fantastic: https://www.mcmaster.com/ https://www.mcmaster.com/ Very simple UI with access to technical diagrams. Good pricing. If I order before noon or 2pm or something, here in the bay area I receive the items next day. I wish all web stores could be like this.
- ncheek 7y ago
  McMaster has a powerfully simple website. You can get to any item with mcmaster.com/<part number>. They often provide 3D models of their parts. You can even paste in a list of items to quickly bulk-add to your cart. It just works. Their customer service is also second to none. I've never had the phone ring more than once before being answered by a real person. And they'll respond 24/7 to phone calls or emails. Oh, and they've accepted returns a year after I bought something, no questions asked. In the Atlanta area they usually deliver same-day via courier, or you can drive over to their warehouse for will call. McMaster can often be more expensive than other distributors, especially for things like metal stock (I recommend price-comparing with onlinemetals.com or midweststeelsupply.com but be careful about Midwest Steel's processing times). But you're paying for the service and ease of use. Probably the biggest problem I have with McMaster is their lack of insight into shipping cost. They don't give you even an estimate of the shipping before you check out, it just gets added once they ship. I will say their shipping prices have always been fair but it can be scary to buy something not knowing what it will cost.
  - spacemark 7y ago
    I've probably put in 100 McMaster orders over the last year via work, side gig, and home projects. My take on this is that their prime customers (businesses) do not put shipping costs in their top 5 or maybe even top 10 priorities. Businesses pushing out products or engaged in rapid prototyping or meeting a deadline are much more concerned with speed, and McMaster always beats Amazon in shipping time to my workplace (usually less than 24 hours from order to delivery, no joke). Their customer also values accurate technical data so they've put a lot of effort into CAD models and are very responsive to customer service calls. In short, they know their customer persona. I wouldn't hold my breath that they'll add upfront shipping costs any time soon!
nkkollaw 7y ago
Sure, Amazon might not be the only one, but every time I tried to buy somewhere else, something happened. They charged me twice, charged me to never sent me the product and forcing me to waste 2 weeks, sent to the wrong address, etc. Amazon seems to be the only one that can actually do their job properly without hassles.
Waterluvian 7y ago
My wife orders from walmart.ca often. It's generally good but still feels lower quality than Amazon (which has its own issues, yes). Last week they shipped an entirely wrong item. So my kids aren't getting their Duplo set for Easter.
Someone1234 7y ago
One reason previously for using Amazon was recommendations for example their "Customers who viewed this item also viewed: [list of alternative items]." Unfortunately the recommendations boxes like the "Customers who viewed this item also viewed" have been completely removed, with no real replacement except "sponsored." I don't consider sponsored ads a replacement for actual recommendations based on real people's buying behavior. Obviously Amazon wants us to though so they can double-dip. Personally I am buying less, not more, because I cannot find things. But maybe it is more profitable to Amazon for us to spend longer looking, more sponsor spot revenue. Talk about perverse incentives, make more money from a slower shopping experience.
beamatronic 7y ago
Reading this entire thread, something became very clear to me: there is STILL a lot of room for improvement to be made for online e-commerce. Someone should invent a local-first inventory-first Amazon
- sneak 7y ago
  Like a local delivery-only costco, perhaps?
derrekl 7y ago
I emailed a local comic shop that’s closed to the public, but I was able to order $100 worth of trade paperbacks. Got it 2 days later. No “online” shop, but still worked. As best you can, try to spend money with the local stores you used to go to.
tanyatik 7y ago
Is it even ethical to shop on Amazon for non-essentials these days? There are big concerns amid worker safety. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/technology/coronavirus-amazon-workers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/technology/coronavirus-am...
- xkjkls 7y ago
  I'm not sure these concerns are unique to any other business with a warehouse, however.
awaythrower 7y ago
Also beware of phony Magento sites that don't have actual products, but are just trying to get CCs, PayPal or crypto payments.
- prox 7y ago
  How does that work? I’ve seen a lot of copy paste webshops of formerly retired domains. They obviously look quickly hacked together (allthough looking professional enough to the untrained eye)
  - awaythrower 7y ago
    I would bet scraping from Amazon, reducing prices randomly from 20-50%, and being sure search engines and aggregators see it, i.e., Google/Google Shopping.
sneak 7y ago
A lot of the things I used to buy on Amazon I buy on eBay instead using “buy it now”. Even free shipping items are frequently less than Amazon. I’ve already phased out AWS, I hope to stop using amazon.com by the end of the year. I don’t like doing business with military contractors.
- bdcravens 7y ago
  I assume you use Linux for your operating system then? Both Apple and Microsoft do business with the military.
  - sneak 7y ago
    My personal morals find a difference between “we sell physical goods and anyone can buy them without restriction” and “we will build you a whole set of dedicated custom data centers with racist hiring policies”. https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/ https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/ Also, Apple doesn’t sell OSes. One could buy secondhand Macs. Linux is used by the military, too. The issue is not “not matching”, it is a question of providing financial support to those who deliberately assist in the undertaking of violence. Selling (or giving away) your goods to all comers isn’t that. Custom services and consulting absolutely is. There’s also that whole Apple tapping-iCloud-in-China-for-the-CCP thing. I don’t think I’ll be on iOS much longer, especially now that Signal is fully cross-platform and runs on iPad. I’ve already deprecated iMessage amongst everyone I talk to in anticipation of the switch. Hell, I’ve even been on broadcast radio talking about how iCloud will leak your private data. I think it’s a mistake to view the attitude of Apple toward military contracting (not just sales) as the same as that of Microsoft or Amazon. If when Apple employs hundreds of people who are full-time embedded in the military to help them use their products, maybe that situation will change. To your point, I have moved off of GitHub, and have encouraged others to do the same: https://sneak.berlin/20200307/the-case-against-microsoft-and-github/ https://sneak.berlin/20200307/the-case-against-microsoft-and... We can all take small steps to improve our choices each day. Over time and across people, these things add up. The worst thing we could do is assume that every choice is the same and carries the same negative consequences and act uncritically. In that vein, I appreciate your pushback: critical thinking about our choices should be the one constant. There is always a place we can improve.
CodeSheikh 7y ago
Amazon's (+Wholefood) supply-chain failure is an eye-opener for me during COVID-19 crisis. I hate to acknowledge my dependability on Amazon Prime while living in a big city. I am not sure how I will break my habit but I know for a fact that I won't be ordering everything from Amazon Prime in the future. For a company that commands e-commerce space in year 2020, it is really frustrating to find this workflow while ordering from WF while using Amazon's app, it is a joke and UI/UX 101 blunder. You add items to your cart. They run out of inventory. Items disappear from your cart. Either you place your order assuming all items were in your cart or you don't get a delivery slot and you have to add those items again. Why can't they just borrow the same feature from Amazon.com where unavailable items move conveniently to "Save later" section?
jupp0r 7y ago
To any other non-amazon stores out there: have toilet paper in stock and I'll give it a try!
rchaud 7y ago
Best Buy's ecommerce site is great; they don't have the absurd levels of info overload and upselling of a typical Amazon page. In Canada, Amazon's electronics offerings are rife with awful Chinese brands sold by dropshippers. Amazon seemingly doesn't carry any of the inventory themselves unless it's a Fire tablet or Echo. It's actually a big relief to shop online via at a proper outlet (even Walmart.ca is more reliable) than through the Bezos flea market.
tmaly 7y ago
Amazon was sold out of bakers yeast as were the local grocery stores. I was able to order from a specialty place. The order was delivered 2 days later. The price was very reasonable. For certain things, I am seeing some serious prices. People are selling cotton masks 4 for $25. That seems a little steep given that a box of N95 masks went for $6 before this. I just ordered parts for building a new computer. I had to order from 4 different places as Amazon did not have half of the items in stock. There are definitely some supply chain issues.
LatteLazy 7y ago
>Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online They sort of are at the moment, at least here in greater London... My normal groceries company have cancelled online orders silently and will not deliver anything. They can't even update their websites with new opening times. The local DIY (B&Q) store are taking order for essential items only (loft ladders and plants are essential, but not light bulbs or fuses wtf?) Amazon randomly added a month to all their delivery estimates but everything is still coming in a few days and I can get whatever I want. To be honest, it makes sense to manage infrastructure of supply centrally. That's the genius of amazon, not retail but supply. While other companies can barely ring up items, Amazon connects buyers to sellers before either know the trade will happen.
- thewebcount 7y ago
  Instacart in Los Angeles did this to me. I ordered groceries and the local store uses Instacart to deliver them. When they didn't show up, I had to call Instacart to find out they had canceled my order. They were just not going to tell me, apparently.
  - LatteLazy 7y ago
    I can understand that places have problems with volume of orders or items not being in stock. But it should be really hard to cancel a client order and NOT tell them. How is it they don't have something that emails you when your order is killed already and automatically!?
