Ask HN: Is Amazon broken for anyone else?

I don’t shop all that often, but when I do, it’s not a great experience. Sponsored ads rule Amazon along with irrelevant search results. The clutter of options and the overwhelming amount of choices often lead me down a rabbit hole of reviews and comparisons, increasing the time to buy. And it's not just Amazon. Whether it's electronics on Best Buy, clothes on various e-commerce platforms, or groceries on Instacart, the problem persists: a flood of options, inconsistent pricing, and a lack of personalized recommendations that understand my needs and preferences. And now there’s the rise of influencer + social media shopping, where people follow an influencer and trust their recommendations and buy their product lines. While this trend does offer a new avenue for product discovery and selection, I find myself hesitant, lacking a trusted influencer whose recommendations align with my purchasing decisions. But even with all the complexity of online shopping, I think it ultimately boils down to 3 steps. 1) Research what to buy - this can happen by brute force reading many product listings or by going on other sites like Reddit, Wirecutter, ect. 2) Then, compare options across different platforms, a step eaten into by sites like Amazon, who not only compete with but undercut independent merchants by offering their own products at lower prices. 3) Settle on one and buy How do other people feel about their shopping experience on Amazon and other mega marketplaces or even the process of shopping online in general? What do you think the next generation of shopping looks like when you factor in things like LLMs?