It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

To those judging others when they buy online

page: 2
13
<< 1    3 >>

log in

join
share:

posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 02:17 PM
link   
The reason the standard of living is so high in the western world even for our poor is because we have efficient markets that allow companies to produce goods and services on a large scale. This results in nearly every product being available and relatively cheaply.

An individual no longer has to farm or hunt to put food on their table. Yes, there can be a downside to this which is an entirely different topic, but the reality is that in a modern society, it simply isn't necessary for every person to be a farmer or need to hunt.

Competition causes businesses to evolve to provide their customers with better good and cheaper. Amazon is just one evolution of this concept. Those who decry Amazon won't acknowledge that most of their suppliers are in fact small businesses. They just moved on line. I bought a watch recently on Amazon. It was shipped from a small business, not Amazon. It was far more convenient because no local store carried the product.

Before Amazon, there was Wal-Mart. Before Wal-Mart, there was Sears. Some people are probably too young to remember the Sears catalog which was essentially Amazon before the internet. Sears should have been well positioned to be Amazon, but bad management and strategic decisions doomed them as they were stuck trying to make their old business model work.

Before Apple, Nokia made the hot cell phones. Then Blackberry. Neither are major players now... again, failure to see changing markets.

Blockbuster made crappy strategic decisions and Netflix won out.

In 20 years, Amazon could very well be replaced by something else or on it's death bed. No one knows.

Consumers always want more convenience and cheaper products. Businesses respond to consumer demand. It is really that simple. Local companies that are doing well usually have a well defined niche. Ironically, small locally owned bookstores are thriving in many communities. My town has a really nice locally owned bookstore inspite of being across the street from a mega Barnes & Nobles. The B&N eventually failed. We also have a children's books store. It is expanding and doing well. We also have a locally owned toy store. Doing well. Sometimes if you can offer better service and expertise, price isn't all that important. One of the challenges of being a business owner/entrepreneur is figuring out the formula.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 02:20 PM
link   
a reply to: Thecakeisalie


I'm getting a vibe that business hasn't been good lately.


Wrong vibe, we closed shop around 2000. Long ago, not mad (see my second post). Just pointing out those who forgot that it once was the same with local shops.

I get the impression some think the same like you, even though I made it clear in the second post.

It was not my shop (even though, family owned). I worked in robotics and AI until I retired.
edit on 13-8-2018 by verschickter because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 02:21 PM
link   
a reply to: verschickter

Spoiled, maybe.

Actually it has a lot more to do with skin allergies and all the "fragrance" chemicals they put in the soaps these days.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 02:25 PM
link   
a reply to: TonyS
Don´t take spoiled too hard!!




Actually it has a lot more to do with skin allergies and all the "fragrance" chemicals they put in the soaps these days.

A normal soap. Like I said
See the problem is circular in some kind of way. Now you can´t even get normal every day soap but instead, a dozen brands of the other kind.


I can´t stand those fragranted wash powders or fluid wash gels either. If I wear something washed in that, my skin itches like hell and I get a rash. Normal wash powder does the job just as good, only difference, I don´t smell funny from 3 meters away, against the wind


It cleans just as good as the "special" stuff.


edit on 13-8-2018 by verschickter because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 02:41 PM
link   

originally posted by: verschickter

Define efficiency???


Getting a product delivered at the lowest possible price as quickly as possible. This includes the cost of "driving to a store" and the cost of delivery. Any way you care to measure it (energy, time, dollars, speed) it is more efficient to buy cat food online and have it delivered the next day than to travel to the cat food store and buy it locally.


define economies of scale???


The idea of spreading administrative and production costs over a large number of items, thus making individual items cheaper to purchase for the consumer. Custom build a ball point pen and it costs $100. Buy a Bic and it costs 20 cents. These basic economic principles have been well articulated for hundreds of years. They are not in the least new.

A good example is clothing. It used to be that custom clothing was only affordable to the rich, where every piece was hand tailored to fit the individual. With the advent of automation clothing became cheap to make and also ubiquitous enough that most everyone could find a size to fit "off the rack." Now customized clothing is rare, though robotics is bringing it back--cheap. But is gets worse (or better.) It used to be that western countries sent their used clothing to poor countries as a charitable contribution, but now "poor" people in those countries would prefer new stuff instead of hand-me-downs, so the 'market' for used clothing in places like Africa has dried up.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 02:48 PM
link   

originally posted by: verschickter

originally posted by: Metallicus
If you sell generic products you simply can’t compete without economies of scale.

