I don’t want 1 hour shipping. I want charming niche shops and fabs where the employees are treated well and able to serve higher quality products, and repair things when they occasionally break.
I get the sentiment, but the market as a whole said differently. I doubt Americans could afford that.
Americans could afford to spend more on goods that are actually durable. And those who couldn’t would buy used items that actually are worthwhile because they were built to last.
Maybe they could 50 years ago but they decided then that Walmart was the way to go.
Now all most of them can afford is Walmart
No we didn’t. Wal-Mart showed up and undercut competition for years to force everyone else out of business, and then jacked up their prices, buy up the property where the competition was at and jack up the rent so they can’t come back.
That’s what they do now (and have done for the last 3 decades but Walmart is a lot older than that and you don’t get to be in that position by accident.
They were sourcing cheap Chinese goods in the early 80s.
And nothing materially changed between then and now. It’s just as possible now as it was then. They just want you to think it isn’t.
And nothing materially changed between then and now.
I’d hate to break it to you, but that just isn’t true. Manufacturing capabilities have left the continent. People no longer have the relevant expertise to pass on through apprenticeships. We’d basically be starting from scratch, and with corporate hegemony built on cheap overseas labor to compete with.
That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be worth doing, but let’s not fool ourselves about the uphill battle that it would be, or the very real possibility that people would just keep using the cheap convenient corporations instead of supporting local fabs
You’re absolutely right. The word I chose was poor. What I meant was the underlying rules of the material world hasn’t changed. Atoms still act the same way, and all that. It was an exceptionally weird way to make an even weirder point, but yeah.
Alright well when you figure out the precise alloy of steel to optimize a spring for required specs, and the exact forging, quenching, and tempering processes and temperatures to use, as well as the specs for the equipment to extrude the wire and twist it into the right shape with enough precision to be commercially replicable, then we can all use your springs in all the things that we build. Now we just need someone else to build literally every other part.
The thing about a lot of modern technology, is that it’s made with other technology, which in turn requires still more technology. So when manufacturing capabilities disappear from a continent, it’s not so simple to just rebuild them. You need to rebuild the stuff that’s required to build them first.
And you also need technical knowledge, niche skill sets and tooling, and sources of often highly specific materials.
This isn’t meant to sound discouraging, but it’s best to understand the scale of the task from the outset.
The rules absolutely have changed. Distribution networks and data transfer are completely different today than back then.
Your parents voted for convenience every day at the register and they got what they paid for.
And they’ll be dead soon.
Probably. Their decisions with healthcare weren’t much better.
Do you do this, or are you just telling other people what they should be doing?
I do it when I can, yes.
Good, i agree that’s how we should buy things.
But life and finances can get in the way.Absolutely. And I don’t think it’s just an issue of individual choice. The market for most goods is flooded with cheap shit that is designed to break after a year or two, and that has driven up the cost of built-to-last goods, if they’re even available at all. It’s also killed the market for most used goods, even durable ones.
The problem, as always, is capitalism and capitalists, prioritizing “growth” (endlessly increasing profits quarter after quarter) instead of anything that would actually benefit society as a whole.
100% agreed
I don’t think it’s people can’t afford it, but you don’t even know if the expensive item is any better.
I have seen identical products on Amazon sold at quite different prices. The expensive one is just as shit but will cost you more.
Long warranties you could actually trust would probably help. But you need to build that trust too
We could afford it but wouldn’t be able to purchase on a dime.
Most people could afford it if it were universal. It’s only a luxury when it’s only partially implemented.
I really just want a choice in shopping that isn’t Amazon, Target, or Walmart.
Like, there are pretty much no mom and pop shores anymore. There’s an occasional “niche” bigbox, like Dicks or Walmart or Marshalls…but like, for real, there’s nothing left.
And then, you think you’re going direct to manufacturer, but nope, just a fancy skin on top of Amazon.
Or worse, twice so far, is order something from eBay and have it delivered in Amazon packaging on an Amazon truck.
All the ma and pa shops were forced into selling on Walmart and Amazon and eBay etc.
They are equally beat to shit by the platform pushing their prices down, the platform controlling the visibility of their products, and countless rules that if ever broken result in a permanent platform ban, ending the business.
Walmart is niche?? I feel like I must be misinterpreting. 😅
I could’ve sworn I said BestBuy…which I would consider “niche” in that, I can’t think of a single other retailer in my area that competes directly as an electronics store.
There’s maybe an appliance shop nearby still? But I’m hundreds of miles away from even a Fry’s. No more CircuitCity or CompUSA or even Sears.
If I didn’t have a wholesale club nearby or a MicroCenter ~90 mins away, I wouldn’t have a clue where to buy a TV (for example), in person, besides WalMart, Target, or BestBuy.
Online, the first that comes to mind is those, and Amazon. Then if I start to think deep I’ll think maybe Newegg?
