" I *think* that Amazon assumes that you have already looked at
the product at a local store, and are looking for a less expensive way
to purchase it."
Don,
I think this idea has some validity, but only goes so far. Here, at least, it's often the case that the product is not any cheaper at Amazon, but they get the sale anyway because the customer can save himself a shopping trip. If you lived in Cologne, or any dense urban environment, you would especially appreciate this. I drove all the time before I moved to Germany, but nowadays I use the car pretty much exclusively for weekend pleasure excursions. Besides that, Amazon is trying to offer more than what you can already buy in a brick and mortars, whose assortments are shrinking anyway as a result of competition from Amazon. In Germany especially, we don't have the specialty catalogs like McMaster, and the small specialty shops for tinkers like me have disappeared. Amazon does try to capitalize on this, selling everything from auto parts to buffing compounds, but they seem to suffer from the mindset that Bob mentions - Don't offer too many details or options. (Bob, "too" is a word. "to" is a different word!) Ebay. Yes, it started out as a way to get rid of your unwanted collection of "Mamma's Family" VHS tapes, but fortunately for me, lot's of entrepreneurs out there have recognized the hole in modern retailing, and found Ebay to be a perfect vehicle to sell all kinds of obscure industrial supplies that I simply couldn't get otherwise, and they are not hidebound by corporate inertia. Nowadays I still need to source a few things from McMaster, mainly because I use an inch thread for my product, which I don't want to change. I have to find friends who are traveling to and from the States to bring the stuff to me. Mailing from the States is a disaster. Very expensive, first of all, and then we have a very diligent customs office. You generally pay 35% in duty, the calculation including shipping costs. Another funny thing is that small items are exempt, so there is a lot of stuff now on German Ebay which comes directly from China. It takes four weeks, but if you can wait you save at least half.