Define economies of scale?

By scale, do you mean supplly in stock or overbloating by offering 20 sorts of every kind?

See that´s exactly the difference.



I mean shared back office support. Bulk buying discounts...etc.

What else would I have meant?



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 03:00 PM
link   
a reply to: Metallicus

The main point of this thread? That the sortiment was not big enough because you need to be able to choose between 100 types of soap available in every damn shop or market.

When you run a shop, you buy in bulk and the back office support isn´t that huge. It scales up and down both hardware and timewise. It may be more now due to more paper work maybe, that´s something I can´t judge on todays standards and norms.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 03:05 PM
link   
a reply to: verschickter

I dont judge anyone for shopping online , i do it and i sell stuff online..

I just have to every now and then go help the local businesses.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 03:06 PM
link   
a reply to: schuyler
I know all those principles.

Now ask yourself in all this, what is more efficient. small local hubs that cater regionally or super sized markets that everyone needs to travel to. 25km to the next store without a car and public transport? And even if, most drive their car alone. All the energy and transport you safe with the big hub, you spent on another way via bringing those goods home.

Btw, with clothing.,
In Germany, it started with confection sizes in clothing, a bit before automatisation. H&M "invented" it, at least they were first in Germany. That was the first cut in cost because now they could manufacture via template for fixed sizes and it made clothing cheap and available. I would say, it´s not really compareable.

Saw a documentry about that.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 03:17 PM
link   
a reply to: notsure1

I do that too, I try to buy local but if it´s unreasonable (because not available or way more expensive) then I buy online.

When I need expert advice and can´t sort it out myself, I always buy local and try to make a good compromise between the stuff he has on shelf and or can order.

What I never do is, when I got advice in a shop, to buy it online because it has the better price. I include that expert advice in the price and then I´m willing to pay the local price for the service I got. Even if it´s cheaper elsewhere.

But not unreasonably, I´m not a fool either. Normally I check out the prices before I borrow time from an expert salesmen.
edit on 13-8-2018 by verschickter because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 03:27 PM
link   
I shop pretty much exclusively online. Can't say I particularly care if I'm "judged" for it..

But, it also gives me access to small businesses that I would never had heard about, much less have access to their products.

I tend to steer towards handmade stuff and frequently nowadays, it can be cheaper than the mass market, mass produced competitor. I find that to be an interesting shift.

It also provides access to individual sellers like never before, though the platforms that enable it take a disturbing cut.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 03:29 PM
link   

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: schuyler
I know all those principles.


Yet you requested people define them for you. If you knew them, why did you ask them to be defined?


Now ask yourself in all this, what is more efficient. small local hubs that cater regionally or super sized markets that everyone needs to travel to. 25km to the next store without a car and public transport? And even if, most drive their car alone. All the energy and transport you safe with the big hub, you spent on another way via bringing those goods home.


Neither. We were talking about buying online, remember? "Click" and it is delivered to your house with no further expenditure of energy. The "regional hub," i.e.: The mall, is dying. It's no longer viable in the age of the Internet.


Btw, with clothing. I would say, it´s not really compareable


Comparable to what? Clothing was used as an example of economies of scale, which you say you already knew about.
edit on 8/13/2018 by schuyler because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 03:30 PM
link   

originally posted by: JinMI
Eighty percent of the crap I own says made in(not USA).


Yeah, competition drives down prices and drives up the imports as a result. Everyone claims they'd prefer American-made, but let's be honest here -- nobody wants to pay that much. I don't, and neither do others. If the items are identical in function & quality, I'm ALWAYS going to pick the import over the domestic if it's cheaper. That's how budgets work for people, item origin doesn't matter much after a certain point. And neither does patriotism.

But blaming companies for killing mom & pops is both true on one hand, and not entirely fair on the other. Not everybody operates like Walmart & is predatory AF.
Let's say Maude wants to open a home decor shop near Millie's existing home decor shop. Naturally, they're going to be in a war of who can sell things cheaper & keep the doors open longest. ONE of them is going to lose out eventually, it's the nature of capitalism.
Unless they start adding something the other doesn't have, let's say Maude adds cosmetics and Millie adds cookware. Both do well independently of each other and open other locations over time and add more items they didn't have before. Lather, rinse, repeat until you have a regional chain and carry on until it's national, or even international.