olafure 7y ago
I used to use Amazon a lot. The two big factor were pricing and reviews. Today their review system is massively rigged and can't be trusted.
giancarlostoro 7y ago
Amazon is the only shop selling the most convenience. At least Walmart and Target have online order and parking spots to pick up your orders from, but I can only imagine a lot of old brick and mortar type of stores are way behind the times. Just some stories on here are horror story level examples of the night and day kind of service you can get in regards to buyer convenience.
gtm1260 7y ago
Its so unfair to expect consumers to go through hell on these random websites with poor UI/UX, customer service, logistics, and inventory monitoring systems. I don't think amazon should be able to crush small businesses etc, but I don't think appealing to people's sense of personal responsibility is the answer. There needs to be a viable way for other businesses to compete with amazon's level of service if they want consumers to change their habits.
- Kalium 7y ago
  The logistics, inventory management, and customer service operations at the scale of Amazon are something that become possible with truly immense scale. They're crushingly expensive at small scale - call center, warehouses, pre-positioning goods, etc. There are definitely ways to outsource any or all of these things, but at a cost in quality. I know I've often had unpleasant experiences with outsourced customer support call centers. Tools like Square or Shopify help, but only to a point. So I think my conclusion might be different from yours - small, local businesses need a viable way to compete with Amazon in ways where Amazon doesn't have a vast advantage.
  - gtm1260 7y ago
    Ah totally! I agree with your conclusion. I guess with the measures in place right now to fight COVID, the areas where Amazon might not have a vast advantage like niche selection, deep knowledge in a certain product area, being able to buy something in store immediatley etc. didn't occur to me.
Wistar 7y ago
Although the focus is somewhat narrower than amazon, for my professional needs I have had nothing but an excellent online experience with bhphotovideo. I have ordered hundreds of items worth tens of thousands of dollars from them starting about 2007. Their site can be a little frustrating, mostly from not narrow-enough categorization, but their app for iOS is very good. Their prices are usually as good and often better than amazon. The users' product reviews are useful and well-written and the site/app shows which reviewers are verified purchasers of the product they are reviewing and offers comprehensive review filtering. They also invest a lot of effort in producing their own product demo videos and articles done by obviously knowledgeable people which, given the breadth of their catalog, is particularly impressive and serves well more than just to shill their wares. They have great packaging for shipping and I have not once had an order go missing or show up broken or damaged despite many of my orders being fragile items. Well-oiled machine.
- noncoml 7y ago
  Another B&H Photo Video happy customer here. Pity they were forced to start charging state taxes. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but can't help to think that Amazon was somehow involved in that.
  - fmela 7y ago
    Right or wrong, you can get around the sales tax using B&H's Payboo credit card (for use on their site only): https://www.bhphotovideo.com/credit-cards https://www.bhphotovideo.com/credit-cards
    - sjwright 7y ago
      It’s a discount offer, I don’t think it actually elides tax payment. According to the URL you cited: “B&H will collect and remit state sales tax in accordance with state sales tax laws and regulations. So, customers do pay required sales tax and do not need to keep track or file anything separately.“
      - 7y ago
justlexi93 7y ago
That's true, but a lot of people prefer using Amazon for online shopping. It is a one stop shop where you can get almost everything.
A4ET8a8uTh0 7y ago
Last week experience. I tried gettin display port to hdmi for my docking station for work on Amazon. It was in Amazon basics category. Solid shopping experience, but it was not sent for 3 days so I cancelled. Annoying, but cancellation experience was great. I decided to do pick up from BestBuy. Great. Store near me has one in store. I purchase at 5PM. At 6PM ( when they close ), they send me an email saying they don't have it in store anymore. Great, but I can't cancel w/o creating account. Can't reach live person, because, ironically, Covid19. Screw it. I bought on CC. I can dispute it later. I go to Newegg. No issues. stuff gets here in 3 days. Amazon isn't the only store and its convenience is waning during this outbreak. They are lucky they are doing so many things right compared to competition. Personally, I am debating dropping Prime, which I had for one main reason:fast free shipping.
badrabbit 7y ago
Two things about amazon: 1) Their customer service is astonishing! Still have not seen better. Google might just take over the world if they came even 20% close to Amazon with this regard. 2) Their giftcards. I don't know what it is but theirs has the highest value. Even visa and mastercard will not be accepted at some places if you don't have a cash gift card, but amazon's have incredible purchasing power.
ehnto 7y ago
As a developer with most of my experience in boutique and enterprise eCommerce, I am surprised this is a conversation piece! There are plenty of large and small online retailers who are doing just fine. If you think Amazon has everything you are definitely mistaken, but for many it's probably enough of everything. I encourage everyone to buy directly from manufacturers and local businesses where possible, especially if you are not from the US. We feel like we want an Amazon dominant market, but the effects it has on what products exist and what businesses thrive is somewhat insidious and unseen.
yeutterg 7y ago
Amazon third-party seller here. If a Prime product is showing a long delivery time, try to look for non-Prime offers. You want to find offers that say "Ships from and sold by X," where X is NOT Amazon. The reason being, these sellers have their own fulfillment and may be able to beat Amazon's speed by a wide margin. We now offer this for our product, and I know a lot of other sellers are doing the same. We used to only have a Prime (Fulfilled by Amazon) offer, but this crisis caused us to adapt as customers were getting 1-month delivery estimates. We enabled "Fulfilled by Merchant" offers on our account, and I sent some inventory to my apartment (and ordered lots of shipping boxes). Within a couple days, the self-fulfilled option got the "buy box" on Amazon, so now most people viewing our listing will see a delivery estimate of about one week. It doesn't have the "Prime" badge, but we get a decent number of orders through this, enough to survive. We send out all orders with First Class Mail, and I pack them up around 3PM each business day in order to get them to the post office by the 5PM cutoff. It appears most customers are receiving orders between 2 and 5 days after ordering (including the opposite coast). This is even faster than the time estimate customers see on Amazon, and way faster than Prime. Disclaimer: your mileage may vary.
arbuge 7y ago
I'm having increasingly bad experiences on Amazon. The most obvious ones are common problems - the reviews can't be trusted, and they're no longer price leaders in many cases. But there are some new experiences I'm running into now. Today, for the first time ever, I was double-charged for the same order. Customer support claims I was only charged once and there's no way to upload them a screenshot of my card statement so that they can see what I'm seeing. To be clear, these are two real charges (not pending charges or temporary authorizations) for the same order.
homero 7y ago
How are the shipping companies keeping up? That's the bottleneck.
wiredone 7y ago
Amazon’s value isn’t in the fact it’s a store with great shipping. It’s the trust component. Returns are simple, shipping and stock management is a non event and they have basically everything. Every other online shopping experience I’ve had has been hit and miss. Get the simple things right And sure I’ll try it. But no one has just look at these comments.
alias_neo 7y ago
This is an important thing to remember. Just last night, I was ordering an item on Amazon, and pointed out to my wife that it is gonna take a week to delivery on prime. That's fine, there's more important things going on in the world. But she said; "Why does it have to be from Amazon? If you're not getting it Prime speed, why not buy it elsewhere?" So I went to the manufacturers website and bought it directly, and it was 15% cheaper than Amazon, and will supposedly arrive a little faster. I think I may try do this more. I already do this, where possible to support small businesses.
radium3d 7y ago
Prices on amazon have been way higher than alternatives lately. Be sure to check other online outlets.
LoSboccacc 7y ago
yeah but the less shops you use the smaller the surface attack for your personal and payment information
yCloser 7y ago
EU here, things seem pretty good here. * I ordered 20kg of oranges from sicily, no shipping costs, arrived in 2days * Coffee, same thing * a bass guitar, same * groceries are delivered in a day from local shops * for electronics i bought from many shops, usually takes ~1week. still OK for a washing machine or those big items ...seems that "the infrastructure" that amazon required for ups/dhl/* are being used by any other (even tiny) buisiness. My only complain is Ikea. Ikea doesn't cooperate.
- _n_b_ 7y ago
  Totally OT but where did you order the oranges from? I am in need of a few kg for juicing and it's expensive from the local grocery delivery folks around me...
  - yCloser 7y ago
    from www.aranciadoc.com
- thirdsun 7y ago
  Not to mention that returns/refunds are a non-issue over here since the EU enforces sane minimum customer protection standards. I never had to worry whether I’ll be able to return an item, regardless of where I purchased it, which still seems to be an important consideration for many commenters in this thread.
non-entity 7y ago
The thing about Amazon though, was the luxury of being able to order stuff and have it by my door the next day. This was especially great for products where the traditional brick and mortar retail died out a long time ago for that industry (i.e. electronic components) or stuff that you want / need regularly but isnt carried in stores near you.

