I wanted to get printer photo paper for my printer, a Canon. I went to Walmart, They had nothing. Went to Target, they had one pack of photo paper and it was crazy expensive, so I went to micro center. That one was just as expensive. So finally I went back to Amazon, which I was trying to avoid, and saw the price 25 to 40% lower than anywhere I had been. Literally everything that I was looking for, I could find within seconds. Not even Best buy has even close to the amount of inventory or variety, even when you’re shopping online…
Therefore, I think Amazon has a literal monopoly in the tech industry right now, you’re literally forced to buy from them, because unless you have the money and financial fortitude to protest with your wallet, you’re going to be buying from them. There’s no other choice. They have so aggressively and dominantly taken over the supply chain market that no other tech company can currently compete with them in any aspect at all. You will be paying 40 to 50% more on everything by cutting out Amazon, and no one has the money for that anymore unless you’re upper middle class or above
I am fortunate to live in a country where amazon is not strong and we have aggregated search engines that over all the small shops, compete against Amazon on selection and cost, often beating it. I hope it stays this way.
That’s cool. EU?
Yes, Czechia. We can order from Amazon.de, but it’s not usually much better than the other options, and returns and support are much worse.
I’m surprised there’s so few mentions of AWS in this thread. It’s a huge profit centre for the company and a large portion of the internet is now running off of it. AWS is basically the internet’s landlord now, and the profits generated from being the most popular cloud service provider globally are probably why they can afford to invest so heavily into their logistics infrastructure and retail that people are more familiar with.
I went to a conference this weekend, and it slowly dawned on me how every single one of the vendors was selling their app hosted on AWS. That’s all it is. Just different flavors of AWS.
Even if you dont interact with AWS directly, every business needs business services - you can bet that no matter what you’re buying or who you’re buying it from, some of your money is going directly to AWS marketplace.
Not to mention a lot of eggs in one basket. They’ve built in a lot more redundancies now yeah, but all it takes is a hit to AWS and a shitload of the internet is just DOA. Yeah you can argue about protections and data centers or whatever, but still. It’s one big nest in control of one company, no matter how well they guard it, it’s still a risk, technical, ethical, or whatever.
One shit update is all it takes, just ask CrowdStrike and Microsoft
AWS generates more than 50% of Amazon’s profit. Their retail side is peanuts, by comparison.
The retail side of their operations serves as basically a really big customer of AWS services.
The retail side is also just a huge ad for Amazon as a company. It’s what everyday consumers know even if it doesn’t provide a huge amount of profit. It creates name recognition.
My last post being unclear. Amazon has about as much a strangle hold on the tech sector as Walmart has on retail. They don’t. You get the product you paid for. AWS is no different.
But the Walmart difference are brands and reduced quality in brand names. There are weird brands on Amazon but I’m not aware of any quality reductions when paying for known brands.
Amazon has so many false brands and knock off shit it’s ridiculous. Hardly any of it works yet it has a 4.8 review. It’s like Temuat this point for so much of it.
Walmart might have their “Walmart specials”, but I don’t have to worry about their stuff catching fire of giving me lead poisoning.
If you stick to brand you recognize on Amazon, this isn’t an issue. I’m not defending Amazon I’m just saying these points aren’t as valid as they sound.
Here in Canada, I find the prices pretty neck and neck. Small items tend to be a bit cheaper at the stores, since there is very little overhead for them to carry small items compared to Amazon’s picking and delivery logistics. Big items tend to be a bit cheaper on Amazon. For tech specifically, Best Buy price matches items, so it’s not that bad… Memory express and CC sometimes have lower prices than Amazon too (see PCPartPicker).
The main reason to use Amazon is you can easily find some really obscure stuff. Then again, you can buy direct from manufacturer, like Vevor, for often cheaper.
I recently wanted to get a pre-workout, I looked it up on Amazon and then I went to the company site to just order directly from there. It was like $10 cheaper on Amazon because of free shipping and subscribe & save.
