[HN Gopher] Chrome extension recommends local businesses while s...
___________________________________________________________________
Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on
Amazon or eBay
Author : thunderbong
Score : 397 points
Date : 2021-05-08 12:35 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (chrome.google.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (chrome.google.com)
| corytheboyd wrote:
| This is a really good idea! I love my small businesses but being
| coddled by the internet is so real, you get used to immediately
| finding exactly what you want. With local stores, you have to put
| in some work sometimes, and _ghasp_ talk to real people,
| potentially a few, at different stores, to get what you need. It
| sounds like a lot written out like that, but the important bits
| are that the people you talk to, you learn things from, and that
| makes you better at finding things.
|
| This tool is kind of like that effect, or an easing into it from
| someone who may have just bought the first-worst thing on Amazon.
| defaultname wrote:
| "and ghasp talk to real people"
|
| Why add the "gasp" bit? A lot of people don't want to have to
| talk to people unnecessarily and they certainly don't need to
| justify themselves. And let's be real: When you talk to someone
| at a local store you're usually talking to some completely
| unmotivated teenager who knows positively nothing about the
| domain and makes everything take much, much longer.
|
| Buying local versus online is playing out identically to the
| buy downtown rather than at the mall transition: Instead of
| offering concrete benefits, there is an attempt to control
| behavior by shaming. It is completely ineffective. "Why
| efficiently find exactly what you're looking for at a
| competitive price when you can instead waste your time talking
| to a lot of different people, doing what you very much don't
| want to do, to eventually buy something not quite right for
| more?"
| YeBanKo wrote:
| > completely unmotivated
|
| As one meme put it: I am a part time seasonal employee half
| way through my 2-week notice. Do you think I care?
| benrbray wrote:
| I think cars are largely to blame for the sorry state of small
| businesses. Before moving from America to Tokyo, I had never
| lived in a place with anything even remotely resembling a
| walkable city center where you can easily browse and pick up
| what you need from local businesses. Everything is separated by
| a 15min+ drive, and I likely need to get on the highway to get
| there. Atlanta was the worst for this.
|
| In Tokyo I have at least 3 daily grocery stores within a 10
| minute walk, plus dozens of other small shops selling all kinds
| of things I might need. For specialty ingredients I've made an
| effort to hunt for specialty shops importing Indian, Thai, and
| Chinese ingredients. My favorite place to go is probably
| Kappabashi, a street lined with dozens of restaurant supply
| stores.
|
| I've learned which places I should go for which items, and I
| love the variety it adds to my routine.
| IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
| You are in tokyo. Come on.
|
| Tokyo is not Niigata, or Sendai, or Saitama.
|
| The tokyo bubble is not the same as the rest of japan
| benrbray wrote:
| I didn't say I was in Sendai. Human societies were designed
| to a human scale for thousands of years before cars started
| dividing us all up. American suburbia is one extreme, and
| Tokyo is another. Somewhere in between, I'd like to think
| we can find a balance in city design that allows us all to
| choose the mode of transportation that is most suitable for
| the journey.
| criddell wrote:
| I think the variety of city types is good too. I live in
| the suburbs of Austin and it suits me perfectly. I
| wouldn't be happy in a city like Tokyo (although I
| haven't been there since 1997).
| Drunk_Engineer wrote:
| And whenever a city in the US proposes some improvements to
| the ped/bike experience in a shopping area, the local small
| business owners will cry bloody murder. As someone who also
| prefers to walk to nearby stores, I feel no guilt whatsoever
| about buying stuff online instead of a local merchant.
| Amazon, for all its faults, has never showed up to a local
| planning meeting in my town to lobby against a sidewalk or
| bike lane improvement.
| prima_cookie wrote:
| I agree, haven't lived in tokyo but I've had similar thoughts
| and experience going from Chicago/NYC to cities like Austin
| Kalium wrote:
| Last weekend, I went looking for a particular kind of garment.
| I wasn't hopeful, but I thought I would give local shops a
| chance. I did it by going around, looking in various local
| stores, and talking to people. I did this in four or so
| different spots. I spent probably three to four hours at it.
|
| After that process, I was no closer to the garment I sought
| than I had been when I woke up. What I had learned from my
| efforts to shop local and talk to people was that the things I
| sought weren't carried by anyone nearby.
|
| I went online, and found exactly what I wanted in under ten
| minutes. It arrived two days later and fit perfectly.
|
| Speaking only and solely for myself, and narrowly about that
| experience last weekend, I fail to see what I gained. I already
| knew how to search for what I want. I talked to a few people
| and mostly learned that none of them could help me.
|
| This raises the question of why I bothered with attempting to
| buy local when I correctly guessed that it would be fruitless.
|
| I understand that for some people this experience of traipsing
| from store to store searching for what is not to be found is
| the most enjoyable part of the whole experience. Sometimes I'm
| not that person.
| awillen wrote:
| Man, I read the first paragraph and was 100% sure this was
| going to be a tale of how some garnet salesperson educated
| you on the intricacies of the market and your life was better
| for it.
|
| Turned out just how I feel instead... the idea that talking
| to people at local stores helps you find stuff is fine,
| except that I don't need help because Google is much, much
| better at finding stuff.
|
| Even if you don't know exactly what you want, searching
| online gets you in front of a range of perspectives that you
| can compare, as opposed to going to the store, where you get
| the perspective of the person who happens to be working.
|
| Now to be clear, I definitely like to support my local small
| businesses, but that's mostly because I also own a small
| business and feel kinship/connection/whatever with them.
| There are also a few that are better than the internet (e.g.
| I'd always rather get plants from my local nursery). It's
| pretty much never because they're better at helping me find
| something, though.
| Swizec wrote:
| On the other end of the spectrum you have items where expert
| help is necessary.
|
| When I bought my first motorcycle gear, I had little idea
| what to look for, what I need, or how to verify it does the
| job. Going to a store that specializes in motorcycles and
| gear was fantastic.
|
| They showed me how to fit a helmet, what to look for in a
| jacket, gloves, etc. I could try multiple items to find which
| brands fit my body, what looks good, and how the whole
| ensemble is gonna work together.
|
| You can't replace that online.
|
| Now that I know more about gear, shopping online is faster
| and easier. But I still wouldn't buy a helmet online, for
| example. You gotta test that stuff.
|
| My friend is getting into video. He's spent 3 weeks looking
| for the right lens and camera, bought a bunch, still not
| happy. Hours wasted, edge cases uncovered, room specifics
| discovered.
|
| 1 trip to a specialist camera store wouldve solved his
| problem.
|
| My butt has also learned the rather uncomfortable lesson that
| _you never buy a couch online_. Your butt needs to try it.
| yunohn wrote:
| > 1 trip to a specialist camera store wouldve solved his
| problem.
|
| Why not both? There's a lot of web-first brick & mortar
| companies coming up these days. Coolblue is a good example
| in NL. They offer expert advice at their stores, and an
| amazingly modern website experience at the same time.
| Inventory is all managed via warehouses, like Amazon.
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| I prefer to buy at brick and mortar but I question this
| reason for it. The guy in the plumbing section of the
| hardware store probably knows where things are on the shelf
| there, but probably has not done plumbing themselves and
| probably can't answer my DIY question about what product to
| use. For that, I end up needing YouTube.
| taivare wrote:
| Last Saturday I decided to fix the leaky kitchen faucet
| installed in the 80's. YouTube had me replacing
| cartridges @ $22 for pair. They had a former plumber
| working who down sold me the real fix, a pair of rubber
| seals w/springs $3.25 This guy told me the cartridges
| rarely are the problem . . he was right! he also
| instructed me on how to make the repair.
| cto_of_antifa wrote:
| right - the thing about YouTube is that you can only
| search for things you know you don't know. talking to a
| human interactively allows for troubleshooting feedback
| in real time.
| lazide wrote:
| That entirely depends on the store.
|
| HomeDepot or Lowes? Often times if you are even aware the
| topic exists you'll be a step ahead of 75-80% of the
| staff.
|
| If you go to a proper plumbing or electrical supply
| place, they can often point out that the video you're
| watching isn't doing work compliant to the local
| electrical code and you need to do extra step Y or you'll
| fail inspection, or that the whole operation is not going
| to work because the length of your run is too long for
| the size of pipe/gauge of wire you're using (which the
| video never even talks about), and you need to upsize or
| use a different technique.
|
| Local shops without expertise are definitely not going to
| do well. Someone with experience and expertise who sells
| what you need and actually has it in stock? Super Super
| valuable.
| usrusr wrote:
| Unfortunately, things can get quite messy when expert
| advice gets conflated with inventory management. And most
| shops struggling to survive against online doesn't make
| that better at at all. We really need to find some middle
| ground where foot-on-the-ground shop continue to exist, but
| not as an antithesis to online but as an extension. For
| bikes (of the pedal-pushing variety), there's now a market
| for what is effectively billed by the hour costumer-
| consulting regarding size fitting. I could easily imagine
| that getting transformed into foot-on-the-ground presence
| of online distributors, with neither income stream able to
| pay three full bill alone but working out in combination.
| Swizec wrote:
| You're right, the inventory management part gets tricky.
| On the other hand they _claim_ to only have inventory
| they trust and promote. So it becomes a question of "Do
| I trust this influencer's opinion?"
|
| I've seen modern direct-to-consumer brands use the
| approach you mention. Their revenue stream is instagram
| ads and online retail, but they also have physical shops
| in bougie locations where you can go browse and talk to
| their [sales] staff. They only rep 1 brand which can be
| an issue.