405 points by prostoalex 7y ago

Amazon shipping hack - order what you want to order, wait 48 hours to see if it ships, and if it doesn't cancel and order elsewhere. This assumes you value ordering through Amazon (I do b/c prime shipping, easy return policy, and I have a large gift card balance) One thing I've noticed is that amazon may list a delivery date far out in the future, but it's possible you still get the product quickly, depending on what I can only assume are local warehouse logistic issues. Over the past two weeks I've ordered packing/shipping supplies, a high chair, some electronics, and a board game which all had expected delivery dates of +1 month, and they all arrived in 2 days. YMMV.

jshevek 7y ago
I've done this. It doesn't work for some third party shippers who claim to ship immediately (cancel option removed) even if they don't.
secabeen 7y ago
I've also noticed that if you order multiple items, and one of them has a short shipping time, they'll suddenly ship your other items that are waiting. Presumably if they're all at the same warehouse, and they're already shipping one thing, they put the other stuff in the box.
- dawnerd 7y ago
  Flip side is sometimes something that could ship fast ends up being delayed so they can group it with something that comes from a further away warehouse.
  - fma 7y ago
    That makes no sense. If you order 2 items, and they're in 2 different warehouses, you'll get 2 packages. They aren't going to ship from 1 warehouse to a 2nd warehouse and then bundle them.
    - AnssiH 7y ago
      In my experience, they are (if more economical than sending 2 packages). That is often one reason when it takes long to ship. If you are a FBA seller, you can see these warehouse transfers in the event reports often between a new order coming in ("pending") and the order being shipped. This is obviously more common with slower shipping options - they won't have a lot of time to combine anything with 1-day shipping. I've also clearly seen the difference myself as a buyer between the shipping options - if I select faster shipping, the items tend to ship quicker but they are split into more shipments more often. Also, they may do the same when you order a single item as well - they first move the item to a nearer warehouse and only then ship, if cheaper than shipping directly and if they have the time.
ehsankia 7y ago
I really wish they could provide more clarity. I haven't tried ordering things that list as May, but browsing items, I randomly see individual items that for some reason have much closer dates. I even saw one with 1-day shipping. It makes no sense to me. I wish they could give a slightly better window prediction than "this may take a month"...
- larrik 7y ago
  I needed some surge protectors. The ones I really wanted were all May, but then the AmazonBasics one was this week. Hmm...
- airstrike 7y ago
  > I really wish they could provide more clarity. I'm not sure but I think this is because of some virus or something, from what I've heard
- dangrossman 7y ago
  The 10% of items that show as available for 1-day or 2-day shipping are likely the ones in your nearest Amazon warehouse. There's 119 other warehouses products can be in that they would have to ship by UPS/FedEx/USPS instead of a local delivery by their own contracted drivers.
- greenshackle2 7y ago
  They are shipping "priority items" quickly. Who knows how they determine what are "priority items". When I ordered hygiene items (shampoo, soap, etc.) they shipped the next day. But my order of kitchen equipment has expected delivery in May (which I'm totally fine with).
  - odysseus 7y ago
    This is going to be great, because the last time I ordered soap (in mid February, before most of the lockdowns started), it took Amazon 10 days to get it to me, even with Prime. Looking forward to seeing this improved on my next soap delivery ...
serf 7y ago
> Amazon shipping hack - order what you want to order, wait 48 hours to see if it ships, and if it doesn't cancel and order elsewhere. Amazon used to have a history of banning 'bad customers' (lots of returns, cancelled orders, etc), is this no longer the case?
- dawnerd 7y ago
  Anecdotal but I've cancelled a TON of orders and haven't been banned. Returns I can see, but definitely not cancelled orders.
  - mod 7y ago
    > I've cancelled a TON of orders Out of curiosity, why?
    - asadhaider 7y ago
      Might depend on when you cancel, if you cancel after the order's been dispatched then they return it to the warehouse if possible. That may be treated the same as a 'customer return'. I've done this maybe twice.
- mnm1 7y ago
  It is still the case.

complianceowl 7y ago

The HN is a very intelligent community, so I'd like to hear your thoughts out loud here. Do you guys think supply chains will move closer to home because of this pandemic? I'm hearing every narrative under the sun right now: "This will establish globalism even more", "No! This marks the abrupt END of globalism." What are your thoughts?

twblalock 7y ago
Supply chains need to be more resilient, and that probably means making them more global rather than less. A pandemic could originate in any country. Making things "at home" would turn out to be a bad idea if the pandemic originates at home. If that happened we would like to be able to get help from other countries.
- jshevek 7y ago
  De-globalization, in this case, brings redundancy. This is less efficient, but more fault tolerant. Striving for domestic manufacturing does not prevent imports from occurring if deemed necessary. Tariffs are easy to wave, in an emergency.
jshevek 7y ago
Certain products will be made and/or stock-piled closer to home. The effect this has on globalism overall depends on how various factions battle over narratives.
pjc50 7y ago
"Globalism"? It's very hard to say right now. Money will be tight, so the pressure to buy the cheapest will remain. A lot of producers and consumer businesses will go bust. Shortage and oversupply will ping pong around for a while. A lot depends what the effect of deaths is on politics - do any leaders get killed? Differential effect on older voters? Hopefully the number of those will be small enough not to matter.
stuff4ben 7y ago
It's certainly going to shift manufacturing of some "essential items" for emergencies closer to home. But you can't do a knee-jerk reaction based on something like this. This is a very rare event and it would be foolish to annihilate your existing global supply chain over this. It will probably mean that countries (the smart ones anyways) will start to stockpile and ensure they have plans to follow in the event something like this happens again.

