This is one reason why Amazon is winning

Capitalism for the WIN! Yes!
But what we have today is a deviant predatory capitalism which has very little in common with the original idea. The competition and free market is practically dead. Glad you made some money off of exploited workers who are treated like a modern slaves.

Today we have monopolies that destroy and absorb rivals, oppose free market and billionaires control the state by buying our public servants with promise of post government lobbying and consulting jobs.
What Bezos and Amazon did was develop a complex coordination plan, incorporating many sub retailers that creates enormous value, that raises productivity and delivers lowers prices. Amazon did this better than anyone else. There are other competitors and to think Amazon will always be the top dog is foolish for investors.
I took a risk and dumped money into a company. I've also lost my ass on other endeavors with the stock market -- anyone who tells you how good they did with XYZ stock isn't telling you how much they lost with ZYX stock!
 
And activists as head of companies … some own newspapers!
Yup! Big Banks - the guardians of Money - engage on "Sustainable Policies", whatever the heck that means. Any random Georgia lumber joint has planted more trees in the last 6 months than any (or all!) of the big bankers will do in the next 150 years. :ROFLMAO:
 
In 2012 I blew out the seal on my Bilstein OE shock on my old 1991 BMW GS. The dealer wanted $400 to rebuild the Bilstein, with a 2-3 month turnaround. New from BMW parts was upper $600 range and the dealer was not sure it was still available. Went on Amazon to check out the Progressive Suspension brand. $378 thru Amazon dropped shipped by Progressive Suspension on my doorstep in 2 days. This is why Amazon is successful.

Another was when Polk Audio tried to get me to remove the amp from a subwoofer that failed in warranty. I called Amazon and in ten minutes I had a new sub that weighs 55 lbs., next day UPS AM delivery on the way and a home pickup for the bad one from the same driver. I'm betting the two freight charges got sent to Polk. Got a call from Polk Customer service apologizing for their error in judgement (saving money). They also sent me a gift of a nice RCA-RCA interconnect to hook it up with.

Another was when I had a cell phone fail 2 days before the warranty was up. The CSR at the phone company tried to wiggle out of covering it. Called Amazon and the Amazon rep did a 3 way call with the rep of the phone company. The Amazon rep ask the phone's rep why it wasn't being covered. The rep said my boss didn't approve it. The Amazon rep told this rep's boss in no uncertain terms that I am a very good customer, and I was going to get a new phone the next day or their account might be frozen. 10 AM next morning new phone arrived.

This is why I buy stuff from Amazon. For the last ten years or so I only take one portion of a Baloney Sandwich from businesses, online or B&M.
 
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In 1994 Jeff Bezos left his Wall Street job and moved to the Great State of Washington to work on a business plan. That plan was realized in his garage. He decided on selling books on-line. Bezos had studied reports forecasting annual web commerce growth at 2,300%.

So Jeff Bezos leveraged Apple, Microsoft and the Internet. Now Amazon does about 50% of on-line sales. Yup.
 
Just last week I was looking for an old school screw in pull switch (screws in to light bulb socket and has on / off pull switch) for use in our utility room. No one locally carries them! I tried Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart, sure enough Amazon has them and it arrived in two days. I don't care to support Amazon vs. other local options but what can you do?


One thought would have been to buy the entire socket with the pull switch. Those are still around. The item you were looking for is a bit uncommon.
 
In 1994 Jeff Bezos left his Wall Street job and moved to the Great State of Washington to work on a business plan. That plan was realized in his garage. He decided on selling books on-line. Bezos had studied reports forecasting annual web commerce growth at 2,300%.

So Jeff Bezos leveraged Apple, Microsoft and the Internet. Now Amazon does about 50% of on-line sales. Yup.

Cadabra was originally the name Jeff Bezos chose for his tiny little company.

His lawyer accidentally mistook the name for Cadaver and Bezos made the decision to call the company Amazon and the rest is history.

:ROFLMAO:
 
I try to spread it around. I buy more from eBay than Amazon - lots of (but not exclusively) smaller retailers.