|
| Personally I've had good luck with specialist stores. You
| have to go in with a satisficing instead of maximizing
| mentality and it works great. The average on offer is
| about 10x better than the average you find online.
| (because inventory & space are expensive)
| usrusr wrote:
| > On the other hand they claim to only have inventory
| they trust and promote.
|
| Doesn't matter if it's about size and fit. But I guess
| that's a problem that is very specific to human powered
| bikes, where an inexperienced rider can make wildly wrong
| choices based on just trying a few options (some of the
| best fits could take a year of regular riding for getting
| used to). There are lots of online shops in that field
| that make Amazon pale in both price and inventory depth
| (e.g. literally hundreds of different bar tapes, probably
| thousands if you count colors separately), I wonder if
| there could be an upmark percentage that would be
| acceptable to both retailers/post-retailers and customers
| for substituting the package delivery hassle with store
| pickup. Conventional retail competing with that choice is
| hopeless in a market consisting of nerd hobbyists. The
| old guard always thinks that customers only buy online
| because it's so much cheaper, but choice makes at least
| as much difference.
|
| I suspect that the seemingly obvious hybrid distribution
| simply hasn't been done yet at scale because the
| legalities of customer protection require one party to be
| on the hook when things don't go so well and the online
| side of the equally wants to get rid of that so
| desperately that they wouldn't be interested in any
| arrangement that wouldn't provide for that and the
| retailer side is fully aware that they would never get a
| slice of the pie big enough to make up for those risks.
| matsemann wrote:
| Could your need have been satisfied with another product
| available locally? Was your need for that exact product
| really only created by browsing online?
|
| For instance I could spend hours reading reviews about power
| washers and finding the perfect model and then lamenting it
| not being available at my local hardware store. Or I could
| just buy whatever corresponding product they have and be just
| as happy.
| Kalium wrote:
| > Could your need have been satisfied with another product
| available locally? Was your need for that exact product
| really only created by browsing online?
|
| You raise wise and excellent questions!
|
| In short, no. My desires were not readily met with things
| available locally. My need was not for a particular product
| or model, but for a product from a reasonably general
| category of things with a couple of attributes. There are a
| variety of products available in the broader market that
| would have done it for me, only some of which I was aware
| of. Talking to an array of local small business owners got
| me a circular set of pointers to other shops to try.
|
| In your example, imagine going to local hardware stores and
| finding that none had anything that would meet your needs.
| They'll happily sell you a selection of hoses and send you
| to another hardware store that has a fine selection of
| wrenches, but nothing helpful in meeting your needs.
| lazide wrote:
| In my experience - half the time you're right. Half the
| time the local shop product literally will not work, or if
| it works is incredibly outdated (so very expensive for
| performance) or so crappy it will be overtaxed during use
| and break in weeks or days.
|
| And I'm in a major metro area.
|
| When I lived in the sticks? It was more 25% solid, 75%
| crap.
| fbelzile wrote:
| I guess it really depends on what you're looking for. If
| you're buying a book online, it might be worth going to a
| local bookstore and checking out the other books on the same
| shelf. You might find a better book (by being able to skim it
| quickly), or you might come across another book about a hobby
| you've been wanting to learn more about along the way.
|
| Visiting physical stores allows for "happy accidents" that
| wouldn't have occurred while shopping online. Targeted ads
| (or "customers who bought A also bought B") can help, but
| they seem tuned to maximize profits, not for inspiring new
| ideas.
| criddell wrote:
| I've sometimes wished that I could buy ebooks at book
| stores. I too like the serendipity of wandering aisles and
| picking up random things. I wish I could take a book to the
| counter and ask for the ebook version that they could email
| to me.
|
| Instead, I wander the aisles, then pick up my phone and buy
| the ebook on Amazon.
| asiachick wrote:
| I can imagine some future world where ordering garments
| online works for me. Maybe I could scan my body and see an AR
| version of the clothing using real physics simulation or
| something, though I'm also picky about how a fabric feels.
| So, for me, I can't tell if a garment is going to look good
| or bad on me unless I try it on. Further, I just don't seem
| to find what I'm looking for online. I also find looking
| online slower. Looking at racks of clothing I can see 100s of
| items at once, looking online I see 9 to 12 per screen and
| while sure, there's more places to look for some reason it
| feels like way more work, maybe because it takes more time to
| pass all the stuff I'm un-interested in.
|
| Still, at least in the USA, I don't find it offline either.
| The USA or at least SF/LA has almost no variety in clothing.
| All there are are chain stores. The limited small stores I
| know of just don't carry enough. Conversely in Tokyo I can
| find 10x? 20x the variety? At least that's my experience.
| Kalium wrote:
| In my particular case, I was dealing with fabrics I'm
| familiar with, size charts I can trust, and a tape measure
| I am comfortable applying to my own body. Combined, these
| factors cut down greatly on the uncertainty. I realize that
| I don't represent the typical shopper.
|
| I can tell you from experience that SF specifically, and
| the Bay generally, has a pretty wide variety of clothing
| available from a series of retailers. I've seen everything
| from one-person brands to chains and lots of things in
| between. You sometimes have to go looking for smaller
| retailers or more unusual styles. The retailers aren't
| always clustered together like the big chains are around
| Union Square. It can most definitely be challenging to know
| where to get started to look, and it took me a while to
| figure out which ones tend to stock things I like.
|
| LA even has a whole garment production industry. There's a
| lot of small brands based there for exactly this reason!
| usrusr wrote:
| > and ghasp talk to real people, potentially a few, at
| different stores, to get what you need.
|
| That's really an issue: if you aren't the hard-boiled, super
| unemphatic negotiator type you'll likely buy the very first
| thing a salesperson has invested face-minutes in, if it just
| gets the easy 80% of requirements/desires right. "Thanks for
| your time, but I'll go see if there's another offer that is
| maybe 3% better or 2% cheaper" isn't something that feels good
| to all people. The asynchronous experience of online shopping
| (and before that: mailorder) is a huge enabler to people who
| aren't the haggler type. And because the haggling mindset is a
| learned skill, I'm afraid that it will only get worse the less
| people grow up shopping face to face. To future generations,
| every shopping experience that isn't online or at least highly
| formulaic self-service like in a supermarket will feel like the
| haggle scene from Life Of Brian (and just as alien as the one
| after that).
|
| But obviously a total amazonisation of all buying would be
| terrible nonetheless. What I'd love to see: a site like those
| price comparison directories but not so much focused on
| cheapest but on local availability. Current stock, proximity,
| opening hours and price, they are all important.
|
| Actually I should have gotten my ass up and looked for funding
| years ago, or at least part-timing it on the side (I'm not the
| haggle type, right?). It would all hinge of course on
| integration interfaces with whatever systems local dealers
| already use for managing stock, because those claims world need
| to be reliable or else it would all be futile.
| BeFlatXIII wrote:
| Even if you are a hard-boiled negotiator, the additional time
| it takes to visit different stores to make the comparison
| often isn't worth it compared to buying the whatever the
| first floor associate recommends to you.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| People in the US were not haggling for anything less than a
| car in the decades before the internet.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| Not true. As recently the 90s expensive niche gear like a
| pro audio or video stuff was almost always subject to price
| negotiation, especially if you were a repeat customer or
| indicated an interest in possibly purchasing other stuff.
| It still is to some extent.
|
| In general the more knowledgeable the
| dealership/salespeople, the more likely negotiation is
| possible, especially if you present as a knowledgeable
| customer so that neither of you are wasting each others'
| time.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I guess I was a kid back then, but I don't remember any
| of the adults I hung around haggling in stores like
| circuit city, and my family are immigrants from a country
| where you haggle over vegetables.
|
| As far as I understood, it wasn't in the interest of the
| big retailers to spend time haggling with individuals.
| usrusr wrote:
| Exactly! And the same fate is waiting for "thanks for the
| time you just wasted, but I'd rather check out the
| competition next door some more".
|
| For most people, this has already happened. It's just not
| as visible as haggle/no haggle (even to the people
| doing/not doing themselves)
| pythonaut_16 wrote:
| Sales needs to adjust to the new reality. Recognize that
| people have options and other sources of information and
| focus on answering their actual questions instead of
| trying to sell them on something.
|
| If I walk into a car dealership it's because I need
| specific information not available online, even if it's
| just to see the car in person.
|
| What I don't need is a whole sales pitch. That's wasting
| my time and the salesman's.
| danuker wrote:
| > but I'll go see if there's another offer that is maybe 3%
| better or 2% cheaper
|
| I'll go to 3 stores, and just ask for the price and say
| "Thank you! I'll come back when I'm decided."
|
| That way, there is minimal haggling, and I know I'm not
| getting completely ripped off. Still, it's more work than
| just checking online. But depending on the price of the item,
| it may be worth it.
| mumblemumble wrote:
| > "Thanks for your time, but I'll go see if there's another
| offer that is maybe 3% better or 2% cheaper" isn't something
| that feels good to all people.
|
| Not necessarily because they're meek. For me, going to a
| brick and mortar store, interacting briefly with a human, and
| taking the first thing that meets my basic needs is a life
| hack.