Kaibeezy 7y ago

paywall, whatever :( yep, amazon has been useless lately - ebay, on the other hand, all those independent sellers, very responsive!

jshevek 7y ago
http://archive.md/k3zNE http://archive.md/k3zNE
- Kaibeezy 7y ago
  thank you
Diederich 7y ago
http://archive.md/k3zNE http://archive.md/k3zNE
- Kaibeezy 7y ago
  thank you

jedberg 7y ago

Yeah I’ve ordered a few things now directly from the manufacturer. The problem is in a lot of cases I’ll see stuff that’s slightly cheaper on their site but then shipping is ridiculous. I ordered a mono price stand up desk recently. The price on Amazon was $10 more, but Monoprice wanted $45 for domestic shipping! So I waited three extra days and saved $35. It’s kind of a toss up now between speed and price depending on the item. I mean, it always was, but when prime is functioning normally, the speed is almost always worth the price (to me).

bluetidepro 7y ago
I agree 100% with this. It's appalling how many other sites (esp. the direct manufacturer ones, like you mentioned) use dark patterns with their shipping/handling prices. It really does make you understand why everyone wants to use the big sites like Amazon, at least they are pretty straight fwd when it comes to the price, shipping, fees, etc. Nothing worse than getting down an e-commerce funnel only to find you wasted 10+ mins filling out stages of forms to then find the shipping/handling cost is absolutely ridiculous, and have to bail.
- ghostpepper 7y ago
  I’m convinced they do this on purpose. The more time you’ve invested, the more likely you are to acquiesce and pay their exorbitant shipping fee.
  - hurricanetc 7y ago
    I guess I am in the minority because as soon as I see a shipping fee more than 7-10% of the cost of the item I immediately start looking elsewhere. Numerous times I've just decided to not buy an item because I didn't want to pay the shipping costs.
- KaoruAoiShiho 7y ago
  Or.... small companies don't have economy of scale logistics operations?

thebean11 7y ago

The estimates on Amazon right now seem way longer than the reality. I'm getting all my packages in 2-3 days despite Amazon estimating a week or more.

mritun 7y ago
Same for me. 3 items earlier estimated for Apr 27 are already sitting in a box in my living room.
- frank086 7y ago
  Same. I put in a big order figuring if I have a three week turn around, better buy three weeks of stuff. Two days later I see the poor delivery guy unloading all my stuff. Now I am an inadvertent horder.
irrational 7y ago
Not me. Amazon is estimating 2-3 weeks on most things now, and so far are sticking by their estimates.
- eshyong 7y ago
  I'm guessing a lot of this is location dependent, and based on warehouse-proximity.
  - bradlys 7y ago
    It's also based on the items you're ordering. Some stuff we've ordered arrives within a few days or less. Other items that I've ordered (tools) has taken about 3 weeks to arrive. Some items keep getting pushed back. I would cancel and buy elsewhere but I'd pay a lot in shipping since these aren't all items I can buy from one place online. I have shopped online for other items though. I bought some insoles for really cheap from a UK based bicycle store, the items got here in less than a week... all the way from the UK! It's not like all shipping is broken down - just Amazon.

jdlyga 7y ago

Well then give us a list! Nearly everything else I've checked is either out of stock or doesn't deliver to my house.

markkanof 7y ago
Maybe not the type of items you are shopping for, but I just ordered a sink and faucet from build.com and got free 2-day delivery.
gambler 7y ago
Most chain stores and even some local stores have online storefront and still ship items. It's a good time to support them. You don't want to live in the world where Amazon is the only game left in town. Also, Ebay.

jshevek 7y ago

Edit: Article can be read here: http://archive.md/k3zNE http://archive.md/k3zNE It seems like WSJ.com should not be the link used without a follow-up link giving access to the whole community. >Are paywalls ok? It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds.

loser777 7y ago

I’ve observed this with big and small business alike: + bought a baking steel direct from the seller (shipping time ~5 days vs. 1 month+, so I canceled the amazon order) + monitor out of stock for over a week on amazon (in stock at bnh, shipping time ~4 days) + monitor arm I didn’t even bother looking at on amazon (shipping time direct from seller ~2 days)

CaliforniaKarl 7y ago
I never heard of "baking steel". Looking online, it seems to be like a pizza stone? If yes, that's cool!
- Shebanator 7y ago
  it is a pizza stone, but metal. I have one and it is super heavy, which makes it inconvenient to use, but it does improve the crust quality of oven-baked pizzas.
  - odysseus 7y ago
    How much of an improvement is it? I was considering getting "the original baking steel" for crispier crusts but wasn't sure if it was worth ~$80 for a hunk of metal. Is it significantly crispier crust than a regular old oven rack (which really isn't very crispy at all)?
    - Shebanator 7y ago
      yes, it retains way more heat than your oven rack or a typical sheet pan. The real question is how much better is it than a ceramic pizza stone? Better, but probably not a huge amount better.
chrisweekly 7y ago
bnh?
- 7y ago

daniel_reetz 7y ago

I really felt this. Seeing things go out-of-stock or become unavailable for months was a strong reminder of how things used to be online - when I purchased different types of items from different independent web retailers. I went searching for many of them, most are gone. Does anyone remember Pricewatch? Old school computer parts sellers like CompGeeks? Those were really interesting times.

bombledmonk 7y ago

I just bought something from Best Buy online when Amazon said the same item was in stock, but would not arrive until April 27th. BB said it be here Thursday, though is usually a day early because of proximity to the warehouse.

manigandham 7y ago

http://archive.is/k3zNE http://archive.is/k3zNE

bluGill 7y ago

I always search for alternative sellers. They are more likely to have someone who knows the product. A plumbing supplier will know something about pipes and I have some reason to trust them when they give advantages to their different price levels. I don't need 200 different brands of 1/2 inch pipe connections, I need the 3 different levels of pressure they are rated for, and the choice of material they are made from. They also tend to provide reasonable sorting so that I can find what I need without scrolling for ages.

blensor 7y ago

I have started to fall back to a shopping site run by our postal service [1] which has been trying for several months through TV ads to get people to use the more regional shopping site rather than Amazon. I guess they could not have hoped for a better scenario than a countrywide lockdown paired with shipping delays at Amazon [1] shoepping.at

Finnucane 7y ago

Too bad they didn't mention bookshop.org for getting books.

