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> fake reviews, bad customer service, copycat junk, and bringing down the respected brands it touches. First of all, let's talk about the stuff that you didn'

> fake reviews, bad customer service, copycat junk, and bringing down the respected brands it touches. First of all, let's talk about the stuff that you didn't mention. Go try to return something with any other online seller, or get consistent shipping for anything in under 2 days, never mind for free. It's impossible. By all accounts, amazon's shipping and hassle-free returns are completely unmatched by any other retailer. Now, let's address the stuff that is definitely a problem: Fake reviews and copycat junk. No defense. AMazon has really slipped and needs to do a lot better. Counterpoint: At least between the fake reviews they also have real reviews. Most retailers have no reviews at all. Copycat junk is a hard problem, but at least the selection is there, and note the hassle-free returns. Finally, bad customer service, excuse me? Amazon has the best customer service for any company at their scale. Go try to talk to a person with Google. Impossible. AWS is unquestionably the most customer-obsessed cloud provider. Microsoft is too dumb. Google is too arrogant.

nebula8804 5y ago
What I am confused by is the fact that competitors still haven't replicated at least some of these items in 2022. Looking at Target and Walmart. Their websites are downright terrible compared to Amazon. Stock indicators that have no basis in reality, having to constantly change stores to get proper search results. The overall search experience bringing up completely unrelated results. There is so much frustration. I want to move away from Amazon because I have been burned multiple times by knockoffs but the competitors are just so ridiculous. It can't possibly be that hard to at least copy some of these things is it? Elon Musk and his disciples always touts the idea that "the organizational deficiencies manifest themselves in the product". There must be some serious bloat or lack of talent at these other companies that has resulted in this situation.
- silicon2401 5y ago
  > Target Target and Best Buy are some of my main go-to's for avoiding Amazon, especially for video games or tech (obviously). They really do offer good experiences in general, but you're right, they can't compete on certain aspects and on other aspects, they're still more painful than they have to be
  - nebula8804 5y ago
    Yeah I try to make it work as much as I can but man let me tell you, it is HARD to let go of Amazon. Other than big ticket name brand items, I get a subpar experience with all these other stores. Wish there was a proper "aggregator" that would give me live stock and price data so when I need an item, I can just know which is the closest place that has it and then I am off on my way. Furthermore, it would be wonderful if there was a third party service providing "delivery as a service" to all of these companies so that you can try to achieve something competitive with Amazon. Right now we just have a hodgepodge of mediocre companies all along the stack: stores, payments, distribution and shipping. Its like the common wisdom of capitalism has failed. Usually large companies become slow moving laggards but Amazon has shown that a large company can really keep competing and the smaller firms are the laggards.

nebula8804 5y ago

What I am confused by is the fact that competitors still haven't replicated at least some of these items in 2022. Looking at Target and Walmart. Their websites are downright terrible compared to Amazon. Stock indicators that have no basis in reality, having to constantly change stores to get proper search results. The overall search experience bringing up completely unrelated results. There is so much frustration. I want to move away from Amazon because I have been burned multiple times by knockoffs but the competitors are just so ridiculous. It can't possibly be that hard to at least copy some of these things is it? Elon Musk and his disciples always touts the idea that "the organizational deficiencies manifest themselves in the product". There must be some serious bloat or lack of talent at these other companies that has resulted in this situation.

silicon2401 5y ago
> Target Target and Best Buy are some of my main go-to's for avoiding Amazon, especially for video games or tech (obviously). They really do offer good experiences in general, but you're right, they can't compete on certain aspects and on other aspects, they're still more painful than they have to be
- nebula8804 5y ago
  Yeah I try to make it work as much as I can but man let me tell you, it is HARD to let go of Amazon. Other than big ticket name brand items, I get a subpar experience with all these other stores. Wish there was a proper "aggregator" that would give me live stock and price data so when I need an item, I can just know which is the closest place that has it and then I am off on my way. Furthermore, it would be wonderful if there was a third party service providing "delivery as a service" to all of these companies so that you can try to achieve something competitive with Amazon. Right now we just have a hodgepodge of mediocre companies all along the stack: stores, payments, distribution and shipping. Its like the common wisdom of capitalism has failed. Usually large companies become slow moving laggards but Amazon has shown that a large company can really keep competing and the smaller firms are the laggards.