|
| The paradox of choice is real. Seeing the bounty of options
| available on sites like Amazon does allow me to try to
| carefully optimize what I get for every desire I could have,
| but, ironically, the process of doing so makes me less happy
| with whatever I end up with. Because seeing so many options
| means I've now got all sorts of opportunities to second-guess
| my choice. And because reading reviews to try and narrow down
| my choices invariably injects the reviewer's tastes into my
| thinking, and potentially guides me away from my own. And
| because pretty soon just seeing how many bells and whistles
| are available gets me wanting things I don't need and didn't
| even know I could have when I first decided I wanted whatever
| I'm shopping for, and therefore creates all sorts of trade-
| offs to have to weigh.
|
| It's not worth it. "3% better" is a will-o-the-wisp beckoning
| me off into a quagmire, and "2% cheaper" is invariably a 2%
| discount on something that turned out to be 30% more
| expensive than what I originally planned on buying.
| matsemann wrote:
| I agree, but as I wrote in another comment here I often
| fall victim to the same myself. I find it quite paradoxal
| however, how I spent weeks deciding which sports watch to
| buy, but how the real estate market here gave us a few
| hours in deciding which apartment to bid on..
|
| Anyways, I find your point about 30% often apply more to
| local shops. Price is often a bit higher, but biggest
| problem is not having a comparable model at the price point
| I wanted. And with a seller in front of you doing their
| thing, it's easy to walk out with more than intended.
| usrusr wrote:
| Thanks for that perspective, I don't disagree at all. I
| think all depends on why you buy. If it's a necessity,
| particularly one that you'd rather not need at all, then
| it's a lifehack feature. But when you buy out of
| love/consumerism/geekery it's a bug. I find myself
| surprisingly often ordering tiny little things that,
| despite being industrially manufactured, exist only in one
| or two tiny shops/directories, on the entire searchable
| web. That's a long tail that simply does not exist in the
| analog world. But it's good to see value in the other end
| of that animal as well.
| CPLX wrote:
| > you'll likely buy the very first thing a salesperson has
| invested face-minutes in, if it just gets the easy 80% of
| requirements/desires right. "Thanks for your time, but I'll
| go see if there's another offer that is maybe 3% better or 2%
| cheaper" isn't something that feels good to all people.
|
| This seems like an extremely positive aspect of going to a
| local store, not a downside.
| tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
| > 2% cheaper
|
| Unless it's a really big ticket item, going to another store
| to get it 2% cheaper would almost certainly be a net loss
| (due to the time involved) vs. just buying the first thing
| you see at a slightly inflated price.
| antihero wrote:
| Pretty sure a lot of people just see "Amazon's Choice" and
| hit Buy Now
| pythonaut_16 wrote:
| In that world, what is local availability except that someone
| happened to already ship some quantity to a location closer
| to you?
| manigandham wrote:
| Haggling is tiring and mostly useless considering the time
| and energy expended. There's a reason most shopping has gone
| towards standardized list prices without negotiation, and
| this happened way before Amazon existed. Even the large
| purchases like cars and real estate are trending towards
| upfront pricing now.
|
| Now recommendations by a store expert are a different thing,
| but local businesses are again limited by recommending only
| what they have in stock, not what's actually best for you.
| I've rarely found anyone who would actually tell me to go
| somewhere else to get what I need.
| orhmeh09 wrote:
| Is this really true for real estate? In the U.S., I
| regularly hear how people must offer tens of thousands of
| dollars over a house's listed price to get any
| consideration (Seattle).
| cto_of_antifa wrote:
| that's depressing! I've heard similar things as well
| wffurr wrote:
| That's Google shopping, and the inventory integration is
| pretty hard. Lots of stores don't or didn't use reliabile
| inventory systems. I wonder if the pandemic and in person
| closures have pushed some shops into maintaining their
| inventory databases.
| renewiltord wrote:
| > _and ghasp talk to real people_
|
| Actually this is a deal breaker. I'm a very personable person
| and people usually find me the life of the party. But when I'm
| looking for a specific thing, I'm optimizing for search
| latency. Spending hours performing the search is not enjoyable
| to me. When I'm just browsing, I can enjoy that, but most of my
| purchases are task-oriented.
|
| You can bemoan how "people these days" do things if you want,
| but it won't get you any closer to understanding why they
| behave that way.
| [deleted]
| williesleg wrote:
| And track you for sure.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Small business near me never seem to have online catalogues or
| stock levels.
|
| Hunting for a specific product (for example a washing line) might
| involve walking into 3 different shops and guessing which shop
| might sell what you need. When you arrive in the shop, they
| always arrange aisles differently so unless you have 20 minutes
| to hunt you might not find it either.
|
| Whereas online it's a simple search and click "buy now". It's
| probably cheaper too.
|
| Bricks and mortar shops need to do a lot of work on the shopping
| experience before they're competitive. The _only_ time bricks and
| mortar shops win are when I need something right now or
| groceries.
| cpeterso wrote:
| Nearby (unrelated to this extension, AFAICT) is a company that
| creates a unified online storefront for local shops and they
| handle the separate ordering, pickup, and delivery to shoppers:
|
| "On Nearby, they shop across multiple local stores, in one
| basket, with one checkout, and no fuss. After a customer checks
| out, we place orders with you and the other stores, and do the
| work of putting the order together."
|
| https://nearbyhq.com/
| jcims wrote:
| I've wanted to dive into FPV drone flying for some time.
| Finally pulled the trigger on the components I needed to get
| started...controller, transmitter, goggles, charger, battery,
| BNF drone. I did this online because it seemed impossible to
| sort out locally and the prices I did see were +30% or more in
| price.
|
| Somehow in the process I goofed and ordered batteries with the
| wrong connector (xt60 v xt30). I spent this morning trying to
| find other batteries or an adapter in the local metro area.
|
| - There are ~8 hobby stores within 50 miles
|
| - None of them have any stock info online
|
| - I called every one of them and nobody stocked the battery I
| need, nor an adapter.
|
| - I can go on Amazon, GetFPV, HobbyKing, ReadyMadeRC, etc and
| find the exact parts I need.
|
| In the same vein I've noticed is that many of the traditional
| sporting goods stores have basically become clothing stores
| with an online store for everything else.
|
| Too bad I haven't figured out how to trust random extensions or
| I would consider using something like this.
|
| All of this said I used to work at a local computer store back
| in the 90's and can imagine just how difficult it is to run a
| local store that competes with Internet-based stores.
| [deleted]
| walrus01 wrote:
| > Somehow in the process I goofed and ordered batteries with
| the wrong connector (xt60 v xt30). I spent this morning
| trying to find other batteries or an adapter in the local
| metro area.
|
| As someone with direct experience in this whole class of
| hardware (hobbyist grade UAS stuff), you're going to want to
| have a soldering setup and low cost consumables (heat shrink
| tubing, etc, extra connectors that cost a few dollars each)
| to have your own capability to do things like change out DC
| power connectors. It's totally normal to get a battery with a
| connector that you might not want.
|
| If you stay in the hobby for the long run it will cost you a
| lot less money to have the capability to buy discrete parts
| and repair things yourself (example: buying a new $40 4-in-1
| ESC) than buying bind and fly stuff.
| Salgat wrote:
| Exactly. I'm not driving around for 2 hours comparing against
| local businesses on the off chance they can compete on $20 in
| random crap I buy. Small businesses are simply too time and
| information inefficient in most cases for general goods.
| greenie_beans wrote:
| I'm sorry, I can't help but point out that you could call the
| store before you left your house. And when in the store, you
| could ask a sales associate for help. Just sayin!
| koksik202 wrote:
| I asked floor staff and manager about item that they had pile
| of in previous week, they said its all gone I even pointed on
| same item smaller size (slow cooker) went two aisle down
| found bunch of them there. Shop staff is not keeping track
| with items being sold unless you ask about bread and milk
| locations
| lazide wrote:
| In my experience, if i'm 10 mins away from a store, my end to
| end time is at least an hour if you don't already know where
| the items is and if it is in stock. Then it's 30-45 minutes.
| Driving, parking, walking into the store, check out, walking
| out, driving takes a surprising amount of time if you
| actually count it.
|
| If I call, it's often 5 to 10 minutes for the call to
| determine stock availability (often the clerk needs to go
| wander around to find it, or go to the far back of their lot
| to see how much they have). That's assuming anyone knows what
| I'm talking about/I can adequately describe what I'm looking
| for without them getting confused, which isn't always the
| case.
|
| This adds up. For some things it's worth it, or even
| essential. For other things, it is not. I've given up on in-
| person for computer/networking/IT equipment for instance. Too
| difficult to get a clear answer, local markups and stocking
| are too unpredictable, it's so much faster doing a search and
| purchasing online.
| vorpalhex wrote:
| Prepare to be on hold a very long time and be subjected to
| the person who answered the phone flagging down a coworker to
| go physically check the isle.
| cerved wrote:
| how do i get this Tele-Phone app you speak of?
| Salgat wrote:
| So now I have to spend 5-10 minutes talking with someone and
| waiting on them just to find the price versus knowing it
| instantly. Then I have to drive there and buy it (if it is
| cheaper) versus just having it shipped free to my house. None
| of this makes sense for me to do.
| qudat wrote:
| > I can't help but point out that you could call the store
| before you left your house. And when in the store, you could
| ask a sales associate for help.
|
| This is still worse than going to amazon and doing a quick
| search, seeing a ton of different products that satisfy your
| needs, and reading reviews from people that bought them. Then
| when you purchase it arrives in a day. Fake reviews aside,
| this is vastly superior.
| yabadubakta wrote:
| And then possibly ending up with a counterfeit.
| varispeed wrote:
| And mislead by fake reviews.
| robbrown451 wrote:
| They might do that for the occasional person, but it wouldn't
| scale. They have to hire far more people.