binaryorganic 7y ago
I recently learned about bookshop, and was super excited until I actually started making a wishlist of stuff I wanted and found half of it to either be back ordered or not exist in their system at all. Turns out all orders are processed through a single book supplier and if they don’t have it bookshop won’t either. As someone who doesn’t use Amazon, I tend to use indiebound, which just pairs you with the closest independent bookstore who has the thing you want.
iedddkke 7y ago
or alibris.com

ebg13 7y ago

I tried ordering some things from Home Depot the other day, and they silently cancelled half of my order while still charging me the same amount for delivery from the store and while saying that some things can only be delivered from a warehouse and that some things can only be delivered from a specific store and that delivery from each store has a $45 minimum purchase before they'll even consider delivery despite the fact that they're charging the same amount for delivery from the store no matter how much you order. That of course makes it difficult to then order the remaining items even if you call them and demand a refund for the first delivery fee, because the remaining items now don't meet the minimum. Then the delivery from the warehouse is some weird arbitrary calculation involving a nominal+ amount that then gets divided up across the items you're ordering (3.77 here, 2.83 there, and so on) such that if you remove any item the delivery fees for the other items all go up, and then there are some items that deliver for free if you order more than $45 worth from the warehouse which of course doesn't help you if some items can only be purchased from the individual stores. And then there are still things like cans of spraypaint that you can't get delivered at all and you're only allowed to pick up in person. I know that right now is an exceptional time, but this kind of shopping experience is part of why people choose Amazon first.

x0x0 7y ago
My favorite is how home depot lists stuff in stock on the search results page, but then when you click the individual item it's out of stock. It's a store. Why the fuck would a store ever show me an item -- at least by default -- that it isn't willing to sell me? Like who exactly wants that "feature"? It makes attempting to buy something from home depot's site an infuriating experience.
- ebg13 7y ago
  One of the items I tried ordering that was cancelled showed 34 in stock at that store while I was on the phone with them (immediately after the delivery person left) trying to find out why they cancelled my items and they were saying the items were probably out of stock in that store. And if you have three stores within a couple of miles of you that all claim to have a bunch of stock of an item but you order from one that suddenly (allegedly) runs out, you get to go all the way back down the hill because they don't migrate stock between stores.

tanilama 7y ago

If Amazon has shipping delay in US, then it is unlikely other smaller shops can fare it better.

behringer 7y ago
Ebay is generally cheaper and arriving on time.
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Ebay seems to be doing fine. I make about five orders a week through them (this week it's mostly hardware and electronics supplies). Having the platform truly just be a transaction facilitator means the hard, linearly scaling, work of actually shipping merchandise is distributed among tens of thousands of sellers instead of hundreds of warehouses.
jshevek 7y ago
At the beginning of the pandemic, Amazon was overwhelmed by people panic buying or preparing for shelter in place. The problem was not primarily the shipping industry, it was within Amazon. They've since hired large numbers of people and deprioritized [items deemed] non-essential so that people can get their essential needs in a timely manner.
- StillBored 7y ago
  How does amazon know what is essential?
  - jshevek 7y ago
    Edit: I thought you said "determine" rather than "know", answered accordingly below. Of course they don't "know", that's not a helpful question. The same way everyone does when trying to solve this problem systemically (vs individually), by making imperfect decisions and leaning on categories. My UVC lamp was delayed. I think that's more important than someone else's "third month" bunker food, but what are you going to do.
  - 7y ago

MisterTea 7y ago

Can someone please explain to me like I'm 5 why adults have to be told that other retail outlets exist besides Amazon? If you are one of these people, please kindly explain to me how you forgot there are other shops.

throwanem 7y ago
For the same reason people who use Facebook tend to forget about people who don't. Convenience is sticky. Amazon, like Facebook, spends a lot to subsidize that convenience and thus that stickiness. It's the online equivalent of the Wal-Mart effect.
chillacy 7y ago
Well... there's a thing called the "literal meaning" and sometimes there's another "figurative meaning"... and as you grow up you'll end up knowing the figurative meaning of a phrase quicker until it's second nature.
maerF0x0 7y ago
> please kindly explain to me how you forgot there are other shops. I will provide one anecdata. Often times the first place I look for the existence of an item is Amazon. That is if I want a certain cable, I do not open and search 5-10 different places (overstock, target, bestbuy et al). I just go to amazon and choose from what they have. There may be better, there may be cheaper, but unlikely with a sufficient margin to compensate for the overhead of searching more places, learning more nuances (return policy, shipping) etc.
kube-system 7y ago
Many people who shop online have only become online shoppers after Amazon became the dominant online retailer. For some people, Amazon is online shopping.

Diederich 7y ago

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting food. We have a fair quantity of emergency supplies, but we'd rather not tap into those. At first it was the various delivery options: instacart, various others, but they became less usable. Early last week we started doing Amazon Prime Now, which allowed us to place and pay for orders at Whole Foods, then wait in the parking lot for them to put the orders in our trunk. Over the past few days, this has gotten less viable. We'd find ourselves driving 50 miles to pickup a $30 order. So, we're open to suggestions. We live in Mountain View, the SF Bay Area. We have been able to buy quite a bit of chicken and beef, and we have a 50 pound bag of flour coming in, so we're certainly not in any danger of starvation. It's just kind of a low-grade anxiety that kind of sucks. Thanks! PS: We have a pretty rigorous decontamination process that everything goes through before it comes into the house, so we feel pretty good about that.

swsieber 7y ago
> we have a fair quantity of emergency supplies. If you won't use them now, when will you? Are we talking days, weeks or months?
- Diederich 7y ago
  There are few universal truths, but one of them is this: Things can always get worse. (Even if that might be unlikely at any given time.) At this moment, we have enough normal food to not need to dip into the emergency stuff, though it's getting more challenging. Plus, we rather prefer normal food. Basically, we don't consider our current situation an emergency yet.
- smileysteve 7y ago
  When someone in the house gets sick and nobody is supposed to leave because they've been exposed.

neonate 7y ago

https://archive.md/k3zNE https://archive.md/k3zNE

monkpit 7y ago
Https cert error

Animats 7y ago

Amazon is holding up much better than other online retailers. Ordering works fine. My Amazon orders are showing up, although slowly. Safeway and Smart and Final can't even give me a delivery slot. Smart and Final's web site was failing over the weekend - Cloudflare timeouts, login timeouts, false credit card declines, HTTP error 461 (there is no standard 461 error.), and a "Site undergoing maintenance" message from their "DevOps Team". Back up now, though.

StillBored 7y ago

Yah, the only thing that's been arriving from Amazon lately are the things sold and shipped by 3rd party sellers. Frankly, i've been paying the extra to just order from the smaller shops lately because amazon's critical "prioritization" algorithm doesn't seem to know what is actually critical. Part to fix my cloths washing machine? 3 weeks from Amazon, two days from Granger. Problem solved, plus unlike a similar part I ordered a couple months ago from amazon, I'm pretty sure the granger parts aren't counterfeit. The box stamped "Made in U.S.A" is likely legitimate.

grimjack00 7y ago
>Part to fix my cloths washing machine? Appliances are apparently "non-essential", according to several governmental orders. Local news here in Denver made a big deal about the city putting a padlock on the doors of an appliance retailer.
gniv 7y ago
Did you mean grainger.com ?
- StillBored 7y ago
  Yes, I managed to type it incorrectly twice, and noticed it after the edit button expired.

larrik 7y ago

Right when this all was starting, I had finally chosen a bass guitar I wanted. I decided to try and support a non-Amazon business in GuitarCenter (the local music shops focus a lot more on school band instruments). So, I order online, and pick the "pick up at store" option, since it says they are in stock. I show up, and an hour later they figure out that they don't have it in stock, they only have the floor model (which I can have for a whopping 5% off...). Apparently, the system (a green screen app, no less) can't tell the difference between "new in stock" and "floor model". I got the rundown of their logistics chain (which is basically just UPS), and I lost confidence that even ordering ship-to-home online again would even work. So, I bought it from Amazon for the same price and got it later that week...