It’s because Amazon requires the seller not undercut its Amazon store through other outlets, including their own website. If you are a seller and you want to take advantage of Amazon Prime, then you have to make sure your Amazon price is the cheapest price available on the internet.
Amazon’s pricing I not deterministic. You were likely tracked and information collected to know this was a key item for you. Amazon will market loss leaders to you in an attempt to get you to default to buying on Amazon.
As a former Buyer for a chain of retail stores, the loss leader is effective marketing. I sell you a popular item at or below my typical cost because statistically, a large percentage of customers are making a special trip to my store to buy that product and will make additional purchases at margin. On the wholesale Buying side, these are tools to get past bulk buying tier discounts for seasonal ordering with smaller scale retail.
Amazon is using a convoluted front end system of overlapping product categories and a supposed multi seller listings (despite collectivized logistics and warehousing) on the website you see. This is how they perform price fixing where you do not see honest or straight forward determinism. When you repurchase that same item later without making comparisons, the seller will shuffle so that a higher price is presented.
If you have a well isolated network where device history for social media and internet browsing is totally partitioned from e-commerce you’ll likely see even more of the scam. If you see anyone online show the search results and pricing on Amazon, then try to replicate those search results and product price on a device that is totally partitioned from your viewing of the item/price elsewhere, you’re likely to find it is not possible. If you then go back to the original device and do the same, you’ll magically find the same product and lower price. It is a scam market. This is why they are collecting and paying for all that data about you. We are in an age when automated individual targeting and manipulation is possible and happening. This is why data mining stalkerware is insidious. Scam markets are only the tip of the iceberg and what can be uncovered if you go looking for it. Anyone that has done database or logistics management should have major red flags flying when looking at how Amazon’s website is setup. The front end is absolutely untenable garbage for effective logistics. The only reason it is convoluted and search results are terrible is because it is a price fixing scam. The logistical efficiency proves that there is no connection between the front and back end of the site.
Thanks for this. I’ve only used Amazon a few times and was always baffled at the train wreck of its chaotic layout / ux. I had to buy something there once and it was such a process it was like being asked to leave the store before paying. Thought at the time it must be down to legacy and new features being showhorned around ancient web1.0 history, its success being its burden with customers having to learn how to use the thing. Price fixing scam is what I will think of it now, while continuing to avoid it.
chaotic layout / ux
Maybe it’s stockholm syndrome or something, but I find it absolutely fine. My general rule of thumb is to look past the first page of results, since that’s where a lot of the sponsored listings are, and then look at several listings before deciding. As long as you’re aware that the first page or so of results are generally sponsored (i.e. ads), it’s not too hard to find a decent product. And since it’s online, it’s pretty easy to compare w/ other retailers (I’ll often look at eBay, Newegg, and a couple others depending on the type of product before pulling the trigger).
That said, I’m definitely not your typical consumer (I rarely buy things on impulse), so it’s hard for me to understand the impact of their “price fixing” nonsense.
Nah, the layout is absolutely horrible. Especially when you check a box in the filters and other options disappear because Jeff forbid you want to look for motherboards by Asus, Gigabyte, and Asrock but ignore other brands.
Are you talking about the immediate refresh thing? Because yes, that is frustrating.
I don’t know if it happens in browser but sometimes on their app other options disappear if you choose one from the filter.
If I start looking for shoes, and check Adidas under brands filter then the page refreshes and I don’t see any other brands’ names.
Maybe it’s stockholm syndrome or something, but I find it absolutely fine.
no it’s absolutely horrid. HOWEVER in your defense, so are like 95% of all websites, ever made, it’s not a unique problem.
Yup, the modern web kinda sucks. But once you learn to navigate it, it’s usable. Mostly.