Fry’s as in fry’s electronics? Didn’t they go bankrupt because one of the owners was embezzling?
they were already crumbling in 2019 and covid killed them, that’s the official story, anyway
Out of curiosity, where do you live? I’ve not shopped at any of these sources in at least a decade.
So, like, the 50’s?
No matter how sassy your reply is if it is on twitter you’re part of the problem.
Exactly
You can make money without being cruel or awful to your workers. But every mega corp just wakes up and picks the most exploitive option humanly possible.
No you can’t. Not in crony capitalism. Any honest business will go under, be bought out, or turn corrupt. If you are a multi millionaire or billionaire, you are absolutely evil.
If a company is publicly traded it’s evil because their business model depends on infinite growth for investors and doesn’t care about the workers.
Untrue. Sometimes theres smaller businesses that dont. Theyre either driven out of the market or bought out.
Progress!
25 years ago I could get everything I need within 1 hour by riding the tram or my bicycle to the store.
Where staff with a 3-year education recommended the right product for me, and weren’t aggressively pushed by their employer to upsell.
(This wasn’t in the US though).
Today, the only things left in the city are shops for smartphones, sports betting, vapes and barbers where the haircut somehow costs half as much as the mandatory minimum wage with taxes.Living in rural Norway this was never an option. Normal stuff was accessible (and in shops with qualified staff) but anything special was only available if a distributor had it.
EBay, Etsy, Ali Express and amazon (however much I despise their business practice) makes stuff available. Even now living close to Oslo, Norway is such a small market that stores can’t really have that much capital bound up in stock that occasionally sells.
A few examples:
- Pluck foam is impossible to find outside specialized commercial vendors that want to sell it by the ton or something
- Small vortex mixer that is not sold by ThermoFischer for an insany jacked up prize.
- 3mm rubber mat, that apparently you get cut to measure in Home Depot according to the craft YT channel, cannot be found outside companies selling them as health and safety mats to cushion walking surface… Guess if they are cheap?
Same with IT. Unless i order it I can’t get anything better than drop shipped unmarked second hand cables from media market. But we have 20 clothing shops with the same cheap slave made clothes.
25 years ago no agressive push? I was getting pushed for the insurance 25 years ago.
Both are entirely possible. But only one will exist, because Amazon absolutely needs all the money in the world.
. Just call it 90 minutes. If you use minutes it sounds like less time
We used to have 2 day shipping. Now I’m lucky to get stuff the same week with prime. Price decrease? Nope price increase. Amazon sucks.
That was my experience. Also the 2 hour prime stuff when offered was never stuff you needed, its gonna be paper towels or a hat or something competely stupid, not like a car part that if I could get it here in 2 hours would be really fucking helpful so I could finish the project today!
We don’t want or need one hour shipping. We want Jeff bezos to divide his net worth equally among all his employees so they can have a comfortable living while working their asses off every day.
Exactly. I don’t need socks delivered like emergency medicine — I’d rather the worker gets a real lunch break.
I don’t need socks delivered like emergency medicine
If socks were delivered like emergency medicine, it would take six weeks to fill the prescription, cost you $600/sock, and you could suddenly be refused service because the head of HHS decided you deserve to be barefoot.
(in the usa)
how dare you communist! /s
Really. Nobody asked for this.
I kinda want 1 hour shipping.
But not at the expense of an underpaid, overworked employee. Bring in the robots.
Would you still want that if there were a variety of shops for most needs nearby? What use cases you had in mind for example?
Includes a complementary bottle of piss.
“But if I dont subjugate an underclass and kill babies then someone else will and they might make money doing it.”
-literally the problem with gestures broadly
Meh, still not happy about their overpromise on drone delivery years ago. Would much rather have a drone drop something off than someone peeing in a cup in a truck.
One-hour shipping is impressive, but one-hour lunch breaks would be a much better flex.
They can’t even meet their estimated shipping dates 3 days out. Whenever I choose the non 2-day option. They delay it an additional day beyond the estimate. With out fail.
So you’re saying their estimates are reliable.
Reliability inaccurate, yes.
Interesting. Must be location-dependent because I’ve never had a late package. They’ll sometimes even show up the next day, way ahead of schedule.
There’s even a warehouse in town. It seems to be when you take that mom expedited option, only though. You let them take some extra time and they really take their extra time and don’t bother to even ship it until after it should already be out for delivery
I’d like Amazon broken up.
I haven’t ordered from them in a couple years, I think. They make a stupid amount of money from AWS so me spending $10 elsewhere isn’t a big deal, but it feels worthwhile.
Also, I live in a livable city. A lot of things I can just walk outside and get in under an hour.
AWS makes a lot but the retail side is still the lion’s share of revenue.
Are you sure about that? I thought I remembered someone throwing around numbers for amazon and something like 80% of profit was aws. Revenue doesn’t seem as much of an important issue as pure profits.
If Amazon’s entire retail side died, they would be totally fine. AWS is incredible in its reach. It’s really alarming.
So the last I looked it was 60 retail, 40 AWS. However it looks like it’s switched and now it’s more like 60 AWS 40 retail.
