My guess--and I admit that it is just a guess--is that Amazon retail is only profitable if you have something unusual that you're selling, and the unusual aspec

My guess--and I admit that it is just a guess--is that Amazon retail is only profitable if you have something unusual that you're selling, and the unusual aspect of it can be described by your potential buyers in words. As an example of something that can be described by words, I had a brass sextant on my wish-list (don't ask why), and a relative bought it for me recently; it was easy to find, didn't have to search through pages of hits, and was from what I suspect is a very small seller. Otoh, I wanted to buy some sandals like the ones I had back in the <date omitted to hide old fogy's true age>. It appears there are 167 pages of hits for men's leather sandals, not enough ways to narrow the focus--and not all the hits are even sandals (some are ordinary shoes). Oddly, before I specified a size, it said there were 7 pages; when I told it my size, it jumped to 167 pages. (Go figure.) Worst, most are name brands; I can select name brands, but I can't say "anything but name brands." And while I said "men's" sandals in my search, women's sandals (labeled as such) are showing up. In sum, Amazon does not make it easy to find small retailers' products, unless they're really niche products. (Books are different, because titles and authors are pretty unique.)