can someone explain Amazon to me?
 

when you buy something..are you buying it from Amazon? do they have a huge ass warehouse somewhere?

what about the list of other vendors that are shown on the product listing? cant you just go straight to the vendor and buy from them? could have saved me the sales tax i suppose. are they making a cut to let other vendors ride the coat-tails?

i got an email notice saying i should expect delivery sometime between Nov3 and Nov10..really? i could have gone to another vender, saved the tax..and gotten it faster.
what am i missing?

my wife loves amazon. i have maybe 8 purchases..

I have to admit, I love Amazon.

Sometimes you are buying directly from Amazon, yeah, they have huge warehouses filled with more stuff than you can imagine.

Other times you are buying from sellers that are using the Amazon platform.

Either way, when you buy something, you can see whether it's coming from Amazon or a third party vendor.

I joined Amazon Prime, it's been a great deal so far. Unlimited free 2 day shipping on all Amazon supplied purchases. Plus a bunch of free online movies and other stuff I haven't even looked at yet.

I can't see how Amazon won't take over the world.

That is an under statement. Look up the warehouse they are building near Patterson, Ca....1.5 million sq ft.!!:eek: To give perspective, a typical Wal-mart Supercenter is 250,000 sq ft.

Amazon is a mix. They source, stock, and sell some of their own product. They stock and sell product from other merchants - this is their FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) service. I sell product on Amazon using their FBA service. Then they allow other merchants list product on Amazon, but the merchant is on the hook to fulfill the order.

If you've got Amazon Prime you get free 2-day shipping on products that are listed as Prime. My product is eligible for Prime since I use FBA. Stuff you buy on Amazon that is fulfilled by outside merchants are not eligible for Prime, so that stuff can take a while to make it to your door.

The bottom line is that it is a great place to buy some hard to find products or easy to find products for a good price. Almost anything you can think of is on there.

The flush valve on the toilet in the guest bathroom broke. It is not a standard flush vale and none of the local hardware or big box stores sell them. It is the American Standard brand that fits the toilet.

American Standard 3174.002-0070A Champion 4 Replacement Flush Valve - - Amazon.com

Back when I put in the toilets I could see I would never be able to find one easily so I went to the local professional plumbing supply store and stood at the counter next to the real plumbers. They looked at me and instantly knew I was a homeowner and self fix it guy and charged me the bend over homeowner price for a flush valve. It was over 30 bucks. I had little option of finding one anywhere else.

The Amazon price is $19 and that is 10 years after the local store charged me 30 bucks. I did not have to drive to the store. It will show up in a couple of days.

Next I need to go buy a used uniform from a local Cintas. One with a shirt with Bob's Auto repair and one with Jim's Plumbing. Maybe one with Sam's electrical on it. When I go to the parts counter they will think I am one of them. ;)

I sell on amazon and its great. I send ALL of my inventory to various FBA centers around the country and when an item sells they pack and ship it for me. Of course they get a cut on every step of the process from storing inventory to packing and shipping plus a cut of the items cost. But it's still cheaper for me to not have to do all that.
I can also process sales from any number of sales channels. My own E commerce site, eBay when I sold on eBay, Craigslist and so on. When I make a sale from any other channel I just put in a pick order and amazon fulfills it for me.
Any product that I have fulfilled by Amazon ( in their warehouses) get what they call the "buy box" listing. That's the box where you buy now or add to cart. This gives me a higher ranking from other venders who may have the same product not held in Amazons FBA centers. I can also pay to be in the buy box if I want to be sure I have top billing over others.
As a seller it's a great opportunity. All the payments are processed thru them and I get my money ACH to my bank twice a month.

I just wonder what Alibaba has in store for the USA.

The AMHS (automated material handling system) that they're developing in their warehouses is AWESOME. If you're into that sort of thing.

Amazon junkie, here. Anything I have left over from my paycheck, fullfills something on my Amazon wishlist!!! I need help....

I don't know if this applies to places outside of Seattle, but every so often something I am buying qualifies for same day delivery. Which... is pretty mind blowing if you ask me. Totally satisfies the gotta have it right now mindset I get into when I am shopping for something I really want.

from the current look of things Alibaba is a manufacturers outlet. Not the place to go if you're only looking to buy in quantities of less than 100.

I just bought some ARP head studs for my 911 from EBS through Amazon.
Here were my options:
Call EBS: $595 + shipping, no tax
EBS website: $595, free shipping, no tax
Amazon: $535, free shipping, + ~$50 sales tax
EBS through Amazon: $550, free shipping, no tax.

Also, the Amazon shipping estimates are usually conservative. For instance, the head studs will take 3 days to arrive, even though Amazon gave me a 7-10 day estimate.

I have been loving my Prime membership. Getting cases of oil shipped to my door in two days, for free, is pretty sweet.

Last week ordered some Joe Gibbs DT40 oil from Amazon, it was drop shipped from some where else. Showed up in 3 days with free shipping........I'm happy :D

Amazon is not always the cheapest option, but it is typically the best overall when you factor in shipping, returns, security, etc. Amazon prime is the best service ever. Between personal and work I average about 75 purchases per year.

You can probably get those from Amazon in 2 days. ;)

Yep. All personal for me, and so far this year I've got 65 orders. I've ordered food, mouth wash, hard drives, vitamins, etc.... You name it, you can probably get it through Amazon. And I'm probably at 99% on Amazon Prime for the past few years. I usually check the Amazon Prime box and don't much bother with anything that's not Prime.

A couple of interesting (to me at least) points about Amazon:

- My friend in overnight logistics told me that if click on an item on Amazon - even if it's just to look - it increases the odds in some algorithm that the item will be shipped to a warehouse in your region
- I love Amazon Prime - but do your homework. I have found on some occasions that the Prime is marked up substantially
- I understand that to this day Amazon has not truly booked a profit.

Amazon Strategy: Lose $$ on Every Sale But Make It Up on Volume? - Money and Markets - Financial Advice | Financial Investment Newsletter

I've been buying books from Amazon for a very long time. I've been buying other stuff from Amazon for a relatively long time. Lately I've had some concern about the company's complete and seeming overarching everywhere/everythingness. But I sure do like downloading books from Amazon to my iPad. And I also notice that whatever I need whatever I go onto the interwebs to search for, Amazon or one of its partners not only has it, but will get it to me, chop-chop. Customer service is good, too. But I dunno, I just worry about such a huge company with such a huge reach.

When a company has built itself on razor thin margins and huge volume, tiny tweaks can really have a substantial impact. Amazon strives to eke out the greatest efficiency possible whether the issue is how to physically distribute goods in a warehouse, how to predict future buying patterns in order to optimize purchasing wholesale from vendors, transportation and shipping logistics... its really incredible stuff.

FWIW I'm going on 2 years here, I work on the digital side (everything we sell is bits and bytes).