| JohnJamesRambo wrote:
| Calling a store is usually phone system menu hell, you will
| usually ultimately reach a 19 year old that doesn't care or
| someone in a call center.
| minikites wrote:
| What small/local store has a call center?
| JohnJamesRambo wrote:
| Well my most recent experience is trying to call the
| local number for the electric company office in my town
| which went to someone asking what state I live in.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I love going into my local Ace Hardware stores. I have found
| that these are usually staffed by older/retired guys that
| have been there, done that, and they are eager to assist. In
| fact, one guy would recognize me and ask what "crazy" thing
| I'm trying to do now. This is all because the first time we
| interacted I was attempting to build a "portable" 25' long
| suspension cable system for a camera rig. We probably spent 2
| hours looking at all of the doodads they had available (of
| course he'd help other customers when needed). However, we
| did spend a lot of time just chatting about random projects.
| At the end, he asked if I'd show him the result of it when
| finished. It was sad day when I learned he had passed away.
| Kind of like losing a distant relative.
|
| Show me where Amazon or whatever online shop can emulate
| that.
| pythonaut_16 wrote:
| I can also go online and buy it from any retailer living in
| 2021 for a similar or better price. It's really not practical
| to call up the store and ask about every single item I'm
| looking for.
|
| You're not wrong that those are options, but those options
| are the exact reason brick and mortar stores are struggling
| to stay afloat. They offer an inferior service.
| iamevn wrote:
| Tried this when I wanted a tool to help pick a tubular lock
| that was being difficult with the improvised stuff I was
| trying and which I didn't want to drill out. Of all the
| hardware stores and hobby shops I called, only one actually
| took me seriously and checked to be sure they didn't have it.
| All the rest falsely told me that lock picking was illegal
| and seemed to take offense.
|
| Ended up buying some cheap shit off ebay that got the job
| done.
| crazygringo wrote:
| That's hilarious!
|
| Do you... try that regularly?
|
| Stores are so understaffed, you're lucky to get them to pick
| up the phone at all, and if they do you often won't get
| accurate information. They'll never walk to an aisle to see
| if something is physically there, they'll tell you if it's
| "in the system", but frequently "the system" will show 3 in
| stock while the reality is zero on the shelf. Or 48 in stock
| but they're all on a pallet in the back they can't get to.
|
| And good luck finding a sales associate in the store itself.
| Quite frequently there simply aren't any -- only cashiers, a
| security guard, and people restocking who don't have the
| knowledge to help you at all.
| nactivint wrote:
| Actually my wife does this all the time and it works,
| especially for small businesses. Larger companies have
| websites, and small businesses care enough to do things
| like check the stock for you.
|
| So I guess my anecdote cancels yours out?
| UncleMeat wrote:
| I live in a fairly small town. Almost every store is
| minimally staffed, often by a single person. Phones
| regularly go to voicemail. Calling up the local shoe
| store to ask whether they have something in my size will
| get an interesting response. I'm also thinner than
| average here, so entire pants racks at the local clothing
| stores just don't carry a single piece in my size.
| dylan604 wrote:
| One store I frequented was owner operated with probably
| their daughter as an employee. They would walk around
| with a cordless phone on their hip so as to not miss a
| call. If there's enough interest, people find a way.
| meroes wrote:
| This goes for San Francisco retail shops but also I'm
| sure other places: Some of the stores don't open till
| noon. Some are only open 3 days a week. Some stores are
| open the days the other stores are closed. I'm talking
| about some of the most popular retail storefronts in SF.
|
| There are no good options. I went through this recently
| where I had to call different stores on 3 separate days,
| waiting till 10am, 11am, or 12pm. And you still don't
| know the product you are asking about is really the one
| you are after. There are so many versions of products and
| specific use cases nowadays.
| VBprogrammer wrote:
| The previous posters experience resonates much more with
| me than your experience.
|
| Even when you do go to a shop you are often redirected
| online. That item isn't in stock on the computer. No
| attempt to upsell you or suggest an alternative which
| they might have in stock. It's no wonder high street
| stores are dying out.
|
| To be fair, small specialist stores are usually much
| better. I even got a call back from a company the last
| time I was trying to buy a specific BBQ. Sadly they
| didn't have it in stock and a day or two later I found it
| online.
| bredren wrote:
| The underlying problem with these anecdotes is that All
| of these experiences depend on who is working that day.
|
| It may even be influenced by who is working that week or
| that month or who runs the place this year.
|
| Ecommerce is imperfect in many ways, but it is far more
| consistent in its imperfection than local retail.
|
| W.C. Winks Hardware Inc. in Portland, Oregon has been
| around since 1909 and is amazing.
|
| You can go in there with some odd piece of hardware and
| someone will personally wait on you, assess your request
| and find the exact item or closest likeness.
|
| The staff is patient and friendly, in my experience it is
| ideal local retail. But Winks doesn't do ecommerce at
| all, so I often must relegate it to unusual hard to
| figure HW needs, because not every project needs this
| level of service.
|
| I'm in agreement that retail has some pretty serious work
| to do to stay in the running. It might not be fair or
| "right" but it has to happen nonetheless.
| [deleted]
| mitchdoogle wrote:
| You sound like you're describing a Walmart or Target. I
| thought we were talking about local small businesses. All
| the niche small businesses around me, the store owner is
| often the one who takes the call and they know their
| inventory inside and out
| mamaluigie wrote:
| Yes. Just tell the guy to get off his butt and go and see
| if the item is in stock. This has worked every time for me.
| I call walmart on a reg to see if an item is in stock
| before having to drive all the way there.
| YeBanKo wrote:
| Walmart is not a local shop. They have a pretty large
| software dept i house and you could probably check
| availability online yourself.
| Arainach wrote:
| So my choice is to harass/insult a minimum wage employee
| and distract them from their already-overloaded and
| already-minmaxed job so that I can spend more, get in my
| vehicle and spew carbon into the atmosphere to......give
| money to a family of ultra-billionaires instead of one
| ultrabillionaire? And that's helping my local economy?
| bigth wrote:
| Why are you harassing and insulting them in the first
| place? Nobody taught you how to speak politely?
| BenjiWiebe wrote:
| The GP said to tell the employee to get off his butt,
| which is usually interpreted as rude.
| hoppyhoppy2 wrote:
| They didn't mean you should literally say those exact
| words. You could say something like "Would you mind
| checking it for me yourself? I'd really appreciate it."
| [deleted]
| Karunamon wrote:
| Not sure I'd consider Walmart the kind of local business
| being discussed here...
| jbrahms33 wrote:
| Just thought of an awesome way to get inventory data by crowd-
| sourcing it. Sort of creating a game for consumers
| mamaluigie wrote:
| Have you ever thought about calling the store to see if it is
| in stock before going out of your way to drive there. This
| would prevent you from leaving your computer desk. Also for the
| increased price that local shops might have, I view that as a
| convienience fee for not having to wait 3-4 days for the
| package to arrive at my house.
| azinman2 wrote:
| Not to mention supporting the local economy.
| renewiltord wrote:
| The search latency is high. It can be very frustrating.
| BikiniPrince wrote:
| My new favorite is hunting through their online catalogues and
| only finding the things I want via their online sales. Just
| with worse shipping.
|
| Other then niche products like brewers items, furniture and
| other home goods it's difficult to find things I need.
|
| It's not like I live in the woods either.
| roberto wrote:
| Well, yeah.
|
| The point is to sacrifice convenience to support local stores.
|
| You want to do the right thing AND you want it to be more
| convenient? Sounds like you're just looking for convenience.
| jamesrr39 wrote:
| I find even the larger businesses have much poorer shopping
| experiences than Amazon. I wanted to buy a book last year. I
| found it on a major, non-amazon bookseller's website. However,
| no "Look-inside", not even a description, no reviews, no real
| information about it aside from the title and [very short]
| description. I ended up going to Amazon to find all this info
| and having a look at the "Look inside" first few pages, and
| then buying it from the other retailer. It worked, but not
| exactly great, people going to a competitor's website to
| research the product.
|
| It sucks, because I want to support businesses other than
| Amazon and the like, ones that pay corporation tax and don't
| abuse their market position, but the other stores really have
| to raise their game. For better or worse, Amazon has definitely
| been a game-changer in retail and it's not enough to trade like
| it's the year 2000 any more. You have to be innovative and see
| software as a way to improve your offering.
| harikb wrote:
| Talking from the perspective of local business owner - it
| isn't possible to compete with Amazon on "online" features.
|
| This needs two efforts - people have to be Ok with an
| inferior shopping experience to a certain extent. Can't have
| cake and eat it.
|
| Second, Software powered world needs a different kind of
| monopoly control - we shouldn't talking about "breaking up
| Amazon" - that just creates busy work from yet another set of
| programmers to work on duplicating everything Amazon has.
| That is a waste of resources.
|
| Instead regulation should force Amazon to share its "retail
| infra" and may be allow local business to relicense/partner
| with some of it.
| smichel17 wrote:
| "Breaking up Amazon so that fulfilment is a separate
| business, which other companies besides may do business
| with" seems isomorphic to "force Amazon to share its
| infrastructure" to me.
| londons_explore wrote:
| As a software guy, rebuilding many of the features of
| Amazon that users love isn't awfully hard or expensive.
|
| I think it's a unique combination of logistics and tech
| which few companies manage to successfully pursue. Things
| like hooking up the cash register system to the website so
| the website doesn't say "in stock" when someone has bought
| the last one. It's pretty easy for someone techy to do
| that, but there is rarely a sufficiently techy person on
| staff in a typical small business.
