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I'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they

I'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they were just books. Now we buy things that are repeat purchases or a couple of trusted brands (e.g. Amazon Basics or Anker). For bigger purchases (like a medium-basic coffee machine) we're either looking at Costco and Target, or researching a lot on Consumer Reports. Wirecutter used to be good, but hard to trust these days too. We definitely spend less at Amazon because of lack of trust and counterfeit concerns, and it seems directionally true for the HN crowd. That's got to be a worry for anyone at Amazon - if the people who were early adopters are starting to leave your platform, that's got to be concerning...

rexf 6y ago
Definitely, if it's food or health/medical, I'll skip Amazon & buy it from Target or Walmart directly (not a 3rd party seller on their platforms). Other categories like memory cards, kids products, I'll also avoid Amazon (especially since Amazon reviews of those products often claim they received a fake).
- kgc 6y ago
  The online version of Walmart now sources from a range of suppliers like Amazon does. I was tracking down the supplier of a used laptop and discovered an eBay posting with exactly the same text and photos.
rblatz 6y ago
I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon, some of it I know is a cheap knockoff, but at least I’m paying cheap knockoff prices. But things I won’t buy on Amazon are SD cards or water filters for my fridge. You end up paying full price for a cheap knockoff. I’m sure there are others, but these two stand out in my mind.
projectileboy 6y ago
Also just anecdata, but I’m the same way. I don’t mind buying commodity goods off of Amazon, but if I need to know that I’m truly getting product X of brand Y, I now typically go elsewhere, because I just cannot trust that I’m not going to get a counterfeit product. Over the years, I’ve received two counterfeit books and three counterfeit hardgoods from Amazon. That may not seem overwhelming, but it’s enough to break my confidence.
- chii 6y ago
  the question really is whether buying brand name goods vs consumables is a bigger market. amazon might be OK with people going to a different place for brand name goods but continue to buy low cost, no-brand goods from amazon if that market is much larger.
- eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago
  > Over the years, I’ve received two counterfeit books and three counterfeit hardgoods from Amazon. What I've been ALWAYS wondering when people say such things: Did you seriously get them when buying from Amazon itself as vendor or are you conveniently leaving out the fact that you bought from some random company which uses the Amazon marketplace? Because I really cannot believe that something as big as Amazon would be dumb enough to sell counterfeit goods under their own name, and people usually don't mention if they bought from Amazon or not when they say such things.
  - thetinguy 6y ago
    Amazon.com and marketplace inventory commingle. Pickers don’t care which box seemingly identical products come from.
  - mrighele 6y ago
    > Did you seriously get them when buying from Amazon itself Does it matter ? I go to amazon.com, I give my money to Amazon, I receive a package from Amazon, so for me (and the average user) the one selling me a counterfeit is Amazon.
    - rytis 6y ago
      I see it and treat more like a platform now, a marketplace. Like ebay. It just so happens that one of the biggest sellers there is Amazon itself. My usual process of buying - search for the product I need (generic term for simple items, or exact model), click on "prime only", this filters out a lot of shipments from China. Then either filter out, or carefully look at the seller of each product. Takes some time and getting used to, especially that UI isn't favouring this workflow.
kgc 6y ago
This might also be helping their Amazon brands. Easy to stand above the crowd in terms of quality this way. Also, they have all the data they need to target the most profitable / fragmented segments.
