Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by double0jimb0 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

double0jimb0·

You realizing shipping price is a completely artificial construct?

Amazon doesn’t magically have power to ship things for free.

You’ve been paying more for items on Amazon because of “free shipping”.

View on HN

I care about total landed price.

The seller can split it up however they want, but I’m going to look at the final total, especially when I’m comparison shopping buying “this one thing from vendor A” vs “that same thing from vendor Z”.

Then why make a bunch of noise about shipping price when you meant landed price?

Amazon has enchanted the world with their “prime” badge. Enchantments rarely end in the enchantee’s best interest.

> Amazon has enchanted the world with their “prime” badge.

I’d say it was more the 24 hour delivery, immense selection and outstanding no fuss returns policy. That has enchanted people.

None of us are happy Amazon has such a monopoly but it was won fair and square.

Amazon is actively using their data collection on sales to determine where to get into the market, putting other sellers and manufacturers out of business. This isn't what I'd call "fair". I don't believe this is illegal but it certainly seems it should be.

It's totally fair. If you can't differentiate against a retailer's house brand, you don't really deserve to be in business (I say this as a business owner that competes against Amazon's house brand).

I said “make it not cost more to me”. Seems clear enough, but my apologies if it was not.

It was plenty clear.

Amazon has insanely cheap shipping rates. I sell on Amazon and we use Amazon for fulfillment. The rates they charge us for shipping are so incredibly good. We would need to do insane volumes to achieve their rates, but they would still be more expensive because their rates include customer service and returns. It's nuts.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com