4 ms·
https://archive.ph/xWq0o https://archive.ph/xWq0o This article is simping hard for businesses formerly doing the absolute bare minimum to make online shopping
by Spivak 3y ago
https://archive.ph/xWq0o https://archive.ph/xWq0o
This article is simping hard for businesses formerly doing the absolute bare minimum to make online shopping viable so they can get out of their expensive storefront leases now just increasing prices without having to say they're increasing prices. The mental gymnastics required to say that the cost of shipping and returns which we've been paying the whole time is something we've been getting undeservedly for free is appalling.
> But in a larger sense, the pushback from retailers is a good thing. Free shipping is not actually free. It involves massive, expensive logistics operations and often leaves small retailers at an impossible disadvantage compared with their much larger competitors. The too-easy shipping and returning process consumers have come to expect is harmful to the environment.
Oh gag me, free shipping and returns isn't free because corporate daddy is so generous, it's not free because it's baked into the price and consumers have signaled a massive preference for $x+y with free shipping over $x item with $y shipping.
Also there's no way in any universe that the cost of getting an item to me physically via my car and a physical storefront is better for the environment than the Amazon or FedEx truck taking what would have been hundreds of trips to the store and making one run for everyone. I don't have a massively efficient logistics network.
> They are charging to send stuff back, shortening return deadlines, and refusing to accept some items entirely. Retailers want to dissuade consumers from making returns at all — or at least force them to do it in a more profitable manner, like physically bringing stuff back to stores.
Why even bother with the charade? You don't have to offer returns at all and consumers understand that some items are non-returnable like sale items. Well because they need to say they allow returns or else folks won't buy. So you just rug pull by making it difficult while technically saying you still allow returns.
- naravara 3y ago> Also there's no way in any universe that the cost of getting an item to me physically via my car and a physical storefront is better for the environment than the Amazon or FedEx truck taking what would have been hundreds of trips to the store and making one run for everyone. I don't have a massively efficient logistics network. Maybe not. But what about walking to the store? And certainly minimizing the number of trips those delivery drivers make by consolidating items instead of doing next-day by default certainly helps.
- oytis 3y agoThere is an overhead, including for the environment, to have the store though. Bringing returns to a post office is basically the same for the environment as bringing them to a store, but post office is dedicated to shipping and also multiplexed among multiple retailers and private custers.
- naravara 3y agoNo a centralized store is definitely going to be more efficient than needing that logistics train doing last mile delivery for each and every home. They get returns to scale doing so, as well as the fact that they get orders in bulk, meaning less packaging more space efficiencies.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- earthling8118 3y agoIf there were stores that were within walking distance I'm sure they would be used more. For a lot of us this isn't true. And often the prices will be higher and with a more restricted selection of items. I think there's a lot of room for improvement here if we can make use of planning more. Consolidating deliveries, local production of goods, and better transportation infrastructure (for items and people)
- naravara 3y agoI’m kind of over what Amazon has that passes for “selection.” It’s a lot of dropshipping crap from companies with names that are random, unpronounceable letters together making stuff of dubious quality. It’s tedious needing to scroll through a bunch of dross to find a commodity good, like a battery. And even worse when it’s not a pure commodity but I have no way of assessing what’s good or bad. A good store ought to have good staff who can just assess your needs and sell you the specific thing you’re looking at. It’s just that Amazon came about at a time when brick and mortar retail had already cut to the bone and downskilled their staff (through low compensation, overbearing management, no career growth, and high turnover) to the point where nobody even has expectations of a good retail experience, but countries (and income brackets) where boutiques haven’t been driven out by a ruthless price cutting fixation still have them.