mxcrossb 6y ago
Amazon is basically my last resort these days. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic means there are times where I can’t justifying going out to buy something. But I wonder if they’ll be taking a bigger than expected hit once things clear up.
- cycomanic 6y ago
  Maybe there is a big difference between the US and Europe, but here the only things I can't find anywhere but amazon are typically the cheap Chinese knockoff things (e.g. new cushions for my bose headphones), for everything else there always is a cheaper solution by going with one of the smaller online retailer. That way I don't have to go through the horrendous amazon interface, which I have the impression tries to actively prevent you from finding what you want. Similar to the strategy of large supermarkets that rearrange goods to maximize customer time at the shop.
  - alangibson 6y ago
    Even here in Europe, Amazon still has the monster competitive advantage of Prime. If not for that, I would probably be buying all my gear from Saturn, Mediamarkt, etc. It's also worth nothing that European Amazon has waaaay less stuff available in general than US Amazon.
impalallama 6y ago
When it comes to Amazon reviews you never go by the average you go to scroll down to the actual reviews and read what the one and two star reviews are complaining about and decide if that is acceptable assuming it will happen with your purchase, IMHO.
- SilkRoadie 6y ago
  Sort reviews by new. It’s amazing how many “5 star” items have an average of 2-3 stars when you look at the latest reviews. I was looking for some L plates for my car. A lot of reviews called them “beautiful”... it is a white square with a letter L that sticks to your car... trying to find one which didn’t fall off or damage the car was far from trivial. Fortunately newer reviews mentioned damage or falling off or does the job which gave some steer. I have been purposefully shopping elsewhere recently. Other sites are usually cheaper and there is less doubt about what is actually going to get received.
  - beowulfey 6y ago
    I love that Steam shows an average of recent reviews. I think it’s very telling that Amazon does not.
    - batterylow 6y ago
      I thought the reason Steam had "recent reviews" was to account for patches/updates and so on?
      - dfxm12 6y ago
        Not sure why that wouldn't apply to other products. Product design/packaging/formulas change, as does a seller's customer service...
  - tt433 6y ago
    Sorting by new also usually exposes things like hijacked item or seller pages more easily
cobookman 6y ago
This attitude comes from a place of privilege. You can afford a brand-name coffee maker, many can't. If you look at the median Westerner, most don't have that kind of disposable income to afford those kinds of goods. Amazon offers a cheaper (commodity) price, which drives overall increase in sales. Amazon is going after Walmart, the lower-end market at the cost of loosing parts of the niche higher-end market.
- tempestn 6y ago
  They're going after a lower-end market by turning a blind-eye to counterfeit brand-name goods sold on their platform?
- enumjorge 6y ago
  I don't understand how having a problem with counterfeit goods and fake reviews comes from a place of privilege.
- benrbray 6y ago
  Sorry, what? The situation we're complaining about is more like this: > Steve can't normally afford nice things, but he saves up to buy a nice coffee maker on Amazon, paying close to $100 and expecting to receive a product that will last decades. However, Steve receives a counterfeit product in the mail that breaks just a few days after the return window. With most of these products, you're paying full price but getting an inferior product in return.
  - rrauenza 6y ago
    Or worse, it's not actually UL approved and burns Steve's apartment down. I am very wary of buying anything electrical on Amazon.
d13 6y ago
What happened to Wirecutter?
- MattSayar 6y ago
  I just discovered Wirecutter and have been happy with it so far (just bought a new toaster oven!). I'm also curious why they're throwing shade