| majikandy wrote:
| Not scalable though is it. If everyone only goes when needing
| something right now, there won't be any shops left to be able
| to get something right now. I love the concept of local
| recommendations but yes real-ish-time inventory of local shops
| needs solving too.
| pydry wrote:
| >real-ish-time inventory of local shops needs solving too.
|
| Shops seem reluctant to do this, possibly because they don't
| like being price matched or view their inventory as a trade
| secret.
| crazygringo wrote:
| > _there won't be any shops left to be able to get something
| right now_
|
| Of course there will be, because demand will still exist.
|
| There will just be less shops, with higher prices, and
| focused only on the types of things people tend to need
| immediately.
|
| But that's exactly what people would _want_ -- buy most of
| your stuff cheaply online with a delay, but have shops
| specializing in need-it-now categories of things for a
| premium price.
|
| It's an entirely viable model.
| halikular wrote:
| Being able to test clothes before you buy them to so if they
| fit is so much more convenient than ordering the wrong size
| online.
| tuwtuwtuwtuw wrote:
| Also stores offer more services. When I buy a pair of jeans
| the person in the store will adjust the length so the jeans
| fit my odd lenght. I bought a watch yesterday and it cost me
| $60 more in store than online, but in the store they helped
| me change change the size and if I have issues with it I can
| drop it of in the store and they will send it for repairs.
| Just more convinient for me than figuring out how to safely
| submit it myself.
| mcv wrote:
| Plenty of online stores let to order stuff to fit them and
| return what doesn't fit.
| cerved wrote:
| who wants to return stuff
| robbrown451 wrote:
| As long as you can find your size. I'm tall and thin, so if I
| want to buy something as basic as Levi's jeans, I have to go
| to a ton of stores and have limited choices. Now I just get
| them on Amazon, problem solved.
|
| This is a problem that should have been solved years ago. You
| should be able to measure yourself very accurately and
| thoroughly, keep it on some sort of file that you can share
| what you need, and then use tools on the online sites to
| learn exactly how their products will fit.
| adrianmonk wrote:
| There's a company called True Fit
| (https://www.truefit.com/) which attempts to solve this.
|
| True Fit partners with several stores. You go on a store's
| web site (for example, macys.com), and you tell True Fit
| about some clothing you already have that fits well (brand,
| size, style). Based on that, it refers to its database to
| recommend the best size of the product you're considering
| now, and it tells you whether it thinks it will be "snug",
| "true to you", or "loose".
|
| Basically it just formalizes the kind of knowledge that
| shoppers use about how brand A tends to run small, brand B
| runs large, brand C is aimed at young people so its shirts
| are more tailored, brand D is aimed at older people and
| their shirts are more "generous" in the waist, etc.
|
| Their web site calls it the "Fashion Genome(tm)", which is
| a "comprehensive, normalized fashion graph".
| bobthepanda wrote:
| How do I actually use this? I have to intentionally seek
| out brands and stores they've already partnered with?
|
| There's not a directory or anything it seems like.
| judge2020 wrote:
| Looks like this is actually a B2B service that would sell
| it to existing retailers and/or tailers, not necessarily
| as something you yourself would sign up for.
| notatoad wrote:
| yeah, this is a problem i've solved by learning what brands
| are internally consistent with their sizing. i know my size
| in Levi's, and as long as they don't suddenly start making
| 36/32 jeans fit differently than they used to, i'll keep
| ordering from them without having to worry about fit.
| jasonladuke0311 wrote:
| Levi's is one of the worst offenders. There is such a
| massive sizing variance that I stopped buying them years
| ago unless I found them in a store.
| notatoad wrote:
| heh. i guess i _knew_ my size in Levis, it 's been more
| than a few years since i actually bought a pair of their
| pants.
| dataflow wrote:
| Yeah, I've had Levi's in front of me where nominally
| "smaller" sizes of the _exact same_ jeans were visibly
| bigger. For the life of me I don 't understand why
| measuring jeans to better than an inch is so hard in the
| 21st century. How is there no incentive for them to fix
| this? Do they profit from giving people the wrong size?
| spicybright wrote:
| Guy jeans are real easy because those numbers are actual
| measurements. Woman's jeans just change that to a single
| number that changes through the years. Uhg, so annoying.
| tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
| No they aren't. I got two pairs of jeans from the same
| (house) brand in the same store at the same time. I tried
| on one of them in the store, and naively assumed the
| other would fit too.
|
| There was a 5 cm (2 inch) difference.
| wyre wrote:
| The inseam is but the waist usually isn't. It's just
| standardized between brands much more than women's jeans.
| fortran77 wrote:
| A Levi's "36" today is probably more like 39 inches. In
| fact, most companies have been "vanity sizing" to make
| people feel better.
|
| The worst offender is "Old Navy" where a 36" is actually
| a whopping 41 inches. It seems like men won't buy pants
| that are labeled over 39 inches, so as sizes go up from
| 30 inches, the "vanity" excess goes up exponentially.
|
| See: https://www.esquire.com/style/mens-
| fashion/a8386/pants-size-...
| dataflow wrote:
| How is vanity sizing not false advertising?!
| notatoad wrote:
| because they don't make any claim that a size 38 is 38
| inches.
|
| they used to be, but these days a "size 38" designation
| doesn't carry any more actual meaning than women's
| clothing sizes like "size 0"
| jazu wrote:
| You can try them on in the local store and then buy the same
| size online. Works wonders for some products like brand
| sneakers or jeans.
| nsainaney wrote:
| Agreed. Doesn't anyone go out in their neighbourhood
| anymore. What's with wanting everything to come to you. I
| like going out and know the names of the bar managers and
| store staff at the places I shop....
| dylan604 wrote:
| I'm assuming you mean when there's not a global pandemic
| vages wrote:
| Works worse when the store closes because you don't buy
| stuff there.
| smichel17 wrote:
| I imagine a future in which brick and mortar stores offer
| the same prices as online (without having to price
| match), but charge an entry fee for the service of trying
| stuff on/out.
|
| Won't happen until enough brick and mortar stores close
| that the remaining ones can get away with it, though.
| dylan604 wrote:
| A lot of stores have a price match even for online prices
| to keep you from doing this. So if you're so cheap to do
| this, then you could at least reward the local store for
| providing you a service rather than cheating them out of a
| sale.
| Bob_LaBLahh wrote:
| FYI, things like jeans can have a lot of size variability
| between seemingly identical pairs (same brand, model, and
| nominal size).
|
| My understanding is that this is because the denim is
| stacked and then die cut in the factory. Since denim is
| highly deformable, the cut outs from the top of the stack
| are not the same size as the cut out from the bottom of the
| stack. And this can lead to considerable size variance
| within the "same" pairs of pants.
|
| That's why it's a good idea to try on two pairs of the
| exact "same" pants if the fit is close, but not quite
| right. YMMV.
| 8note wrote:
| I've only found differences for pants bought in different
| years.
|
| If I buy two of the same pair, the match each other
| throughout their lifespan.
| MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
| Kohls solves this by giving you 120 day returns so I
| disagree. Plus you don't have to sort through everything and
| check the prices in store. Just wait for it to show up, try
| it out. Keep it if it's good, ditch it if it's not.
| sidlls wrote:
| You have to wait for shipping, package the return, etc.
| That doesn't seem as convenient as trying on in the store,
| even with the added burden of travel to the store and
| sifting through sizes.
| [deleted]
| Larrikin wrote:
| I think it's pretty common for any clothing retailer, but I
| think the only people who don't mind the experience are
| people willing to drop hundreds of dollars at a time to buy
| many different things and then return most of it. I'd
| rather just go to a store and not have to front the money
| for anything I'm on the fence about.
| varispeed wrote:
| Do we really need such shops though? It's like being concerned
| about horses, when more and more people drive cars. Only thing
| I buy in a corner store is probably bin bags and something like
| water if I forget to put it in my bag before leaving house.
| Everything else I buy online because I can compare, read about
| the product, watch reviews etc. when in store being on the
| phone looking up products is not comfortable. We should accept
| that certain era has ended and look how these store owners
| could transition into online world. If a corner store was
| online, I could order that bin bag and they could just pop it
| in through my door few hours later.
| ravenstine wrote:
| How true is that _really_? Maybe there will come a point
| where this is true, but there are still lots of things on
| Amazon that don 't have next-day delivery. Many specialty
| items on Amazon have slow shipping, and I would gladly have
| bought them at a local store if I had the choice; I used to
| until they all closed.
| sirmoveon wrote:
| It's also part of their business model. If you call for info on
| products they will half-ass it and try to avoid giving much
| information. They believe forcing people into coming will more
| likely make them buy at least something.
|
| I've tried to approach some local businesses to create an
| online catalog and they claim their competition would use it
| against them...
| rightbyte wrote:
| If I hunt for specifics I usually call small shops: "Hello. Do
| you have washing lines? Oh, thank you."
|
| Bigger chains usually has a website you can browse instead.
|
| The value-add is that I can see the washing line before I buy
| it. Pictures just doesn't make it - they lie. And then I would
| have to live with a crappy washing line because what are the
| chances I would bother replacing it with another cheap random
| internet washing line.
| rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote:
| If you already know exactly what you want, buying online from a
| big corporation will always be better than buying from a local
| brick and mortar store.
