> Even Target got it wrong when I recently tried to buy a wedding gift. They wanted me to wait 2 days for them to deliver a vacuum to the store, even though they had half a dozen in stock when I called.
Had a similar experience ordering from Chapters Indigo around Christmas. I had the option to pick it up in-store, or ship it to my home. It was quicker to ship it to my home, because they wanted to ship it from their warehouse to the store I would pick it up at... even though that store had the item in-stock. This service would take up to 2-3 weeks to happen, IIRC (though I may be remembering wrong).
> Why would you ever order from walmart.com if they don’t offer those competitive prices?
I've bought from Walmart online only once or twice ever: in one case they had the camera I wanted for $250 cheaper than Amazon and in another Amazon didn't have the product at all.
Personally I've found Amazon's customer service is pretty reasonable (sometimes you need to dig in the site to find something). I know they aren't a great company in other ways - their workers are poorly paid and overworked, but that's one thing I'm not worried about.
> What happens if Amazon decides, for some reason that they will not explain and that you can't appeal, to cancel your account? Then you can't even go grocery shopping?
Only if they have a monopoly, if this proves successful I expect other shops will start investing in this too (or licence the technology). You're just as likely to have an issue currently if you live in Bumfuck, Nowhere and the only store around refuses to serve you because they suspect you of stealing.
> please kindly explain to me how you forgot there are other shops.
I will provide one anecdata. Often times the first place I look for the existence of an item is Amazon. That is if I want a certain cable, I do not open and search 5-10 different places (overstock, target, bestbuy et al). I just go to amazon and choose from what they have. There may be better, there may be cheaper, but unlikely with a sufficient margin to compensate for the overhead of searching more places, learning more nuances (return policy, shipping) etc.
> Personally, I want to see up-to-date retail stock mapping (that I can search)
Just got from Lowes and they do it on the web and in their app. Search for an item, and if it is in stock it will show you its location on the store map.
OTOH, every Walmart I've visted is unable to keep their shelves full. [1] How hard it is to keep something non-perishable (like deodorant) in stock? Somehow Target figured that out.
> Target has some really confusing triple selection that is really off putting (choosing between In Store, Same Day, and Shipping).
Oh man, this is so aggravating. They can tell me that something is in-store by me and I can pick it up in 1 hour. Unfortunately, I'm not able to go to the store. But "delivery" means someone else will go to the store for me and drop it off at my house for an extra $10. OK, fine, let's do that. But some items, even ones that it says are in-stock at the store nearest me, can only be shipped from across the country, or picked up in-person at the store. WTF? If I can pick it up myself, why can't my delivery person also pick it up for me?
> Really? Amazon is often very late with Prime deliveries in my experience, only hitting the 2-day mark maybe 60% of the time.
I wonder if that depends on a city. I have ordered probably over a thousand things from amazon over the years and it was late for 2 day delivery maybe once or twice. And customer service is also the biggest reason why I use amazon even if the price is higher. I know that I can online chat with someone within minutes and they solve my problem most of the time. I had issues with paid google g suite or whatever they call it now, account and I don’t want to deal with their non existent customer service again.
>why bother leaving the couch at all? Why not just get what you want on Amazon?
You are obviously pro-amazon...but my experiences with amazon are awful.
From counterfeit goods, to just shit products (examples: dress ties that stain my white dress shirts, ill fitting clothing, to goods that never arrive, even amazon basic products have turned out to be embarrassingly shit quality).
I recently purchased a new snowboard jacket and would never have thought about rolling the dice on amazon when I could buy online from the manufacturer direct at the same price and know I’m getting the real deal.
I completely understand someone opting for an in person shopping experience over amazon. buying online direct from manufacturers is one thing, but I honestly can’t understand why anyone would buy from amazon after my experiences.
> My issue with Wal-Mart is their site can be a real mess at times and filtering to my local store only oddly doesn't work all the time.
Have you tried their mobile app? It seems to be a lot better at showing local inventory than the web site (at least the iOS version...I've not tried the Android version).
>what can brick-and-mortar stores, with all that overhead, do to compete with a presence like Amazon?
Vet their suppliers!
I can walk into any Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc, etc in the United States, buy a light-bulb (just an example of a product they all carry) and be assured that it is going to do the job it is sold as being able to do for a reasonable amount of time and if not I can bring it back for an exchange or refund.
> Also have to factor that Amazon's customer service is fantastic.
I only need their great customer service because of the poor quality products they are shipping. With other retailers, I don't know how good their customer service is because I almost never need to utilize them.
> I don't think the question should be "Why would you buy from Wal-Mart/Target/etc?" It should be "Why would you buy from Amazon unless you absolutely can't avoid it?"
This is exactly where I'm at. Amazon just isn't competitive on many axes anymore:
1. Price: Amazon just doesn't seem to be price competitive with local stores anymore, and like you observed, sometimes the prices are jacked up unreasonably.
2. Selection: It's way easier to find specific items at specialist stores/websites. Amazon's search for long-tail items sucks.
3. Delivery: Amazon delivery is vastly inferior to USPS, etc. where I live. Why do I want to pay more to get an item delivered in to days, when I could pay less and get it now with a 30 min trip to the right shop?
> Wal-Mart putting their own brand of toilet paper on more prominent end cap shelves is fundamentally different than Amazon promoting their own Amazon Basics toilet paper on a search results page on Amazon.com.
The other fundamental difference is scale. It can physically walk down the toilet paper aisle in Walmart in see all the available toilet papers in less than a minute. In fact, I can probably wander the entire Walmart store in about 30-45 minutes and see everything they are selling in that store. It is not entirely impractical.
On the other hand it is impractical for me to go through all the items Amazon is selling. Thus what they are promoting becomes much more important.
> I’m sorry, I don’t see the difference here between them and say, Walmart?
The number of customers who patronize only Walmart for any given class of goods, and never use Amazon, Target, Costco, Dollar Tree, etc. is negligible. If Walmart won't carry your stuff, you can sell to the same customers through many other stores.
The number of customers who patronize only Google Play for mobile apps is a pretty good approximation for the number of Android users. There is no plausible alternative to sell to those customers. Amazon is a serious alternative to Walmart; Aptoide is not a serious alternative to Google Play.
Well, you would specify where it came from by mentioning Walmart or Target.
>If they send me dog food instead, how do I get in touch with customer service? Is it Google's customer service or Target's?
The same customer service you ordered the product from and was clearly stated in the email confirmation you received from either Walmart or Target.
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