rexf 6y ago

Definitely, if it's food or health/medical, I'll skip Amazon & buy it from Target or Walmart directly (not a 3rd party seller on their platforms). Other categories like memory cards, kids products, I'll also avoid Amazon (especially since Amazon reviews of those products often claim they received a fake).

kgc 6y ago
The online version of Walmart now sources from a range of suppliers like Amazon does. I was tracking down the supplier of a used laptop and discovered an eBay posting with exactly the same text and photos.

rblatz 6y ago

I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon, some of it I know is a cheap knockoff, but at least I’m paying cheap knockoff prices. But things I won’t buy on Amazon are SD cards or water filters for my fridge. You end up paying full price for a cheap knockoff. I’m sure there are others, but these two stand out in my mind.

projectileboy 6y ago

Also just anecdata, but I’m the same way. I don’t mind buying commodity goods off of Amazon, but if I need to know that I’m truly getting product X of brand Y, I now typically go elsewhere, because I just cannot trust that I’m not going to get a counterfeit product. Over the years, I’ve received two counterfeit books and three counterfeit hardgoods from Amazon. That may not seem overwhelming, but it’s enough to break my confidence.

chii 6y ago
the question really is whether buying brand name goods vs consumables is a bigger market. amazon might be OK with people going to a different place for brand name goods but continue to buy low cost, no-brand goods from amazon if that market is much larger.
eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago
> Over the years, I’ve received two counterfeit books and three counterfeit hardgoods from Amazon. What I've been ALWAYS wondering when people say such things: Did you seriously get them when buying from Amazon itself as vendor or are you conveniently leaving out the fact that you bought from some random company which uses the Amazon marketplace? Because I really cannot believe that something as big as Amazon would be dumb enough to sell counterfeit goods under their own name, and people usually don't mention if they bought from Amazon or not when they say such things.
- thetinguy 6y ago
  Amazon.com and marketplace inventory commingle. Pickers don’t care which box seemingly identical products come from.
- mrighele 6y ago
  > Did you seriously get them when buying from Amazon itself Does it matter ? I go to amazon.com, I give my money to Amazon, I receive a package from Amazon, so for me (and the average user) the one selling me a counterfeit is Amazon.
  - rytis 6y ago
    I see it and treat more like a platform now, a marketplace. Like ebay. It just so happens that one of the biggest sellers there is Amazon itself. My usual process of buying - search for the product I need (generic term for simple items, or exact model), click on "prime only", this filters out a lot of shipments from China. Then either filter out, or carefully look at the seller of each product. Takes some time and getting used to, especially that UI isn't favouring this workflow.

kgc 6y ago

This might also be helping their Amazon brands. Easy to stand above the crowd in terms of quality this way. Also, they have all the data they need to target the most profitable / fragmented segments.

mxcrossb 6y ago

Amazon is basically my last resort these days. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic means there are times where I can’t justifying going out to buy something. But I wonder if they’ll be taking a bigger than expected hit once things clear up.

cycomanic 6y ago
Maybe there is a big difference between the US and Europe, but here the only things I can't find anywhere but amazon are typically the cheap Chinese knockoff things (e.g. new cushions for my bose headphones), for everything else there always is a cheaper solution by going with one of the smaller online retailer. That way I don't have to go through the horrendous amazon interface, which I have the impression tries to actively prevent you from finding what you want. Similar to the strategy of large supermarkets that rearrange goods to maximize customer time at the shop.
- alangibson 6y ago
  Even here in Europe, Amazon still has the monster competitive advantage of Prime. If not for that, I would probably be buying all my gear from Saturn, Mediamarkt, etc. It's also worth nothing that European Amazon has waaaay less stuff available in general than US Amazon.

impalallama 6y ago

When it comes to Amazon reviews you never go by the average you go to scroll down to the actual reviews and read what the one and two star reviews are complaining about and decide if that is acceptable assuming it will happen with your purchase, IMHO.

SilkRoadie 6y ago
Sort reviews by new. It’s amazing how many “5 star” items have an average of 2-3 stars when you look at the latest reviews. I was looking for some L plates for my car. A lot of reviews called them “beautiful”... it is a white square with a letter L that sticks to your car... trying to find one which didn’t fall off or damage the car was far from trivial. Fortunately newer reviews mentioned damage or falling off or does the job which gave some steer. I have been purposefully shopping elsewhere recently. Other sites are usually cheaper and there is less doubt about what is actually going to get received.
- beowulfey 6y ago
  I love that Steam shows an average of recent reviews. I think it’s very telling that Amazon does not.
  - batterylow 6y ago
    I thought the reason Steam had "recent reviews" was to account for patches/updates and so on?
    - dfxm12 6y ago
      Not sure why that wouldn't apply to other products. Product design/packaging/formulas change, as does a seller's customer service...
- tt433 6y ago
  Sorting by new also usually exposes things like hijacked item or seller pages more easily

cobookman 6y ago

This attitude comes from a place of privilege. You can afford a brand-name coffee maker, many can't. If you look at the median Westerner, most don't have that kind of disposable income to afford those kinds of goods. Amazon offers a cheaper (commodity) price, which drives overall increase in sales. Amazon is going after Walmart, the lower-end market at the cost of loosing parts of the niche higher-end market.

tempestn 6y ago
They're going after a lower-end market by turning a blind-eye to counterfeit brand-name goods sold on their platform?
enumjorge 6y ago
I don't understand how having a problem with counterfeit goods and fake reviews comes from a place of privilege.
benrbray 6y ago
Sorry, what? The situation we're complaining about is more like this: > Steve can't normally afford nice things, but he saves up to buy a nice coffee maker on Amazon, paying close to $100 and expecting to receive a product that will last decades. However, Steve receives a counterfeit product in the mail that breaks just a few days after the return window. With most of these products, you're paying full price but getting an inferior product in return.
- rrauenza 6y ago
  Or worse, it's not actually UL approved and burns Steve's apartment down. I am very wary of buying anything electrical on Amazon.

d13 6y ago

What happened to Wirecutter?

MattSayar 6y ago
I just discovered Wirecutter and have been happy with it so far (just bought a new toaster oven!). I'm also curious why they're throwing shade