|
| I think bookstores are one of the best examples. Amazon has
| literally everything, but if you're not exactly sure what to
| read next, if you walk through the highly curated aisles of a
| local used bookstore, or talk to the (highly knowledgeable)
| person behind the front desk, you'll probably walk out of the
| door with something awesome.
| throwawaysea wrote:
| Great! We need to decentralize the economy away from these
| conglomerates that have outrun our dated antitrust laws. It will
| lead to a redistribution of both wealth and power across
| locations and classes, as well as give customers choice on who to
| patronize.
| anshumankmr wrote:
| I am surprised it works for Amazon India (though I have only
| searched for two very simple items: protein powder and masks)
| mastazi wrote:
| From looking at the extension's source code, it seems that it
| grabs your last search in eBay/Amazon and sends it to Google
| Maps. If there was an option to use a different provider (other
| than GMaps) I would be more inclined to use it [1].
|
| By the way I love the idea behind this extension! It's just that
| I would prefer not sending all my ecommerce searches to Google.
|
| [1] note that Chrome extensions are not just used by Chrome
| browser, they are also used by other browsers not made by Google.
| So it's not impossible that some of the potential users of this
| extension may want to avoid using Google products where possible.
|
| Edit - I just emailed the dev and offered to help, hopefully we
| will get in touch.
| foreigner wrote:
| I've considered building this in the past, nice to see somebody's
| actually done it!
| bluishgreen wrote:
| Try returning something you didn't like to your friendly
| neighborhood warm fuzzy store and come back to this thread, let's
| continue the conversation
| BenjiWiebe wrote:
| I've returned stuff to physical stores and it's usually pretty
| easy. And online returns, even if always accepted, are a hassle
| of repackaging the product and bringing it to a shipping drop-
| off location.
| ibic wrote:
| Well, I see the point but I'm not sure how well this will work
| out - When people shop online, they most likely favor the
| convenience over physical stores right? So how can this sway that
| person's mind? Another point is that, introverts may not enjoy
| that much talking with people and online shopping provided them a
| way of escape.
| Yhippa wrote:
| Would be cool if there was something like Grubhub/Doordash/Uber
| Eats for local businesses where you could buy "stuff". Might work
| a little bit better since you could get it quicker than Amazon. I
| know I've discovered so many new restaurants in my area because
| of those services that I wouldn't have tried before.
| notsureaboutpg wrote:
| If this site offered free in-store pickup it could be huge.
|
| No one is going to want to pay delivery fees for a paperweight
| or a cool t shirt. Shipping is way less expensive.
| mdaniel wrote:
| Isn't that the problem Instacart is attempting to solve? I
| readily admit I'm not a user in order to know if _any_ business
| is available to be ordered from, but toward that end I don 't
| believe just _any_ business is available for those food
| delivery ones, either
| robbrown451 wrote:
| My guess is that people buying online aren't going to install an
| extension whose purpose is to shame them into other behavior.
|
| I've basically switched to buying almost everything online, after
| getting a hard time from my ex (mother of my daughter) for
| risking picking up COVID with my regular trips to the grocery
| store, which is a short walk from my home. (Bizarrely enough, I
| ended up catching it later when I bought a used car, because I
| needed to take public transportation to bring my old car home.
| And yes, my daughter and my ex ended up catching it as well, and
| they weren't happy).
|
| Until the pandemic is over, I don't see how this sort of thing is
| a positive. I'm not convinced it is even then, it seems a bit
| like reminding people of print publications every time they
| browse the web. The world is changing, tilting at windmills isn't
| going to change it back.
| amelius wrote:
| I generally avoid browser extensions because they are even less
| secure than mobile apps.
| bullmeza wrote:
| I am the creator of this app. There is no reason for this app
| to be secure. There are no server requests, no stored data and
| no external sever.
| amelius wrote:
| I am confused. How do you find local businesses and check
| their stock levels?
| bullmeza wrote:
| I do not check stock levels. I am using the google maps
| Places API to search for keywords. Google has tons of data.
| Salgat wrote:
| I don't understand this fetish with small businesses. For certain
| industries they're great, but for retail? Many still pay minimum
| wage with no benefits, so the only one you're helping enrich is
| the owner who treats their employees as expendable. On top of
| that, retail really benefits from economies of scale, it's simply
| more efficient for both you and the business. That efficiency
| gets passed on to the economy to be spent elsewhere.
| jbrahms33 wrote:
| Just had a golden idea of how to get inventory online. You crowd-
| source it by rewarding customers to log inventory. Essentially
| customers are setting up their own little drop-shipping stores
| with inventory found throughout retail stores around them. Let me
| know if anyone is interested in helping with this
| _rpd wrote:
| Just replying to encourage you. I think this is a great idea.
| bassdropvroom wrote:
| Only a matter time before they sell user data. Make it open
| source.
| dane-pgp wrote:
| If you're looking for an open source Chrome or Firefox
| extension that helps people lessen their support of Amazon,
| then there's this:
|
| https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/not-today-jeff/hoa...
|
| https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/not-today-jef...
|
| https://github.com/codders/not-today-jeff
| Acrobatic_Road wrote:
| If you don't want to use Amazon...then just stop using
| Amazon. No browser extension required.
| cobrabyte wrote:
| Yeah, just add it to your hosts file or something.
| alimbada wrote:
| Odd you're getting downvotes for this. As if to say people
| have so little self-control that they absolutely can't
| boycott Amazon without involiving a technical solution.
| SquareWheel wrote:
| The parent said "that helps people lessen their support
| of Amazon". Nobody said anything about boycotting Amazon.
|
| One can still shop at Amazon while appreciating a
| reminder to shop locally from time to time. Maybe they're
| going into town the next day and can pick up that item
| locally instead.
|
| It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
| xg15 wrote:
| New web standard that lets sites block extensions coming in 3...
| 2... 1...
| hkt wrote:
| Is there one for Firefox? This is great.
| mmoya wrote:
| Feature request https://github.com/Bullmeza/BuyNearby/issues/1
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| I recall an extension that was looking up amazon stuff on
| ThePirateBay (movies and books). It didn't last long.
| JangoSteve wrote:
| Nice. I've actually built a startup doing exactly this a few
| years ago, called PriceLocal [0]. Though, unfortunately, it never
| really got off the ground in terms of traction.
|
| We ended up spending I think around two years building out the
| functionality. Most of that time was spent arranging agreements
| with brick and mortar businesses to share their inventory data
| with us, so that we could make it function on a per-product
| basis. You could shop normally on Amazon, and it would drop down
| a banner when your product was available from a local business at
| or below the Amazon price. We also had it working as extensions
| for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. This article had a good
| screenshot showing how it actually worked [1].
|
| That was definitely one of the favorite startups I've helped
| build to date. It was also cool to see it featured on The Today
| Show [2]. I'm super bummed it didn't end up working out. Good
| luck to you!
|
| [0] https://www.producthunt.com/posts/pricelocal
|
| [1] https://www.today.com/video/new-app-promises-to-find-
| amazon-...
|
| [2] https://www.cnet.com/how-to/find-local-stores-that-will-
| matc...
|
| EDIT: By the way, nice name! I can't believe we didn't think of
| that.
| reidjs wrote:
| I think I'm the only person who considers online shopping less
| convenient than just going to a local store and buying it.
|
| In person you just walk or drive over to the store, select the
| item, pay, and go home with the correct product.
|
| Online I have to turn on my computer or open an app. Type in a
| bunch of stuff, Search around, click cookie consent buttons,
| avoid newsletters, log in, enter your address, put in your credit
| card, etc. you finally place the order, now you have to wait 2
| days to get your damn product?! It ships, now you need to sync up
| with your mailman otherwise they can't drop it off (I live in a
| city.) I miss the delivery, now I need to go to the post office
| and pick it up myself. So I go there, it's after 5 so they're
| closed. I take off work early the next day and wait in line. Talk
| to some pissed off USPS package and carry my package home. Open
| it up. It's the wrong product or a Chinese knockoff. You get the
| picture
|
| I'm of millennial age. The internet isn't hard for me to use. It
| just adds extra complexity for me.
|
| I suppose if you need a very specific thing online is better. But
| that's rare for me.
| marcinzm wrote:
| Seems to be more of an issue with your situation than in
| general. I've never had to sync up with the mailman, they just
| drop the package downstairs in my building (I live in a city).
| Same with UPS, FedEx and so on although sometimes those need to
| redeliver the next day. I go to amazon, order the item and then
| pick it up next time I'm downstairs. So much faster than
| checking the weather in an app, putting on appropriate outdoor
| clothes, going to a store, browsing their aisles for where they
| dumped the thing, waiting in line to checkout and so on. It's
| the difference between 2 minutes and 30 minutes of my time.
| jahewson wrote:
| > In person you just walk or drive over to the store, select
| the item, pay, and go home with the correct product.
|
| I think you mean get the kids ready and put them in the car,
| drive for 20 minutes to Target, spend another 5 trying to park,
| schlep from the back of the parking lot to the store in 90
| degree heat, wander endlessly around the store because they
| moved one of your usual purchases into and end-cap. Inevitably
| there's some part of my bi-weekly purchase that is sold out and
| I must now figure out a substitute or make my next shopping
| trip sooner and off-schedule. Finally I stand around for 10
| minutes in line behind someone who does not seem to understand
| credit cards despite them having existed for 60 years. Finally
| I load everything into the car, wrestle the children in and
| drive 20 minutes home. My children are now hungry.