selykg 7y ago
Check out Sweetwater next time. They are significantly better. Their site actually shows you each guitar/bass they have in stock and they have an entire gallery Of photos for each. If you order one they’ll send a zip or the whole collection of photos. If you call and talk to the sales rep for you (you’re assigned one) they can usually knock 5-15% off. They also make sure each guitar/bass is setup to factory spec before sending it out.
- larrik 7y ago
  Never really heard of them before. Looks like everything I bought is out of stock anyway, but it's good to know there are alternatives.
  - kube-system 7y ago
    All pro musicians know and love Sweetwater
    - abakker 7y ago
      My dad used to have a recording studio before he passed away. Our Sweetwater rep (the same one the whole time)called every couple months for 13 years just to see if I need any other equipment, and to tell me when older gear I had was going obsolete due to driver support etc. fantastic experience, and one of the best companies I’ve ever bought from.

benbristow 7y ago

I usually prefer to use Amazon just because the experience is so simple and in the UK their logistics delivery service is pretty good with live tracking when the parcel gets near to your home. Amazon can be annoying when using third party sellers though and might end up getting dispatched with an alternative delivery service, god forbid Royal Mail who don't have any live tracking feature. I'm always happy to help out smaller/alternative businesses though if they offer competitive prices and use decent delivery firms like DPD.

double0jimb0 7y ago

Amazon has massive network of 3rd Party Sellers who ship items directly from their own warehouses, not relying on Amazon’s currently-hobbled fulfillment centers You can find these by selecting “other sellers” on the Amazon product page. This has been the way to get stuff quickly on Amazon for the last 3 weeks. Then on Friday, with no warning or explanation, Amazon extended all shipping times quoted out to April 20th, including the shipping times provided by 3rd party sellers. This extension has no basis in reality, as 3rd party sellers have not experienced any shipping delays because they don’t use Amazon’s warehouses. This was a hugely anti-competitive move by Amazon that has severely impacted 3rd party sellers and directly misleads consumers. Numerous 3rd party sellers have reported this situation to the DOJ. If any reporters want more info, please reach out. Email in profile.

CPLX 7y ago
For what it's worth, the solution is just to order whatever you want anyways, and watch it ship to you 2-3 days later.
- double0jimb0 7y ago
  Well of course, but most people go by what they read on the screen in front of them at the time of purchase.

buzzert 7y ago

If anyone is looking for computer parts, I gotta shoutout Newegg. Been using them for more than 15 years, and they’ve been extremely great at delivering during the pandemic.

ShamelessC 7y ago
With all the social distancing going on and my general laziness towards staying active without being forced to, paired with the massive hype surrounding Half-Life: Alyx, I decided to build a VR ready computer. Newegg was fine. I'd been using them since my first build 15 years ago. But this time I also had access to the amazing website pcpartpicker.com. Not only do they make it easy to find parts that are all compatible with each other, but you'll also be given multiple shopping options with discounts. Most of it I got from Newegg but I was able to save about 75$ by getting the PSU and MoBo from bhphotovideo.com which was a surprisingly good experience. BTW, HL Alyx is as amazing as they say and you really don't have to spend a fortune to play it. My entire build was only 650$ and my VR headset of choice (Samsung Odyssey) only 270$. I was worried I'd made a mistake by going with a cheap headset but it works very well.

vernie 7y ago

I've been using eBay lately. Sellers have been consistently delivering in 2 days and it feels just as likely that I'll get fake shit as from Amazon these days.

dawnerd 7y ago
I sell on eBay and it's pretty easy to beat Amazon. Most first class and priority packages arrive in under 3 days depending on your location to an airport. I'm right next to PDX and almost all of my packages go through there and end up on the other side of the US overnight. Those packages typically take two days. Also helps I ship same day so they're on a flight that night or the next morning. As for the fakes, they certainly exist on eBay but it's a lot easier to spot. If an item doesn't have good pictures, that's a huge red flag. I personally stay away from sellers that just use stock images. I want to know exactly what I'm getting.
- kube-system 7y ago
  I avoid shady listings when I really need the item, but if I'm looking for a deal, I've never had an issue leaning on eBay's buyer protection. I've gotten all of my best deals from poorly-listed items.

renewiltord 7y ago

I was going to say how Amazon might as well be the only guys online but this article is really good and offers real alternatives. Very cool.

ww520 7y ago

Is it possible to ask for price reduction or refund on the Prime membership due to the long delivery time? The point of Prime is mostly moot without the speedy delivery.

dawnerd 7y ago
I cancelled my prime for the time being and it automatically refunded the 12.99

salvagedcircuit 7y ago

Ironically, I find that I am ordering more from Mcmastercarr and digikey more than ever.

chadash 7y ago

pro tip: I find that when things sell out on Amazon, there is often a lag before it sells out on sites that cater to businesses. The first place to check is staples.com, but I've even started placing a few orders with restaurant supply stores and such.

rsync 7y ago

Mcmaster-carr is fantastic: https://www.mcmaster.com/ https://www.mcmaster.com/ Very simple UI with access to technical diagrams. Good pricing. If I order before noon or 2pm or something, here in the bay area I receive the items next day. I wish all web stores could be like this.

ncheek 7y ago
McMaster has a powerfully simple website. You can get to any item with mcmaster.com/<part number>. They often provide 3D models of their parts. You can even paste in a list of items to quickly bulk-add to your cart. It just works. Their customer service is also second to none. I've never had the phone ring more than once before being answered by a real person. And they'll respond 24/7 to phone calls or emails. Oh, and they've accepted returns a year after I bought something, no questions asked. In the Atlanta area they usually deliver same-day via courier, or you can drive over to their warehouse for will call. McMaster can often be more expensive than other distributors, especially for things like metal stock (I recommend price-comparing with onlinemetals.com or midweststeelsupply.com but be careful about Midwest Steel's processing times). But you're paying for the service and ease of use. Probably the biggest problem I have with McMaster is their lack of insight into shipping cost. They don't give you even an estimate of the shipping before you check out, it just gets added once they ship. I will say their shipping prices have always been fair but it can be scary to buy something not knowing what it will cost.
- spacemark 7y ago
  I've probably put in 100 McMaster orders over the last year via work, side gig, and home projects. My take on this is that their prime customers (businesses) do not put shipping costs in their top 5 or maybe even top 10 priorities. Businesses pushing out products or engaged in rapid prototyping or meeting a deadline are much more concerned with speed, and McMaster always beats Amazon in shipping time to my workplace (usually less than 24 hours from order to delivery, no joke). Their customer also values accurate technical data so they've put a lot of effort into CAD models and are very responsive to customer service calls. In short, they know their customer persona. I wouldn't hold my breath that they'll add upfront shipping costs any time soon!

nkkollaw 7y ago

Sure, Amazon might not be the only one, but every time I tried to buy somewhere else, something happened. They charged me twice, charged me to never sent me the product and forcing me to waste 2 weeks, sent to the wrong address, etc. Amazon seems to be the only one that can actually do their job properly without hassles.

Waterluvian 7y ago

My wife orders from walmart.ca often. It's generally good but still feels lower quality than Amazon (which has its own issues, yes). Last week they shipped an entirely wrong item. So my kids aren't getting their Duplo set for Easter.

