Jeff Bezos is a frickin’ liberal. But Amazon is a frickin’ good business model. I’ve found stuff there that I didn’t know existed.

I’ve got a 5% cash back Visa card from Amazon. I can’t get 5% on my savings or cash. Might as well get 5% on what I spend. There’s not much I can’t get from Amazon.

Agreed - I recall ordering books from Amazon when they were fairly new and wondering how long that business model would last. It now seems blatantly obvious.


Enjoy your trip!

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Europe is not as homogeneous as Brussels would have it be. In particular: The knife insanity in the U.K. appears mostly unique to the U.K.

We were in London last week and it was all over the media. Witnessed a shoplifter being chased out of a store and the shop owner later told me he's afraid that one of these kids will pull a knife on him. I found his comment to be interesting (given Great Britain's stance on firearm ownership). That's not something I'd typically hear at home.

I hate it that I'm not supporting local businesses, but Amazon's price, convenience, service and breath of product line is hard to beat. Wal-Mart's online ordering service is pretty good as well, but not everything is free shipping and even though they represent themselves as the low price leader, it does not always hold true with their online store.

Amazon along with their prime is really a good deal. Initially I said I absolutely would not pay the $99/year fee for prime membership. However, since signing up a couple of years ago I'm very impressed with what you get for that $99.

The big retailers for me are located in Duluth about a half hour for me. Duluth is considered the San Francisco of the north. The city is run by loonie lefties. The city council just added another .5% to the city sales tax making it just shy of 9%.

I feel bad for the retailers in that city but I have no intention of giving that city of any of my money. Amazon isn't the only reason brick and mortar stores are dying unfriendly business climates created by local politicians are doing as much damage.

quote:

Originally posted by ShouldBFishin:
Enjoy your trip!

Thanks!

So it happened again. Common OTC medication. Checked CVS. Twice the price <smhs> Sorry, CVS, but y'all need to get a clue.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by ShouldBFishin:
Enjoy your trip!

Thanks!

So it happened again. Common OTC medication. Checked CVS. Twice the price <smhs> Sorry, CVS, but y'all need to get a clue.

CVS is horrific.

My employer switched us from Express Scrips to CVS Caremark and they are a total scam. The same exact meds are now 2, 3, 4, 5X the price as they were with Express Scrips!

My loyalty is to Amazon at this point.

If a local store goes out of business, whatever. Their selection probably sucks, their prices are probably too high, and they probably don't have anything left in my size anyway. I also don't need to fondle everything I buy.

If Amazon goes out of business, then *that* would actually be an inconvenience. Having to find a different trusted online retailer, and paying for shipping, and waiting for it to be delivered from whatever far corner of the country, for each and every little random thing I bought would be much more of a hassle.

My loyalty is to anyone BUT Amazon.

Amazon doesn't sell guns, ammo or magazines. PSA does, often with free shipping and no state sales tax. Amazon is not on the side of gun owners, just like Paypal and Dick's. And Bezos owns the Washington Post, which is worse than Pravda.

There are lots of web sites that offer better prices and service than Amazon. Am I the only one that has received poor service from Amazon and it's resellers?

One of the cars needs a new power steering pump. 67 bucks on Amazon. Same pump is 184 bucks at the auto parts store. No brainer.

Life is just fine without Amazon. The only time I buy from Amazon anymore is when my wife needs some special stuff for her skin care. Even when I try to buy directly from the skin care company's website, it ended up going through Amazon.

quote:

Originally posted by Hay2bale:
My loyalty is to anyone BUT Amazon.

Amazon doesn't sell guns, ammo or magazines. PSA does, often with free shipping and no state sales tax. Amazon is not on the side of gun owners, just like Paypal and Dick's. And Bezos owns the Washington Post, which is worse than Pravda.

There are lots of web sites that offer better prices and service than Amazon. Am I the only one that has received poor service from Amazon and it's resellers?

Really? Cause PSA takes 9 years to ship almost anything. Find me another store that has amazons selection and pricing with 2 day shipping for the cost of a years membership fee. I have bought Trijicon RMR’s, 10+ sets of night Sights, multiple holsters, Glock parts, 1911 grips, Revolver grips, etc... from Amazon. It all comes cheaper and faster than Midway, Brownells, etc... can get them to me.

Living out in the sticks, I buy more stuff from Amazon than you can shake a stick at. I was building some hard to find Colorado spinners and the only place other than Ebay I could find them was from Amazon. I was happy as could be as I was told they wern't made any more. They were not prime but I got them in about 5 days at a great price.

Amazon is great.

quote:

Originally posted by Hay2bale:
My loyalty is to anyone BUT Amazon.

Amazon doesn't sell guns, ammo or magazines.