Yeh people learn and it becomes normal which is fine. Ebay is as bizarre to me. Not hate, more a morbid fascination that things so maze-like to navigate can also be successful. Could be semi cultural as well. I’ve noticed this being the way in other US platforms with a similar legacy. I’ve also being (attempting to) subvert tracking for quite a while so maybe that’s working and its less useful as a result lol. I’m lucky in a sense that their corporation isn’t so strong where I live so theres more choice (ironically I may actually have less choice). Its annoying when they have the monopoly on a given product, but it’s also possible just to go without the shiny thing.
Ebay
Yeah, it’s a bit odd, but again, once you get used to it, it’s fine. My general rules of thumb:
- narrow by category - avoids the worst of the spam
- only include “buy it now” listings (unless you really want auctions)
- sort by price (including shipping)
- skip the cheapest listing and look for the first “cluster” of listings
- be careful with sellers with a small number of reviews; low reviews aren’t a deal-breaker, they just have a higher chance of BS
I do that each time, and I haven’t had any problems so far.
Great post. Thank you for this insight!
If you see anyone online show the search results and pricing on Amazon, then try to replicate those search results and product price on a device that is totally partitioned from your viewing of the item/price elsewhere, you’re likely to find it is not possible. If you then go back to the original device and do the same, you’ll magically find the same product and lower price.
I noticed this on Walmarts website when asking chat GPT to find items for me. I was wondering why it was happening. Some of the price differences were extreme too.
oh so basically the entire shitpost about walmart or whatever it was having “dynamic pricing” is literally already real…
ok.
Did 39 people really believe this enough to upvote this? This is easily proven false. Amazon is convoluted because it’s old as heck and they hire subpar engineers. Like me. I used to work on the team that made the search page. It sucks because most of us were fresh out of college and had never made a website in our lives.
you mean it gives huge discounts to random people because of an error? i would think amazon would want to fix that ASAP
You’ve never done ecommerce logistics. You do not get Amazon’s efficiency from such a garbage system, or the worlds richest man. I have no doubt there are dubious practices to give plausible deniability. The thing is too large and too successful for this to be the big picture. The collectivized warehousing invalidates the front end system and mechanics entirely.
You’ve never done ecommerce logistics
I literally have. Go climb up a tree.
How much does it say these beans cost?
How does CamelCamelCamel display a price history if the price is different for everyone? Perhaps it’s inaccurate for some (Just hasn’t been for me the handful of times I’ve “had“ to use Amazon.)
And Amazon doesn’t price discriminate if they put something on a nationwide sale? So the bloggers can advertise that AirPods are at their lowest price ever?
reporting on their bad biz practices
They definitely get accused of other unsavory stuff:
Amazon “tricks” customers into buying Fire TVs with false sales prices: Lawsuit
You were looking for office supplies: did you check an office supply store?
Definitely would have been my first choice to look also, but do you think that staples or office max is going to have something cheaper than amazon?
I’m thinking op isn’t the brightest tool on the short bus. Walmart has a far better market place/e-commerce platform than shitass Amazon. Same delivery windows of 1-3 says. Can order groceries that aren’t fuckin wierd marketplace seller with a garage packed with dented pallets of Nutella, wild rice and 5hr energy drinks lol. The groceries actually come from the store or the next nearest one. They basically already had the warehouse infrastructure. The dumped billions with a fuckin B last year just on developing and expanding on drone deliveries. Plus when your order gets fucked up from Walmart… YOU TALK TO A FUCKIN PERSON WHO ISNT HALF WAY ACCROSS THE PLANET WITH 3 PRELOADED REPLIES TO FIX EVERY PROBLEM. Fuuuuuuuuuck Amazon customer service. But also unless op was looking for the holy grail of printers I will bet my annual salary that Walmart’s online store had the exact printer they were looking for or one that is an exact copy but another brand. So dramatic to write this whole post up for such a dumb reason lol.
Edit: Also no person or brand selling on Amazon is exclusively selling on Amazon. If the printer wasn’t available anywhere it’s prolly a discontinued model or a fuck up by the mfg. Such a dumb post.
