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Comment by bmarquez | Hacker News Reader

RIP. I'm really sad about this, and it's actually something that finally makes me question the Amazon monopoly. Amazon spends so much money on meh (IMO) Prime Video content yet can't keep this site online as an archive.

I know that phone cameras have taken over the market in the last decade. For wide-angle lenses, they're great, but iPhones can't quite keep up (yet) with 200-300mm telephotos so I still browsed the site regularly.

I'm sure some YouTubers might pick up the slack but I hate still camera YouTube reviews because you can't download the files or check image quality for yourself (DPR has this studio scene where you could compare image quality at 100% side-by-side with different cameras at different ISO's).

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THIS makes you question it? Not any of these:

- Blatantly ripping off products listed on their site, using sales data from those products as decision making on which products to steal.

- The monopolization of every market they enter

- Their search listings are garbage, amazon centric and filled with junk

- Anti-competitive practices such as pricing agreements for products on amazon, when listed on websites other than amazon

- They downright treat their employee's as serfs, nearly across the board.

As an end user, a lot of Amazon's criticisms are invisible to consumers.

- Amazon screws up and sends a poorly packaged product which is damaged? They just ship another one.

- Amazon starts creating "Amazon Basics" branded items? Either I buy it if it's a good price, or don't if it's not. Amazon Basics actually helps fight against the flood of cheap Chinese junk by creating a branded product of acceptable quality.

Stuff like anti-competitive practices or poor treatment of employees isn't even noticed by most consumers. This isn't like Walmart where both the customer experience and the corporate experience are equally poor.

Taking away existing products (like DPR) or slow shipment of items DOES visibly affect the average consumer.

"Amazon Basics actually helps fight against the flood of cheap Chinese junk by creating a branded product of acceptable quality."

I am sorry, what? Where do you think those cheap cables and whatever else they sell are from? Hand made by a grandma in rural Washington State?

Amazon Basics are cheap and low quality, but they're at least curated. Amazon doesn't just slap their brand on any random shit, so you at least know that your phone charger will meet safety standards, for example.

I don't often intentionally look for cheap, low quality stuff to buy, but when I do, I'd buy an Amazon Basics item over a UEVYUF (or another <insert fake dropshipping brand here>) item every time.

I'm rather sure that Amazon is a company that strictly makes the world a worse place.

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