Someone1234 7y ago

One reason previously for using Amazon was recommendations for example their "Customers who viewed this item also viewed: [list of alternative items]." Unfortunately the recommendations boxes like the "Customers who viewed this item also viewed" have been completely removed, with no real replacement except "sponsored." I don't consider sponsored ads a replacement for actual recommendations based on real people's buying behavior. Obviously Amazon wants us to though so they can double-dip. Personally I am buying less, not more, because I cannot find things. But maybe it is more profitable to Amazon for us to spend longer looking, more sponsor spot revenue. Talk about perverse incentives, make more money from a slower shopping experience.

beamatronic 7y ago

Reading this entire thread, something became very clear to me: there is STILL a lot of room for improvement to be made for online e-commerce. Someone should invent a local-first inventory-first Amazon

sneak 7y ago
Like a local delivery-only costco, perhaps?

derrekl 7y ago

I emailed a local comic shop that’s closed to the public, but I was able to order $100 worth of trade paperbacks. Got it 2 days later. No “online” shop, but still worked. As best you can, try to spend money with the local stores you used to go to.

tanyatik 7y ago

Is it even ethical to shop on Amazon for non-essentials these days? There are big concerns amid worker safety. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/technology/coronavirus-amazon-workers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/technology/coronavirus-am...

xkjkls 7y ago
I'm not sure these concerns are unique to any other business with a warehouse, however.

awaythrower 7y ago

Also beware of phony Magento sites that don't have actual products, but are just trying to get CCs, PayPal or crypto payments.

prox 7y ago
How does that work? I’ve seen a lot of copy paste webshops of formerly retired domains. They obviously look quickly hacked together (allthough looking professional enough to the untrained eye)
- awaythrower 7y ago
  I would bet scraping from Amazon, reducing prices randomly from 20-50%, and being sure search engines and aggregators see it, i.e., Google/Google Shopping.

sneak 7y ago

A lot of the things I used to buy on Amazon I buy on eBay instead using “buy it now”. Even free shipping items are frequently less than Amazon. I’ve already phased out AWS, I hope to stop using amazon.com by the end of the year. I don’t like doing business with military contractors.

bdcravens 7y ago
I assume you use Linux for your operating system then? Both Apple and Microsoft do business with the military.
- sneak 7y ago
  My personal morals find a difference between “we sell physical goods and anyone can buy them without restriction” and “we will build you a whole set of dedicated custom data centers with racist hiring policies”. https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/ https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/ Also, Apple doesn’t sell OSes. One could buy secondhand Macs. Linux is used by the military, too. The issue is not “not matching”, it is a question of providing financial support to those who deliberately assist in the undertaking of violence. Selling (or giving away) your goods to all comers isn’t that. Custom services and consulting absolutely is. There’s also that whole Apple tapping-iCloud-in-China-for-the-CCP thing. I don’t think I’ll be on iOS much longer, especially now that Signal is fully cross-platform and runs on iPad. I’ve already deprecated iMessage amongst everyone I talk to in anticipation of the switch. Hell, I’ve even been on broadcast radio talking about how iCloud will leak your private data. I think it’s a mistake to view the attitude of Apple toward military contracting (not just sales) as the same as that of Microsoft or Amazon. If when Apple employs hundreds of people who are full-time embedded in the military to help them use their products, maybe that situation will change. To your point, I have moved off of GitHub, and have encouraged others to do the same: https://sneak.berlin/20200307/the-case-against-microsoft-and-github/ https://sneak.berlin/20200307/the-case-against-microsoft-and... We can all take small steps to improve our choices each day. Over time and across people, these things add up. The worst thing we could do is assume that every choice is the same and carries the same negative consequences and act uncritically. In that vein, I appreciate your pushback: critical thinking about our choices should be the one constant. There is always a place we can improve.

CodeSheikh 7y ago

Amazon's (+Wholefood) supply-chain failure is an eye-opener for me during COVID-19 crisis. I hate to acknowledge my dependability on Amazon Prime while living in a big city. I am not sure how I will break my habit but I know for a fact that I won't be ordering everything from Amazon Prime in the future. For a company that commands e-commerce space in year 2020, it is really frustrating to find this workflow while ordering from WF while using Amazon's app, it is a joke and UI/UX 101 blunder. You add items to your cart. They run out of inventory. Items disappear from your cart. Either you place your order assuming all items were in your cart or you don't get a delivery slot and you have to add those items again. Why can't they just borrow the same feature from Amazon.com where unavailable items move conveniently to "Save later" section?

jupp0r 7y ago

To any other non-amazon stores out there: have toilet paper in stock and I'll give it a try!

rchaud 7y ago

Best Buy's ecommerce site is great; they don't have the absurd levels of info overload and upselling of a typical Amazon page. In Canada, Amazon's electronics offerings are rife with awful Chinese brands sold by dropshippers. Amazon seemingly doesn't carry any of the inventory themselves unless it's a Fire tablet or Echo. It's actually a big relief to shop online via at a proper outlet (even Walmart.ca is more reliable) than through the Bezos flea market.

tmaly 7y ago

Amazon was sold out of bakers yeast as were the local grocery stores. I was able to order from a specialty place. The order was delivered 2 days later. The price was very reasonable. For certain things, I am seeing some serious prices. People are selling cotton masks 4 for $25. That seems a little steep given that a box of N95 masks went for $6 before this. I just ordered parts for building a new computer. I had to order from 4 different places as Amazon did not have half of the items in stock. There are definitely some supply chain issues.

LatteLazy 7y ago

>Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online They sort of are at the moment, at least here in greater London... My normal groceries company have cancelled online orders silently and will not deliver anything. They can't even update their websites with new opening times. The local DIY (B&Q) store are taking order for essential items only (loft ladders and plants are essential, but not light bulbs or fuses wtf?) Amazon randomly added a month to all their delivery estimates but everything is still coming in a few days and I can get whatever I want. To be honest, it makes sense to manage infrastructure of supply centrally. That's the genius of amazon, not retail but supply. While other companies can barely ring up items, Amazon connects buyers to sellers before either know the trade will happen.

thewebcount 7y ago
Instacart in Los Angeles did this to me. I ordered groceries and the local store uses Instacart to deliver them. When they didn't show up, I had to call Instacart to find out they had canceled my order. They were just not going to tell me, apparently.
- LatteLazy 7y ago
  I can understand that places have problems with volume of orders or items not being in stock. But it should be really hard to cancel a client order and NOT tell them. How is it they don't have something that emails you when your order is killed already and automatically!?

olafure 7y ago

I used to use Amazon a lot. The two big factor were pricing and reviews. Today their review system is massively rigged and can't be trusted.

giancarlostoro 7y ago

Amazon is the only shop selling the most convenience. At least Walmart and Target have online order and parking spots to pick up your orders from, but I can only imagine a lot of old brick and mortar type of stores are way behind the times. Just some stories on here are horror story level examples of the night and day kind of service you can get in regards to buyer convenience.

gtm1260 7y ago

Its so unfair to expect consumers to go through hell on these random websites with poor UI/UX, customer service, logistics, and inventory monitoring systems. I don't think amazon should be able to crush small businesses etc, but I don't think appealing to people's sense of personal responsibility is the answer. There needs to be a viable way for other businesses to compete with amazon's level of service if they want consumers to change their habits.

Kalium 7y ago
The logistics, inventory management, and customer service operations at the scale of Amazon are something that become possible with truly immense scale. They're crushingly expensive at small scale - call center, warehouses, pre-positioning goods, etc. There are definitely ways to outsource any or all of these things, but at a cost in quality. I know I've often had unpleasant experiences with outsourced customer support call centers. Tools like Square or Shopify help, but only to a point. So I think my conclusion might be different from yours - small, local businesses need a viable way to compete with Amazon in ways where Amazon doesn't have a vast advantage.
- gtm1260 7y ago
  Ah totally! I agree with your conclusion. I guess with the measures in place right now to fight COVID, the areas where Amazon might not have a vast advantage like niche selection, deep knowledge in a certain product area, being able to buy something in store immediatley etc. didn't occur to me.