How did Walmart become the good guy in all this shit? What the ever living fuck is going on with capitalism?
I gave up on Amazon a while ago except for very niche things, and Walmart if great. Orde groceries, they tell me to come get them, dude loads them up in my car and tells me have a good day. It’s amazing. No extra charge, nothing. Don’t have to deal with any of the people of Walmart.
It depends on the paper based on some quick searching, but I can pickup the paper from staples faster than Amazon will deliver it.
Do you mean you went to walmart and target physically, and then directly to amazons website, and no other online shop? There are a ton of competing online stores with similar or better prices than Amazon, often stores specializing in the product you’re buying. Instead of looking up amazon specifically, look up the item youre looking for
Exactly. For tech stuff, B&H Photo and Newegg are generally pretty good, and there are still niche sites within that depending on what you’re looking for (e.g. keyboards and mice have multiple high quality vendors). At the very least, it’s worth using the “shopping” feature on your search engine (I use DuckDuckGo and check their “shopping” tab to get a feel for which vendors sell a given thing).
I’ve been buying a ton of stuff recently on eBay because I usually don’t mind buying used if it’s something more expensive (i.e. cell phone, console games, etc), just be aware that they have different standards than other retailers (e.g. if it’s a refurb phone, you could get an aftermarket screen). But as long as you read the listing carefully, it’s usually all spelled out.
Newegg has started selling shit products since last couple years.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8xNAti0AnfyrhbiKreMAL30MLGfTMqrN
Can’t trust NewEgg anymore. They got bought by a chinese company and their support and experience have gone completely to trash.
That’s fair. However, I’ve never had to interact with their support, or Amazon’s for that matter, so it honestly isn’t something I care strongly about.
That’s fine. Before I knew about the buyout, I wounder up with several broken or defective items, and finally had to reverse charges on a laptop power supply, because they were so bad to deal with.
Walmart online is eating Amazon they don’t have a monopoly
Walmart online is pretty good for most things. Not everything. But if I can get it on Walmart I do… Walmart plus is pretty good. It currently comes with Paramount Plus, which doesn’t show ads with my pi-hole (so far, Roku), and compared with Amazon Prime showing ads…
Anyway fuck Amazon.
It’s pretty amazing to me that a company hasanagednto become so reviled that Walmart is the better and more ethical option.
It’s like Elon Musk has managed to make Mark Zuckerberg seem like a good person by comparison. Or Trump was so awful that Democrats look back and think “huh, GWB was a decent president”
If it’s sold and shipped by amazon, you should be able to price match it at bestbuy or target. I don’t know why walmart stopped price matching anybody.
Have you tried buying from aliexpress? It’s the same products as on Amazon, but directly from the supplier. Imagine Amazon, but everything’s 50% off.
Source: I’m cheap as heck and buy random trash from them
OP wants to support the US economy more - funnelling money directly to Chinese sellers definitely won’t do that and is arguably even worse than supporting Amazon (who at least employ Americans).
“OP wants to pay an American middleman to import the Chinese junk for him”
You should offer printer paper on xmrbazaar.com
I enjoy this narrative of “being forced” to go against ones own morals and principals by big bad companies because one just absolutely has to have a product for as cheap as possible.
You went to two stores and then straight to Amazon. That doesn’t mean they have a monopoly, that means you really didn’t try that hard to find an alternative.
If you think you have no other choice you are right because you stopped looking for one.
Yup, I know of a handful of local stores that would have what OP needs:
- office supply stores - there’s an Office Depot right next to my local Target
- photo supply stores - they specialize more in lenses and accessories, but they should also have photo paper
- art stores - even hobby stores like Hobby Lobby, Joanne’s, or Michael’s would have it
- CVS/Walgreens/etc - Walgreens even does prints, so you can just send your prints there if you really can’t find paper
- “tech” stores, like Best Buy (or Microcenter if you’re in the eastern US)
- random “everything” stores, like Big Lots, “Dollar” stores, etc (less likely, but worth a shot if one is close)
Your area will certainly be different, and there’s also a bunch of online stores, like B&H Photo (and dozens more, not going to list them all).