|
| No, I do not consider this more convenient :)
| mumblemumble wrote:
| Two thoughts there. First, my partner and I always send one
| person to the store, so that we don't have to load up the
| kids or deal with them in the store.
|
| Second, I think that this shopping experience you describe is
| a uniquely suburban experience. Going to Target is indeed
| awful. But, where I live in the city, it's a reasonably
| pleasant 10 minute walk to the neighborhood hardware store,
| which has had the same layout for probably 30 years, and you
| can be in and out in a few minutes. Grocery store is an even
| more pleasant 5 minute bike ride, and it's also a human-
| friendly size and easy to get through fairly quickly.
| Shopping for clothing is still awful, but shopping for
| clothing is inherently awful but thankfully infrequent.
|
| At my partner's folks' out in a small town, I guess some
| people do drive an hour round trip to the nearest big box
| store, but I've always liked that it's a short hop into town,
| and all the stores are reasonably sized and within a block of
| each other. With the town's park just a couple blocks away,
| so we can take turns hanging out with the kids in the
| playground while the other goes into the store. I guess we
| don't have as many options, but I'm genuinely happy to choose
| convenience and happiness over a selection of 73 different
| kinds of breakfast cereal.
|
| Similar when we're visiting my mom, also in a small town,
| except that the playground is unfortunately on the complete
| other side of town from the commercial district.
|
| Then, at my dad's house in a suburban community, it's nothing
| but big box stores and misery.
| femiagbabiaka wrote:
| Yep. And the design that centers around big box stores and
| the roadways and parking lots that they end up "needing" is
| a large contributor to why the suburbs are so miserable:
| https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/10/11/the-
| numbers-d....
|
| It's funny how the human ecosystem works. Bad design
| decisions over many years lead to opportunity for polluting
| megacorp.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| That paragraph you wrote describing the online shopping process
| is accurate but all of that stuff still takes less time than
| just the drive to the store, nevermind the drive back.
| reidjs wrote:
| Factoring in the delivery time, local will almost always be
| faster. Since I live in a city I'll usually just stop by the
| relevant store next time I'm near it to grab the thing. But
| if you're in a suburb and/or spend most of your time in
| residential areas I understand the difference.
| robbrown451 wrote:
| Turn on your computer? You can use your phone I suppose, but
| I'd expect most of us here have their computer already on. If
| you buy things from a small set of sites, it's very few clicks.
| Hell I can buy groceries in five minutes (typically picking
| most of my order from things it offered, since they remember
| me), and it will be delivered the same day with no additional
| charge.
| Krasnol wrote:
| > Type in a bunch of stuff, Search around, click cookie consent
| buttons, avoid newsletters, log in, enter your address, put in
| your credit card, etc.
|
| This is the reason why so many stick with Amazon. You gave them
| your data already and the only thing remaining are the dark
| patterns which wants to sell you prime but you probably have
| that already too so you don't have to wait 2 days.
|
| Also: their computer/phone/tablet is on already.
|
| I honestly buy a lot online because it is convenient. I let it
| send to my workplace and I don't have to go to the city wasting
| the few hours that I have left of my day.
|
| There are things though I need to go out to shop. Cloths and
| food and I can't remember a single trip I enjoyed. I need to
| look in several shops before I find proper and fitting cloths
| (I'm tall). If sices would be a true standard I could rely on,
| this would be the next thing I'd do online. Groceries means
| shopping in supermarkets which are always too full and I need a
| parking spot since I got to take a car there because I'm doing
| it once a week only. I tried doing it through Amazon and it
| failed spectacularly. It never arrived but they only they told
| me at 9PM...it was Saturday and there are not many shops open
| at that time here in Germany.
| [deleted]
| bullmeza wrote:
| Hey guys. I am the creator of this chrome extension. I read tons
| of your guys comments and I will be sure to update the extension.
| I do not want to steal data, looking at the source code I do not
| store data or send it to a different server.
|
| Here is the source code by the way.
| https://github.com/Bullmeza/BuyNearby
| pknerd wrote:
| Loved the idea. While it is US specific. There could be contry
| wise version of this idea
| ______- wrote:
| I can see the reasoning behind this. People don't want to help
| Bezos get another holiday home; they would rather funnel money
| into local businesses for obvious reasons (like helping a little
| boy buy his team jersey or a little girl get dance lessons for
| example).
|
| One caveat to the local alternatives is the friction involved if
| it's an e-commerce store where users have to register their
| details. Most will happily register, but some will find the
| friction unbearable.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| > People don't want to help Bezos get another holiday home;
| they would rather funnel money into local businesses for
| obvious reasons (like helping a little boy buy his team jersey
| or a little girl get dance lessons for example).
|
| That's not the world I've been living in in the US. People
| would rather go to national stores like Target, Home Depot,
| etc. Also, order online and pickup in store is even better than
| Amazon for me.
| turbinerneiter wrote:
| I used to default to Amazon because of this. But nowadays many
| shops don't need an account anymore, the browser can autofill
| that data and credit cards with 3d secure (basically 2fa) seem
| safe enough. Finding those shops to me is now the "hardest"
| part.
| criddell wrote:
| Apple Pay is a pretty great experience when buying stuff
| online. I don't have to create an account, just hold my thumb
| over the button on my iPad and my details and payment is
| entered automatically.
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| It may take just a minute to enter your contact and payment
| info, but then it takes half an hour to figure out their
| returns policy, shipping fees and delivery windows.
|
| I buy a lot more from tiny businesses if they operate on top
| of Amazon's platform.
| turbinerneiter wrote:
| In Europe, they are bound by the same law, so return
| policies are not something I worry about. Shipping fees are
| clearly stated at checkout and honestly so damn cheap that
| I don't care. Delivery windows? It's the same delivery
| companies that Amazon uses or used to use. In Germany
| mostly DHL, who I never had a problem with.
|
| It's fine if your prefer what you prefer, I'm just saying
| that the experience of buying from random, smaller online
| shops got a lot better lately and is coming closer to
| Amazon.
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| _> In Europe, they are bound by the same law, so return
| policies are not something I worry about._
|
| No, the law does not mandate a specific returns policy.
| It just sets minimum standards. I can return almost
| anything to Amazon for free if I don't like it. I don't
| do that very often, but knowing that I can is one of the
| biggest incentives for me to buy from Amazon.
|
| _> Shipping fees are clearly stated at checkout and
| honestly so damn cheap that I don't care._
|
| I have often gone through a lengthy ordering process
| before finding out at the very last step that my PS20
| order would incur a PS5 delivery fee. And it's fine. It
| often doesn't make economic sense to make free deliveries
| to the doorstep. But that's yet another reason in favour
| of small stores sharing a logistics platform such as
| Amazon.
|
| _> Delivery windows? It's the same delivery companies
| that Amazon uses or used to use. In Germany mostly DHL,
| who I never had a problem with._
|
| Here in London Amazon makes most deliveries directly. I
| can track deliveries in real-time and I know what they do
| if I'm not home. I had lots of issues with other
| logistics companies. They often lie about having made a
| delivery attempt and drop off parcels at some distant
| shop or depot.
| turbinerneiter wrote:
| Well, my experience in Germany is different than yours in
| London apparently.
| f6v wrote:
| I don't think Bezos(or Gates, Musk, Zucker) reason in terms of
| holiday homes anymore. I'm absolutely sure they have a positive
| impact. They build spaceships, fight disease, and finance
| science.
|
| Whether the net outcome for humanity as a whole is better or
| worse with Amazon is highly debatable. By writing
|
| > like helping a little boy buy his team jersey or a little
| girl get dance lessons for example
|
| you appeal to feelings and divert the discussion in the
| direction of "But evil billionaires rob children to buy a new
| yacht!" which is simply not true.
| cute_boi wrote:
| "They build spaceships, fight disease, and finance science."
|
| They do it not for humanity but to earn more money. Its
| always money, power, and fame at the end.
| prox wrote:
| Absolutely. I saw that website were Bezos' wealth was
| measured out in pixels. He could easily eradicate a
| disease, wipe out all student debt or something else you
| can dream of, but afaik he isn't doing that.
| f6v wrote:
| Maybe because his wealth is measured by the stock he owns
| and the price would drop should he decide to dump it.
| [deleted]
| Pfhreak wrote:
| So his wealth is illusory? He can't, say, buy a huge
| yacht or multiple homes or any other major expenditure?
| Guest19023892 wrote:
| Well, it's an illusion to a certain extent. However, it's
| an incredible amount of wealth. His net worth increased
| by 75 billion in 2020. Perhaps that's an illusion and he
| could only liquidate that stock into 20 billion in the
| short term. That means he could still buy a 50 million
| dollar home every day of the year.
|
| To answer your question, he can certainly buy a yacht or
| multiple homes at any moment. However, if he wants to
| cash out 100 billion dollars in stock this year, he's not
| going to get full value, and he'd have to slowly pull it
| out over a matter of years or decades to do so.
| sudosysgen wrote:
| Those billionaires don't have to liquidate stocks. They
| borrow against their stocks to the tune of dozens of
| billions.
| f6v wrote:
| > They do it not for humanity but to earn more money. Its
| always money, power, and fame at the end.
|
| I think that depends on how you see the world. I believe
| there're people who aren't driven only by desire to have
| more money.
| Pfhreak wrote:
| There are those people, they are just a set of people
| that doesn't intersect the set of major tech CEOs.
| turbinerneiter wrote:
| > They build spaceships, fight disease, and finance science.
|
| Businesses used to pay taxes so the public could do all that.