I’ve found if I’m looking for an exact item, there could be ~100 retailers on eBay selling it, and a couple are cheaper than Amazon. I also get sick of running around town looking for something specific and striking out. Waste of time/energy. I’d rather order exactly what I need online and just wait a few days to get it.

Lots of online retailers are also a hassle/outdated. I may want to buy something directly from their website, but entering all your personal info/CC info/creating an account is a hassle. If they don’t have a PayPal or ApplePay option so I can skip all the account creation steps I’ll usually pass.
 
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I used to have prime...and it was a justification to buy everything on Amazon.

I cancelled it and then things ordered would not ship for a week plus...but then arrive 1 day shipping cross country.

Now.ordering from them one has to make sure to not allow them to automatically include a ' free ' 30 day prime membership. They try 3 different times to stuff it in the order.

I Found e-bay to have a better selection better or.equal price, and no minimum order to get free shipping. Notifications of having shipped come usually within 24 hours or less.

The estimated arrival via usps is usually beaten by several days, and many items ordered show up within 24 hours of ordering......sometimes even delivered by an amazon prime truck.

Ive had no issues regarding returns. I lot of sellers just refund and say keep it. Others say keep.it.and well send the right product. Some.say ship.it back with this free shipping label for a refund.

Bezos is rich enough...so Amazon is now my last option, where as once it was my first.

I loved having an ACEhardware nearby and would often give them business over ordering online or going to HD.

Sadly they closed, and any last minute obscure fasteners are a 20+ minute drive, which causes me to table the project and check E-bay availability
 
Costs money to run a store in a prime real estate location and have shelves that one can peruse, while having employees ready to answer questions. Slow moving stock costs more than fast moving stock. Websites are pretty cheap, as is a warehouse out of the way That is harder to drive to.

I must be getting old—I can remember when Home Depot was the evil place that was putting stores out of business (remember Home Quarters?).

There were other regional home improvement stores. One was Builders Emporium. We had one around here called Orchard Supply Hardware. It started off in 1931 as a group of farmers' cooperative stores that primarily serviced the the farm industry around San Jose, California back when it was mostly fruit orchards. They were larger than most neighborhood hardware stores, but not so big that they were hard to navigate. They went through a series of ownerships, but in the 90s they were bought by Sears, which brought in Craftsman tools and DieHard batteries. I like it because they would handle Craftsman tool exchanges and were closer to home than Sears. But they couldn't really compete with Home Depot and Sears spun it off as a public company, although that was kind of weird. Sears got a huge dividend before the spinoff with about as much going into Orchard Supply Hardware debt. Saddling the company with debt to gain cash flow seemed a little fishy. Eventually Lowe's bought them out after Chapter 11 bankruptcy and they eventually closed all stores.

It's also odd because there's a new company that claimed a bunch of the locations and calls itself Outdoor Supply Hardware. They bought the rights to the osh.com domain name and use a similar green color scheme. It's only about a dozen stores, but I've heard them do local radio ads.
 
Whilst quick and so called free shipping is of interest … I can’t count how many times I start a job - and then need more material or a tool. What happens when those places are gone ?
 
One thought would have been to buy the entire socket with the pull switch. Those are still around. The item you were looking for is a bit uncommon.
Yes but that involves wiring, though simple I'd rather just screw in an adapter like the one that was previously there for decades.
 
I shop Amazon quite often.
I get most items in two days or less.
It sure beats going to Walmart or Target for a few items.
Sometimes I will pay the little extra that Walgreens charges for an easy in and out and the store is 6 blocks away.
I dont have to drive to Walmart and deal with the crowds of nasty Walmart shoppers.
 