And I’m not in a big urban area, if you’re near a major city, you’ll have dozens of small stores that’ll sell that kind of stuff, along with some larger stores with discounted items.
Also there is always the second hand market… If you are really looking for deals and can take some risk which I think most adults with jobs can…
I agree with you there. The second hand market is wonderful for finding ridiculous deals on things people just want gone.
The only problem with the second hand market is the effort needed for it. That effort keeps people from considering it a viable option for goods in the same way the effort to find another store made OP B-line to Amazon.
eBay, Facebook marketplace/ buy nothing, hibid, thrifts, neighbors, friends, coworkers, family.
Agreed, but if you really do want to find a good deal, there are options. If everyone bought second hand, then second hand inventory wouldn’t exist. So I’m grateful for the consumers who buy new and resell second hand for less than half the price (with more than twice the life left).
If you’re the type where looking at something other than the two biggest retailers in your area is unreasonable, then yeah, second hand isn’t going to be your cup of tea. That just means more good deals on the second hand market for the rest of us (e.g. I see photo paper for like 1/4 price of retail on my local classifieds).
Yeah, I only buy pre-used printer paper
Brainrot like this a huge contributor to waste and plastic waste specifically but much freedom to consoom!
The second hand market is 80% suck since 2021 or so. Everyone wants retail for their shit. And goodwill has decided to be “the last reseller” and priced accordingly.
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People want to sell their beat up tools for $10 less than the full warranty with returns tool (router, brad nailer, palm sander, belt sander, recently, different sellers.) a plug in craftsman belt sander as old as my dad and you want what now?
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Shirts. Even the best thrift store will have a $7-8 minimum on a used shirt. Meanwhile, I can get 2 for $10-12 on Amazon, new, with returns.
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Photo paper is an uncommon thrift. Though I found two 5x7 packs for $1 each this year. They were in a box with wrapped postits and index cards so I think someone was confused.
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Remember, time is a commodity. Killing a day and coming out empty handed isn’t for everyone.
At least in my area, the online second hand market is pretty decent (in my case, classifieds at local newspaper). I even checked “photo paper” and found a dozen listings (I’m guessing they bought the wrong kind, got a really good deal on it, or decided they don’t actually print photos), but nothing as cheap as $1 (I see 2 packs of 50 sheets of 8.5x11 for $8 though, and that’s <1/4 the price vs retail).
Some things aren’t a good deal at thrift stores, but there still are some great deals. I’ve rarely found Goodwill to have good deals, but we have a few other thrift store brands in my area that actually have good deals. So like anything else, shop around.
I canceled prime a year ago as I can no longer support the monopoly and destruction to everyone else
You tried three in person places and then went straight to Amazon? Why not trying to buy directly from the manufacturer? You clearly didn’t try at all. Ignoring the fact that there are still plenty of other retail stores, you didn’t even try the online shops of any of your retail stores.
I frequently buy stuff online from Target because they also do free shipping, it usually arrives in 2-3 days, and they have somewhat frequent deals. So I’ll get a similar or lower price vs Amazon and still get it relatively quickly. Oh, and I can check inventory of my local stores if I really need something same-day. That way I don’t have to drive around all that much, I’ll just order for same-day pickup and grab whatever it is on the way home from work (and I pass like 3 Targets on the way home).
So I almost never need to buy regular things from Amazon. Between Costco, Costco.com, Target, Home Depot, and eBay, most of my bases are covered. For the rest, I search a bit before going back to Amazon.
I used to spend several thousand dollars at Amazon every year, and now it’s a few hundred. I’m not “boycotting” them or anything, I just prefer other retailers because I don’t those alternatives to disappear.