For Pete's sake

And neither do any other on-line retailers whose business is not firearms. Nor does my local super market, pharmacy, hardware store or McDonald's. Amazon does sell a metric crap-ton of other shooting accessories.

quote:

Originally posted by Hay2bale:
PSA does, ...

PSA doesn't sell, for example, ink cartridges, luggage, health supplements, data cables, camera gear, computer hardware and software, socks, books, music, DVDs and BDs, workout gear and supplements, windshield wipers, power tools, ...

Nor does PSA sell the pocket knife I just bought.

quote:

Originally posted by Hay2bale:
There are lots of web sites that offer better prices and service than Amazon.

Name them.

quote:

Originally posted by Hay2bale:
Am I the only one that has received poor service from Amazon and it's resellers?

Don't know. I do know I've been buying from Amazon for nigh on fifteen years. In that time they've given me cause to go back to them over and over again. I would say they're probably my favourite on-line seller. As long as they continue doing what they've been doing, they'll likely remain so.

A lot of retailers could take a cue from Amazon. A lot.

Sales tax is the only bad thing about Amazon.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Sales tax is the only bad thing about Amazon.

They have to collect it here because they have a physical presence in the state.

Third party sellers who sell on the Amazon site do not collect sales tax if they do not have a presence here in Florida. But this is almost a wash, because if it's sold directly by Amazon I pay sales tax, but I get 5% back for using the Amazon store card. If it's a third party seller I do not pay sales tax but neither do I get the 5%.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Sales tax is the only bad thing about Amazon.

I don't know how they calculate sales tax but it's far less than my local sales tax if I bought it locally.

I am about to leave for my part-time job working in a running store. The company just celebrated its 15th year in business. It's a family-owned local business with eight stores in the area. In an interview, the owner made some very interesting comments. A sampling: specialty running stores like ours compete on service, not on product. You might be able to get more color choices in shoes on Amazon due to their endless inventory, but you can't get the proper fit, gait analysis and support you can from us.

It used to be that people would come into the store, get the analysis and fitting, and then go online to buy. The shoe companies, realizing that this was putting their strongest advocates out of business, have made it harder for online retailers to discount, but there are still "loss leaders" and older models available at reduced prices that consumers may not realize are shoes that have been sitting in a warehouse for a year or more (which is not good for running shoes).

It's a struggle. The big box competition isn't our worry -- their service is like a department store, and the online retailers are a bigger threat to them than to us.

However, business is down. The number of running events is up, but the number of people coming into the store is down. We have a loyal following that keep returning, but a lot of our corporate effort is going toward outreach to schools, clubs, community events, fitness clubs and the like, just to make them aware of our presence.

It's a challenge. But then, every business has challenges. Those who are up to them will survive.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by Hay2bale:
My loyalty is to anyone BUT Amazon.

Amazon doesn't sell guns, ammo or magazines.

For Pete's sake

And neither do any other on-line retailers whose business is not firearms. Nor does my local super market, pharmacy, hardware store or McDonald's. Amazon does sell a metric crap-ton of other shooting accessories.

quote:

Originally posted by Hay2bale:
PSA does, ...

PSA doesn't sell, for example, ink cartridges, luggage, health supplements, data cables, camera gear, computer hardware and software, socks, books, music, DVDs and BDs, workout gear and supplements, windshield wipers, power tools, ...

Nor does PSA sell the pocket knife I just bought.

quote:

Originally posted by Hay2bale:
There are lots of web sites that offer better prices and service than Amazon.

Name them.

quote:

Originally posted by Hay2bale:
Am I the only one that has received poor service from Amazon and it's resellers?

Don't know. I do know I've been buying from Amazon for nigh on fifteen years. In that time they've given me cause to go back to them over and over again. I would say they're probably my favourite on-line seller. As long as they continue doing what they've been doing, they'll likely remain so.

A lot of retailers could take a cue from Amazon. A lot.

I agree with everything said here. You can find something negative with darn near anything. A whole lot more positive with Amazon than negative by a long shot.

Jim

I have been buying a considerable number of work (automotive specialty) tools from Amazon (and sometimes other online sources like tooltopia.com) for several years now. Other than online or the tool trucks there is almost no other place to buy them. If I need the quality or service of StrapSnap -on, I'll pay it, but when I can get the equivalent or even the very same tool online for half that, guess where I'm going. The Snap-on truck still gets plenty of my money.

You can find a surprising number of car parts on Amazon. I recently needed a plastic cooling system part (called a water outlet) for my car that had broken. The part Three different auto parts chain stores couldn't find it and, in fact, had no clue what I was talking about. I rigged a patch on it, got home, looked at Rock Auto's site and found it in 10 minutes. For shits and giggles I cross-referenced it at Amazon, and not only did they have it, it was Prime-eligible. I needed it a little sooner than two days, so I paid a little extra for them to overnight it. It was only a little over $20 for everything.