At some point, they went from local indie competitors, to big chains. They did something right to get and keep that kind of staying power, but at what point do we stop congratulating them for it & start identifying them as harbingers of small town doom?


Also, it's good to do what you can when you can.

indeed. Plenty of mom & pop grocers up in these parts, roadside stands and farmer's markets to choose from. Not a whole hell of a lot of what we eat comes from out of state, the majority of it's MI-grown/reared now, and seasonal.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 03:31 PM
link   
Always enjoyed getting lectured on the evils of Wal Mart by the same people that buy EVERYTHINGG on amazon.

Everybody’s got something to say yet rarely look at themselves.

Bottom line is most of us will buy from whoever supplies the same product for the cheapest.

Obviously there are certain things and qualities you cannot get from wal mart or amazon...
That’s usually where local/handcrafted comes in.

For those that can afford it there really is nothing like hand crafted , independently produced products.

Like beer.

a reply to: verschickter


edit on 13-8-2018 by SteamyJeans because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 03:34 PM
link   
a reply to: verschickter

Ultimately, everyone judging others who buy online and not "support local", but buy or have bought regulary at any chain-managed supermarket, # YOU you ignorant pieces of #.

Something else has changed. I have noticed this aggressive approach in posts almost everywhere on the internet. It has decreased my participation in all online sites.

I don't know how effective it is with communication. It shuts me down completely when a person yells, curses, and attacks the reader before they have a chance to even to hear their complaint.

Mom and Pop stores are not the only thing that we have lost with the advent of the internet.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 04:23 PM
link   

originally posted by: verschickter
You!

You hyprocratic brainless consumist.


I don't care what you say and if this is a rant.

If you insult me like that with a degrading rude generalisation then YOU are the problem and the subject matter you wish to discuss is irrelevant imo.

Shame you can't buy manners online eh?



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 05:43 PM
link   

originally posted by: nerbot

originally posted by: verschickter
You!

You hyprocratic brainless consumist.


I don't care what you say and if this is a rant.

If you insult me like that with a degrading rude generalisation then YOU are the problem and the subject matter you wish to discuss is irrelevant imo.

Shame you can't buy manners online eh?

It's a shame people can't separate the personal Yous from the general, broad audience Yous. He was speaking to people in general, not you personally, there was no need to take it personally.



posted on Aug, 13 2018 @ 06:31 PM
link   

originally posted by: SteamyJeans

For those that can afford it there really is nothing like hand crafted , independently produced products.

Like beer.


Absolutely! But it's an apples and oranges comparison. Hand crafted beer isn't the same as Bud Lite or Coors. But if I were going to purchase Bud Lite (I can't even imagine doing that!) I would attempt to buy it as cheaply as I could. It's a commodity item, so he who sells it the most economically taking everything into consideration--including transportation costs--wins. If a Mon & Pop can't compete, they are in the wrong business. Maybe they should start making hand-crafted beer.
edit on 8/13/2018 by schuyler because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 14 2018 @ 04:22 AM
link   
What an Ancient Gripe... Crappy Small Businesses have always complained about their own shortcomings. It's all based on the customer and their wants. Supply and Demand Stupid. If you can't meet the Quantitative and Qualitative desires of your consumer base, you're going to suffer. Why in the hell would I buy from some slackjawed back country store at 30% markup because they're padding their shipping and stocking cost? How many have gone into one of the Town Square stores to have some elderly or incompetent clerk fumble through inventory or open up some catalog you can order from and wait 10 weeks and pay markup and shipping? Or....or....the informed customer can search and order from their phone. If businesses don't get with the times, they're going the way of the DODO. Find a Demand and Supply it....pretty damned simple.

a reply to: verschickter



posted on Aug, 14 2018 @ 12:03 PM
link   
a reply to: schuyler



Yet you requested people define them for you. If you knew them, why did you ask them to be defined?

No I didn´t do that. I asked the person I replied to, but you felt adressed and answered.

Big difference!




top topics



 
13
<< 1    3 >>

log in

join