Wistar 7y ago

Although the focus is somewhat narrower than amazon, for my professional needs I have had nothing but an excellent online experience with bhphotovideo. I have ordered hundreds of items worth tens of thousands of dollars from them starting about 2007. Their site can be a little frustrating, mostly from not narrow-enough categorization, but their app for iOS is very good. Their prices are usually as good and often better than amazon. The users' product reviews are useful and well-written and the site/app shows which reviewers are verified purchasers of the product they are reviewing and offers comprehensive review filtering. They also invest a lot of effort in producing their own product demo videos and articles done by obviously knowledgeable people which, given the breadth of their catalog, is particularly impressive and serves well more than just to shill their wares. They have great packaging for shipping and I have not once had an order go missing or show up broken or damaged despite many of my orders being fragile items. Well-oiled machine.

noncoml 7y ago
Another B&H Photo Video happy customer here. Pity they were forced to start charging state taxes. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but can't help to think that Amazon was somehow involved in that.
- fmela 7y ago
  Right or wrong, you can get around the sales tax using B&H's Payboo credit card (for use on their site only): https://www.bhphotovideo.com/credit-cards https://www.bhphotovideo.com/credit-cards
  - sjwright 7y ago
    It’s a discount offer, I don’t think it actually elides tax payment. According to the URL you cited: “B&H will collect and remit state sales tax in accordance with state sales tax laws and regulations. So, customers do pay required sales tax and do not need to keep track or file anything separately.“
    - 7y ago

justlexi93 7y ago

That's true, but a lot of people prefer using Amazon for online shopping. It is a one stop shop where you can get almost everything.

A4ET8a8uTh0 7y ago

Last week experience. I tried gettin display port to hdmi for my docking station for work on Amazon. It was in Amazon basics category. Solid shopping experience, but it was not sent for 3 days so I cancelled. Annoying, but cancellation experience was great. I decided to do pick up from BestBuy. Great. Store near me has one in store. I purchase at 5PM. At 6PM ( when they close ), they send me an email saying they don't have it in store anymore. Great, but I can't cancel w/o creating account. Can't reach live person, because, ironically, Covid19. Screw it. I bought on CC. I can dispute it later. I go to Newegg. No issues. stuff gets here in 3 days. Amazon isn't the only store and its convenience is waning during this outbreak. They are lucky they are doing so many things right compared to competition. Personally, I am debating dropping Prime, which I had for one main reason:fast free shipping.

badrabbit 7y ago

Two things about amazon: 1) Their customer service is astonishing! Still have not seen better. Google might just take over the world if they came even 20% close to Amazon with this regard. 2) Their giftcards. I don't know what it is but theirs has the highest value. Even visa and mastercard will not be accepted at some places if you don't have a cash gift card, but amazon's have incredible purchasing power.

ehnto 7y ago

As a developer with most of my experience in boutique and enterprise eCommerce, I am surprised this is a conversation piece! There are plenty of large and small online retailers who are doing just fine. If you think Amazon has everything you are definitely mistaken, but for many it's probably enough of everything. I encourage everyone to buy directly from manufacturers and local businesses where possible, especially if you are not from the US. We feel like we want an Amazon dominant market, but the effects it has on what products exist and what businesses thrive is somewhat insidious and unseen.

yeutterg 7y ago

Amazon third-party seller here. If a Prime product is showing a long delivery time, try to look for non-Prime offers. You want to find offers that say "Ships from and sold by X," where X is NOT Amazon. The reason being, these sellers have their own fulfillment and may be able to beat Amazon's speed by a wide margin. We now offer this for our product, and I know a lot of other sellers are doing the same. We used to only have a Prime (Fulfilled by Amazon) offer, but this crisis caused us to adapt as customers were getting 1-month delivery estimates. We enabled "Fulfilled by Merchant" offers on our account, and I sent some inventory to my apartment (and ordered lots of shipping boxes). Within a couple days, the self-fulfilled option got the "buy box" on Amazon, so now most people viewing our listing will see a delivery estimate of about one week. It doesn't have the "Prime" badge, but we get a decent number of orders through this, enough to survive. We send out all orders with First Class Mail, and I pack them up around 3PM each business day in order to get them to the post office by the 5PM cutoff. It appears most customers are receiving orders between 2 and 5 days after ordering (including the opposite coast). This is even faster than the time estimate customers see on Amazon, and way faster than Prime. Disclaimer: your mileage may vary.

arbuge 7y ago

I'm having increasingly bad experiences on Amazon. The most obvious ones are common problems - the reviews can't be trusted, and they're no longer price leaders in many cases. But there are some new experiences I'm running into now. Today, for the first time ever, I was double-charged for the same order. Customer support claims I was only charged once and there's no way to upload them a screenshot of my card statement so that they can see what I'm seeing. To be clear, these are two real charges (not pending charges or temporary authorizations) for the same order.

homero 7y ago

How are the shipping companies keeping up? That's the bottleneck.

wiredone 7y ago

Amazon’s value isn’t in the fact it’s a store with great shipping. It’s the trust component. Returns are simple, shipping and stock management is a non event and they have basically everything. Every other online shopping experience I’ve had has been hit and miss. Get the simple things right And sure I’ll try it. But no one has just look at these comments.

alias_neo 7y ago

This is an important thing to remember. Just last night, I was ordering an item on Amazon, and pointed out to my wife that it is gonna take a week to delivery on prime. That's fine, there's more important things going on in the world. But she said; "Why does it have to be from Amazon? If you're not getting it Prime speed, why not buy it elsewhere?" So I went to the manufacturers website and bought it directly, and it was 15% cheaper than Amazon, and will supposedly arrive a little faster. I think I may try do this more. I already do this, where possible to support small businesses.

radium3d 7y ago

Prices on amazon have been way higher than alternatives lately. Be sure to check other online outlets.

LoSboccacc 7y ago

yeah but the less shops you use the smaller the surface attack for your personal and payment information

yCloser 7y ago

EU here, things seem pretty good here. * I ordered 20kg of oranges from sicily, no shipping costs, arrived in 2days * Coffee, same thing * a bass guitar, same * groceries are delivered in a day from local shops * for electronics i bought from many shops, usually takes ~1week. still OK for a washing machine or those big items ...seems that "the infrastructure" that amazon required for ups/dhl/* are being used by any other (even tiny) buisiness. My only complain is Ikea. Ikea doesn't cooperate.

_n_b_ 7y ago
Totally OT but where did you order the oranges from? I am in need of a few kg for juicing and it's expensive from the local grocery delivery folks around me...
- yCloser 7y ago
  from www.aranciadoc.com
thirdsun 7y ago
Not to mention that returns/refunds are a non-issue over here since the EU enforces sane minimum customer protection standards. I never had to worry whether I’ll be able to return an item, regardless of where I purchased it, which still seems to be an important consideration for many commenters in this thread.

non-entity 7y ago

The thing about Amazon though, was the luxury of being able to order stuff and have it by my door the next day. This was especially great for products where the traditional brick and mortar retail died out a long time ago for that industry (i.e. electronic components) or stuff that you want / need regularly but isnt carried in stores near you.