[QUOTE=A930Rocket;11580894 The downside is, Amazon has driven the mom and pop stores out of business, and I haven’t helped.[/QUOTE]
I was going to say this, but didn't know how to put it politely.

Brick-n-mortar retail locations sustain areas for the long haul and provide taxes/etx.
Unless there are no other options, try to support local,

One simple rule of Amazon. The more you NEED a product the more it will be delayed. If you are ordering something to put in stock or have weeks before you really need it, it will arrive in mere hours.

Support your community. Do your best to buy local

You are correct.

The flip side of that coin is...

Amazon and other retailers are paying sales tax to Texas, and employing a ton of workers in Texas. Also, mom and pop stores can sell through Amazon if they are so inclined. A lot of Amazon sales are actually for other retailers. Some are brick and mortar type places that have embraced the modern way of things.

Our home is out in the boonies, and there are lots of mom and pop style stores out here which continues to surprise me. I guess we are so small and remote that it doesn't make financial sense for anything else.

And

Credit cards already take what 2-5% off the top.

Add the middleman fees, plus contractual pressure to lower prices for ranking and exposure.
The businesses might sell more volume in the short term but they will still compete against international competition.
Materials and manufacturing costs (employees, taxes, regulations, etc) are the stickler.
Regional protectionism is a double-edged sword.

I'm not sure how that works out in the long run.

Systems are being set up to automatically skim a large percent off the top of all daily transactions...which add up to millions/billions per day.
Easy money for the entrenched monopolies....


I've seen gas stations that give a discount for cash (afaik they can't charge the customer the c/c fees directly by law)
I also heard a commercial the other day asking customers to buy direct from the company instead of middlemen.

I think mom and pop specialty stores are an endangered species, I don't think they can be saved with good will and conscientious shoppers. Local stores will need to adapt or will die. There are plenty of little places that do well using ebay stores or reselling on amazon. Hell some people make alot of money buying stuff at costco and selling on amazon.

Sucks but I think mostly the way it is at least for most things. My 2 favorite stores to visit in my younger days: hobby shops and specialty stereo stores. Hardly see these places anymore.

just now received an email and photo during the game....
Prime was there!
I should complain..the pic is kinda blurry!

https://us-prod-temp.s3.amazonaws.co...65f6cfd0d486de

Just read an online article , in 2005 Sears/Kmart had 3500 stores between them in the US and PR . By the end of this year they will have less than 30 !!! A classic case of poor management decisions and no vision of the future .

All retailers whether they be brick and mortar or online only have to pay attention to market trend , have vision and adapt/change quickly . If they don't they will join Sears swirling down the toilet .

The returns are amazing too.

Can’t decide between two doodads ? Get both.

Amazon is building a huge warehouse in Syracuse, NY about 30 miles from me. Paper says they plan to stock over 700K items there. I am familiar with the area and I bet trucking and traffic around the area will be horrific.

^^^ I drive past one in Detroit quite often. That building is huge!
I should clock it sometime...I'm guessing at least 3/4 mile long.
I never notice too much truck traffic around it...maybe they are spaced out.

We also have one down the road that we pass if we drive into Houston. It's big, but not enormous big. I see Amazon semis on the interstate, but traffic isn't crazy. We've got a bunch of locations in the area.

We live about halfway between Houston and Austin, just to the west of Columbus on I10
I've ordered stuff and had it show as being shipped from at least 4-5 different locations (and that's just occasionally noticing the origin for UPS shipped stuff.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1642985146.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1642985294.jpg

Sometimes, you just really need to "talk" to someone to solve an Amazon problem. I've had items that were ordered, but never arrived. It seems that most time they never got to the shipper, but the most recent time, they seemed to have been lost by the shipper (UPS in this case) en route.

I have, I think, once, spoken to someone on the phone, but most of the time, I'd prefer to chat. That's always worked for me. I'm fairly certain that I've always spoken to someone in a foreign country (India most likely or maybe someplace else). It's always taken a bit but that's always solved the problem.

Today when I tried to get into the chat, I got a chat-bot. My first reaction was "great, this is going to suck." I have to say, the chat-bot was so much faster and easier than an actual person. I'm sure a bunch of folks have been laid off because of the chat-bot. Fortunately, most of them will be able to move on to another phone support job. I suspect having Amazon on your resume is a good thing.

I checked the other day and the site said "your items have been delayed. If they have not arrived by tomorrow, contact us and we'll either refund or replace the order." There were two items in the box. I searched and found one of the items. The bot realized that there were 2 items in the same box, and said gave me the option of refunding or replacing both items. I chose to replace and an order was immediately processed at no charge. The whole process took <1min. It would have been at least 5 min, but probably 10-15 mins if I'd been chatting with a person.

^^^ yes...their customer service has always been great...for me anyways.
I've never been connected to a chat bot after calling. The number I use..which was given to me by a rep a few years ago is 1-888-280-4331
If that is not the number you used...try it next time.


edit: I see now that is one of the phone #'s you listed for Houston.

I've only called, I think, once, maybe twice. I usually prefer to chat. But I'll make a note of that number.

No more horrific that all the trucks that already deliver all that crap into the area already.

To the best of my knowledge Sears was sabotaged and gutted from within.
(i.e. "self-dealing")

Then Amazon took over.

I once posted a pic of how a package in central LA (traveling north a few miles of downtown) gets onto two airlines, before another sort hub puts it into a package car for local delivery.

I think we actually have several warehouses in the area that items ship from (rather than 1 huge warehouse).

I am fairly certain that they have sophisticated algorithms that are designed to make moving stuff around as cheaply, efficiently, and quickly as possible (with the balance of cheaply and quickly being adjustable based on how much you pay). And I'm sure it makes a huge difference most of the time, but there are times that it doesn't appear to make sense to us. But then can you imagine if they had a car and driver for over package moving within an area. The amount of vehicles and traffic would be boggling, especially in a sprawling metropolis like LA.

... given every variatiion of any trinkle has multiple suppliers, most if not all copied from one another.

Add the easy returns to the mix and that's how you level the playing field.