I always swore I would never go into one of those big chain stores, the General store and Farmers Coop had everything I needed and even if I didnt know what the part was called a short description to the owner would not only have me the part but suggestions for other ways to do the repair but then equipment started coming in from around the world and the small shops could not keep up and things changed faster than new experience could be gained and they all went out of business, but many of the employees ended up at the chain store and I could still get good advise until they started hiring people that did not know anything about the products they were selling. That was the beginning of the end. Once there was no difference between looking for something on the shelf and looking online, online started to win. Does anyone remember Sears and Montgomery Wards Catalogs. The early 20th century version of Amazon. My parents use to look through them but would never buy anything, Dad always said you had to pick something up and look at it before you spent good money otherwise you could be getting that cheap crappy Japanese garbage. Now that we all know that everything we buy is cheap crappy stuff it doesnt matter so much anymore.
But as someone above said, dont worry no matter how big something looks now something bigger will come alone and swallow it whole shortly.
 
Love Amazon. The convenience and savings are truly amazing, I love being able to order something at 11 PM and have it show up before I wake up.

New garage door opener came with a $40 coupon, the Amazon driver can open the door, put the package inside and close the door. Had a filter for the refrigerator delivered that way this morning.
 
I was at a gas station today and saw 2 Amazon Sprinter vans getting fuel, I don’t know if it was gasoline or diesel.

Amazon is delivering on Easter Sunday. 👍

Full Disclosure: I own a few shares of Amazon

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I love Amazon, and here they deliver every day except for December 25th. Amazon delivered to my house today, dad told me they did, and they were here at the shop I work at Sundays, twice today.

But best of all is how Amazon deals with returns, or problems down the road a ways. Bought my dad a watch a couple of years ago, about 23 months into its 2 year warranty, the watch died. A new battery didn't fix it, and the company tried to wiggle out its warranty. A quick call to Amazon, they contacted Bulova on my behalf. An hour later a gentleman called me back, and said he was shipping me a new watch, but an even more expensive model, they had in stock currently. 3 days later a $460 watch arrived, and I only paid $320 originally.
 
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Capitalism for the WIN! Yes!
But what we have today is a deviant predatory capitalism which has very little in common with the original idea. The competition and free market is practically dead. Glad you made some money off of exploited workers who are treated like a modern slaves.

Today we have monopolies that destroy and absorb rivals, oppose free market and billionaires control the state by buying our public servants with promise of post government lobbying and consulting jobs.

Since this site was founded on discussion of petroleum products, I'll kindly ask if you're familiar with Standard Oil, its history, and fellows like Rockefeller, or his contemporaries? Or when the Sherman and Clayton Acts became legislation? Worthwhile reading.

There are interesting principles involved, and while my intention was not to initiate a discussion about business, or to praise or condemn Amazon in particular, it is one worth having.

However, as evidenced, most see things from the pragmatic viewpoint, and that's where everyone has to ultimately end up.
 
I've said it a million times. If local stores had employees that could or even able to help customers, maybe more stores would be still open for business today. I gave up on the ignorance and simply order what I want and need from Amazon 90% of the time.
 
Cadabra was originally the name Jeff Bezos chose for his tiny little company.

His lawyer accidentally mistook the name for Cadaver and Bezos made the decision to call the company Amazon and the rest is history.

:ROFLMAO:

Don't remember when it was, with the single panel Bizzaro comic had one where the scene was of some Amazon tribesmen looking at a laptop computer where one says to the other "Looks like Amazon.com has been taken."
 
In 1994 Jeff Bezos left his Wall Street job and moved to the Great State of Washington to work on a business plan. That plan was realized in his garage. He decided on selling books on-line. Bezos had studied reports forecasting annual web commerce growth at 2,300%.

So Jeff Bezos leveraged Apple, Microsoft and the Internet. Now Amazon does about 50% of on-line sales. Yup.

Their original business model was of having books shipped directly from the publisher so that they didn't need to invest in too much infrastructure. But they were able to leverage their profits into growth in other things. There were some competitors such as Buy.com or CDNow.

They were willing to do stuff like invest in facilities to trying and promote growth. That didn't work well for companies like Pets.com or Webvan. Webvan might have succeeded with more manageable growth, but Pets.com was doomed.
 
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