On Fri, 18 Nov 2016 03:03:07 -0800 (PST), robobass
wrote:

" 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.

Yes, one of the best incentives to a lot of people is that for $79
(now $99) per year, you can join Amazon Prime and get free 2-day
delivery (in the US) on everything you purchase through them. I have
found better pricing on almost everything at Amazon and have been a
Prime member for a decade or so now. If I could have found everything
I wanted locally, I likely would have paid over $500 in fuel costs and
potentially paid 1.5x the overall price each year. Trips to town and
back usually take 20 minutes travel time and 15 minutes per store (I'm
an extremely efficient buyer.), so I save time shopping online. About
60% of things I want aren't even available locally.


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.

As someone already said, Amazon leaves the description and header up
to the vendor to put up. eBay vendors have the same problem. They
are mom and pop stores and don't know diddly squat about 99% of the
products they sell, so they rely on an indifferent manufacturer who
likely doesn't pay their sales team enough to care to write out all
the details. Hell, i've called manufacturers to get details and even
they don't have them, so I have waited several weeks for a product
engineer to get back to me. They curse the company's lack of foresight
as strongly as I have. shrug I'm currently trying to get info on a
Figo Atrium 5.5 phone, and even the Amazon vendors and forum folks are
tight lipped. For the record, the Posh Equal 7" phablet is not back-
pocketable. Yes, I heard the dreaded "tink" sound on the way to town
and when I tried it in the store while waiting for the clerk to bring
out another box of veggies, I turned on a rainbow-cracked mess.
Hence, the Atrium screen durability search. Surprisingly, Posh didn't
warrant the screen but Amazon did. Who can be angry with Amazon with a
customer service policy like that?


(Bob, "too" is a word. "to" is a different word!)

Thank you for saying it for me.



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.

Yes, thank Crom!


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.

Save up to 90%. I see exactly the same Chinese products online and
shelved locally for $10-14.99 which I got from a Chinese vendor for
$0.74 ($0.99CAD) to $0.99USD with free subsidised shipping. Same
products sourced in the USA from an eBay vendor cost $3.99, with zero
to $3.49 shipping. So if it's not available locally when I need it
now, I can either get it through a more local eBay store, McMaster, or
Amazon within the week, or wait until it slow-boats over from Shenzen,
depending on availability. Home Depot gives free shipping to store,
so I ordered a water heater on Nov 05. It will be here on the 23rd. I
wonder if Rheem is outsourcing now, too...

If you want expensive shipping, move to Australia. _Product_ costs are
usually less than the cost of shipping to or from there. (Right,
Jon?) I wonder how much of that is duty.

--
I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you
have earned, but it is not greed to want take someone else's money.
--Thomas Sowell