|
| Nowadays Amazon competes with local stores, while not paying
| taxes, which that local stores can't avoid.
|
| So these billionaires, evil or not, are concentrating wealth
| on themselves and shape the world to their liking. And their
| linking isn't the best for society as a whole.
|
| That doesn't mean that SpaceX isn't cool, or that I didn'tove
| when Amazon shipped science fiction books to my home, which
| was far away from any bookstore. But it is very clear that
| some companies have large negative externalities and their
| tax invasion and policy influence is really, really, really
| bad for our society.
| f6v wrote:
| > And their linking isn't the best for society as a whole.
|
| See, how can you judge whether it's going to end up bad if
| we're in the middle of it?
| turbinerneiter wrote:
| What kind of question is that? What are you arguing for?
|
| Do you think extreme concentration of power and wealth is
| good? Do you want to be free? Do you want to elect your
| leaders?
|
| Again, this is not about SpaceX and Amazon and other
| companies. These companies do cool and good stuff! The
| topic is the concentration of power and wealth and the
| negative externalities of that.
| f6v wrote:
| I think there's no way to tell right now whether there's
| going to be a net positive or negative outcome.
|
| > Do you think extreme concentration of power and wealth
| is good?
|
| I mean, it might move the humanity into the positive
| direction.
|
| > Do you want to be free?
|
| That's such an abstract concept, I don't even know what
| it means.
|
| > Do you want to elect your leaders?
|
| Whenever I go, people complain about the government, east
| and west alike. Maybe I don't want to.
|
| I think your reasoning is ideologically charged, without
| any argumentation. I'm just pointing out that it's hard
| to judge how the things will turn out now.
| turbinerneiter wrote:
| If liking freedom and democracy is ideologically charged
| for you we might just not be able to find common ground
| for a discussion here.
|
| Have a nice day.
| patrickmcnamara wrote:
| Apple Pay on the web has made this very convenient. Being able
| to buy something with just a single button is amazing.
| Unfortunately it's not available for large swathes of potential
| customers since it's iOS/macOS only.
| awillen wrote:
| There are other, similar services, though. I run an ecommerce
| store on Shopify, and you've got out of the box integrations
| with PayPal (which is about 50% of my payments), Amazon
| Payments and Google Pay, all of which provide a similar
| experience since they have your payment and shipping info
| saved.
| darepublic wrote:
| I will give it a try, nice idea
| detectiveninja wrote:
| my local book store is selling lord of the rings books for 35E,
| the same set is 16E in amazon
|
| I do want to support them, but I cant afford the difference.
| jonplackett wrote:
| I'm trying so hard to shop non-Amazon at the moment. But man they
| don't make it easy. Deliveries not showing up for weeks after due
| date, shipping costing more than the item itself, painful payment
| solutions (at least take PayPal so I don't have to go find my
| credit card!)
| xutopia wrote:
| I want that but still have things delivered. I don't want to
| drive anywhere to get my stuff.
| wyuenho wrote:
| I wonder why we don't have an Uber for local shops? There's Uber
| Eats already, why can't we have Uber Shop?
| drcongo wrote:
| Avoid this tax-avoiding, bullying monopoly by using this other
| tax-avoiding, bullying monopoly.
| drcongo wrote:
| Downvotes suggest some people failed to understand the comment.
| A browser extension for avoiding Amazon, that only works in
| Google's browser. I'm baffled why one tax-avoider is fine while
| the other is to be avoided.
| guerrilla wrote:
| I don't think that's implied, is it? A lot of people already
| use Chrome to access Amazon and eBay, so they wrote the
| extension for Chrome. Maybe they'll port the extension to
| less popular browsers later and they're just prioritizing or
| maybe they don't think it's worth it. I'd like to try it on
| Firefox and I'm not installing Chrome just for this but I
| don't blame them either...
| lukifer wrote:
| Also worth noting that this extension works on other
| Chrome-derived browsers, like Brave, or the pure-OSS flavor
| Chromium.
| corytheboyd wrote:
| It's downvoted because the subject of this submission is a
| chrome extension, not Google.
| drcongo wrote:
| I thought Chrome was a Google product. My mistake.
| [deleted]
| batch12 wrote:
| I didn't downvote (can't), but it was probably the dismissive
| snark which didn't add anything to the discussion moreso than
| the idea that earned the downvote. Also, some people are
| tired of the reflexive kneejerk company-bashing overall. Most
| of us can acknowledge that these companies have problems, but
| to shitcan what appears to be a personal project because it
| runs in Google Chrome is an overreaction.
| jjcon wrote:
| Then install it to brave browser instead
| yamellasmallela wrote:
| Would love this on safari
| sokoloff wrote:
| I'd be happy to support local merchants, but they have to get the
| overall value proposition _somewhat_ competitive. For the most
| part, they aren't. Maybe it's pricing, selection, policies, hours
| of operation, or some combination, but other than grocers and
| large chains, I'm not even sure they're trying.
|
| Amazon is winning by serving the customers. Local shops will
| continue to have a hard time if the primary value prop is "we're
| more expensive and not as good, but we're your neighbor, so you
| owe us!"
|
| I try every so often to use a local shop. Maybe I need a common
| appliance, lawn mower, or small engine part. If they have it on-
| hand, I'll pay 5x the online price to get the job done today. I
| can only recall one time where that worked. "We can get it for
| you" only to find out that means a week and 4x the online price.
| "No thanks; I don't want to be a bother..." <tap, tap, wait 2-3
| days, done>
|
| Our dishwasher door broke last Thursday; I fixed it in 30 minutes
| that Saturday afternoon with a $30 part I ordered on Thursday.
| Don't even know how long it would take to setup a $150-200 repair
| appointment.
| jdasdf wrote:
| > I'd be happy to support local merchants, but they have to get
| the overall value proposition somewhat competitive. For the
| most part, they aren't. Maybe it's pricing, selection,
| policies, hours of operation, or some combination, but other
| than grocers and large chains, I'm not even sure they're
| trying.
|
| This.
|
| I actively avoid local businesses because with few exceptions
| they always try to screw you, whether that's prices, low
| quality service, or something else.
|
| Even something as simple as canceling an order that hasn't yet
| been paid or shipped I get senseless push back from local
| businesses.
|
| When it's easier and less stress free for me to return a
| 1200EUR drone to Amazon 3 times, than it is for me to cancel a
| 80EUR chestnut order that hasn't been paid or shipped from a
| local business, the problem isn't Amazon and the solution is
| obvious.
| notatoad wrote:
| Yeah, Amazon (and increasingly, buying direct from brand's own
| e-shops) keeps winning my business by being better at _every_
| aspect of the sale. I'd like to keep money in my community, but
| it's really hard when online has better service, better
| selection, better pricing, and better flexibility.
|
| I could go downtown to buy a pair of shoes during that store's
| business hours, get to choose between 3-4 different styles,
| talk to a salesperson who knows less than the online product
| listing, then find out that my size isn't in stock and won't be
| restocked this year. Or I can order online at my convenience,
| see all the relevant information up front, compare prices
| across all the selection that exists and across multiple
| retailers, have the product arrive in a couple days, and pay
| _less_ money. If local retailers want to exist, they need to
| find _something_ to compete on.
| Pfhreak wrote:
| > by being better at every aspect of the sale.
|
| > I'd like to keep money in my community, but ...
|
| It sounds to me like Amazon is not better at every aspect,
| you've identified one aspect right there. They are competing
| on, "Would you rather live in a cookie cutter franchise strip
| mall or a mom and pop commercial area?"
|
| I'm willing to accept some inefficiencies and some
| frustrations if it means I've got a nice neighborhood of mom
| and pop stores.
| notatoad wrote:
| if the only value provided by the "nice neighbourhood of
| mom and pop stores" is the warm fuzzy feelings, that's not
| enough value for me.
|
| i don't want to live in what's essentially a theme park
| full of fake stores that only exist because it makes the
| neighbourhood seem nicer, or where the shopkeepers are
| basically paid entertainers present for their aesthetic
| value. if that's the sort of city we're building, let's
| skip the inefficiency of paying local retailers to provide
| the service of existing and go right to universal income.
| Pfhreak wrote:
| It's not just aesthetic value. Yes, there is aesthetic
| value but also there is the value of "People can afford
| to live and work here." A community that contains some
| shop owners, some office workers, some landscapers, etc.
| is a better community in my eyes.
| notatoad wrote:
| i agree with you that a community where people can afford
| to live and work is good, but the work needs to actually
| be productive. if a retail store's only value is
| unrelated to their retail business, then i think it's
| fair to call them only aesthetic.
|
| paying people to work in shops that are worse in every
| way than the alternative except for being local is not
| productive. no real value is being created. it's a make-
| work scheme, and paying those workers to not work would
| be more efficient.
| jturpin wrote:
| Before Amazon, if I needed a specific electronic component, my
| options were Radio shack or a specialist hobby shop. Both were
| incredibly expensive and often didn't have what I need. Ebay
| and Amazon have been an absolute game changer and I'll be happy
| if I never have to set foot in a hobby shop again, which
| anecdotally had grumpy staff that seemed annoyed by my
| presence.
| benbristow wrote:
| Can see the use for Amazon (if it's an order directly from
| Amazon, not a third-party seller) but eBay is a bit harsh. Lots
| of smaller local businesses doing honest business on there,
| getting a wider reach because of the platform.
|
| Maybe they'd make a bit more directly rather than after eBay's
| cut I guess so there's that argument.
| [deleted]
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