They don’t want to carry inventory because Amazon doesn’t. The prices are higher because vendors are contractually obligated to sell on Amazon at their lowest price. So retailers, with a need to have a physical presence and having to buy at more or less the same price a product is available for on Amazon, get fucked. Their only hope is vendors who make a “different” product to sell at other outlets. An example of what I mean is, Poppi soda sells for $20/12 pack on Amazon. They sell a 15 pack at Costco for the same price. Because it’s a “different” product they are not in breach of contract.
Comment on Amazon's Monopoly of the tech industry is ruining the US economy
TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I put some of the blame on retailers as well. Retail stores just don’t want to carry inventory anymore, especially tech-focused ones with many of those just turning into glorified showrooms. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard some version of: “Sorry, we don’t have that in stock but we can bring it in for you.”
We needed a short length of garden hose here for the house so I went to two hardware stores and one garden centre looking for one. Nothing. Not even in their dedicated gardening sections. I had to order it off Amazon. A goddamn garden hose.
Amazon has done a lot of damage for sure but retail is suffering from several self-inflicted wounds too. Home Depot, for example, is a multi-billion dollar corporation and even they have a weaker retail presence now. That’s not Amazon’s fault.
dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 5 days ago
helenslunch@feddit.nl 5 days ago
Retail stores just don’t want to carry inventory anymore
Retail stores are more than happy to carry anything consumers want to pay for. If they don’t stock it, it means people don’t buy it, and you can’t fault them for that.
That’s not Amazon’s fault.
That’s mostly the fault of consumers who buy from Amazon (and other e-tailors).
yesman@lemmy.world 5 days ago
The problem with this “econ101” thinking is that it insists that the whole system runs on the choices of actors in a deterministic system.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
Yes, the system isn’t perfectly deterministic, but on average and over a long-enough time period, it pretty much is. People are going to act irrationally, but generally people will be irrational roughly equally on either side of “rational.”
In this case, the market is probably big enough that if a big retailer doesn’t stock something, it’s because the average person has decided that buying it elsewhere (i.e. Amazon) or not buying it at all (i.e. longer is fine) is preferable to buying it at the local store. It’s not the local retailer’s fault that it’s unprofitable to stock that item, it’s a mix of consumers and online competition making that product unprofitable to stock.
That said, you’ll probably have a better shot if you go to specialized stores. In this case, look at farming and plumbing supply stores, since they’re more likely to service those customers who really need that short hose today to complete a project. Your regular home improvement stores (e.g. Lowe’s and Home Depot) cater to homeowners more than contractors (so having a little of everything is better than lots of something), whereas the specialist stores cater to contractors and small business owners.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 5 days ago
I don’t know what any of these words mean.
micka190@lemmy.world 5 days ago
That’s not Amazon’s fault.
That’s mostly the fault of consumers who buy from Amazon (and other e-tailors).
There’s quite a few retail stores that don’t keep inventory, even for common things. Staples comes to mind, where it feels like half their damn office items aren’t in stock, so you need to wait for them to have it brought in.
The problem is that those same retail stores can’t compete with Amazon’s shipping speed. It becomes a case of:
- I want to buy a thing, I need it fast, so I guess I’ll check my local retails stores
- My local retail stores don’t have it in stock, but I can order it and it’ll be there in 4-5 days
- I can just buy it off of Amazon at a comparable price, and have it tomorrow
It’s alright if they don’t want to carry inventory, but they need to have the shipping speeds to compete, otherwise there’s no reason for the consumer not to just buy it off of Amazon directly.
PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Go on Facebook and ask your local buy nothing group. Check thrift stores line the habitat for humanity restore. Farm and home store like fleet farm/ farm and fleet. Plenty of ways to get ahold of something like that without buying new.
Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 5 days ago
That requires Facebook
I’ll stick to not buying things instead
PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 5 days ago
There’s always dumpster diving
brap@lemmy.world 5 days ago
He said he didn’t want to use Facebook.
brbposting@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
I wonder how much investment it drives in Facebook to be a user who registered under an assumed name on a VPN with an ad blocker enabled.
Unfortunately, probably some.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
I feel you. Fortunately, in my area there’s a very popular classifieds section at one of the local newspapers, so I can stick to my guns avoiding Facebook.
So check local newspaper classifieds, Craigslist, and maybe your local library (you never know if they organize swaps).
JordanZ@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Mean while my Best Buy has so much crap in the aisles that you can’t pass a person without having to do the weird turn side ways shuffle. Home Depot isn’t much better. Trying to push a lumber carts around is a joke now. So much crap stuck in the middle of the aisles or at the end of the aisles. So I don’t think it’s a lack of inventory but a variety of inventory.
rhombus@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Having worked at a Target like this, I can assure you there is still a lack of inventory on top of these stores being extremely short staffed. Target in particular completely eliminated their storeroom staff a few years ago and just doubled the work load of the floor staff. Both the floor and the storeroom were absolute nightmares to navigate because there were not enough people to actually organize and stock.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Check your local mom and pop hardware store if you have one! I had to get a feeder hose this summer as well, and the only place I found it was a local family ownedhardware store.
UniversalMonk@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Totally agree!
pooperNickel@lemm.ee 5 days ago
Looks like you’ve been hard at work blocking since people actually agree with you now
zephorah@lemm.ee 5 days ago
Harbor Freight.
667@lemmy.radio 5 days ago
When you absolutely need something to work presicely between once the day you buy it and the day you’re late for jury duty.
wrekone@lemmyf.uk 5 days ago
I’ve gotten some surprisingly long lasting gems there, but you can never be sure. Like you said, I’ve also gotten a number “single use” tools from Harbor Freight. Overall though, it’s almost always been worth it.
scarabic@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Most homeowners don’t need better than HF. If you start getting into more sophisticated equipment their quality can be really problematic but for all the basic stuff a homeowner needs: hammer and pliers, HF is one-stop.
From there you have to be careful, but gems can be found. I’ve been using their 120V 2HP dust collector in my wood shop for years now and it is an insane value for a decent machine.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
Yup. Hand tools are generally pretty safe, anything with a motor is sus. And honestly, I respect my health enough to not buy safety equipment there (3M is the way to go most of the time).