My theory: Prime, and its 2-day shipping service, is a flat rate deal, priced according to 10.5 normal months and 1.5 batshit crazy delivery months. Since they can't charge on a demand basis for shipping like FedEx can, they've run into an internal train wreck where they can't afford to deliver all the orders the've received. So their bottleneck is actually a bottleneck of budgeted "delivery slots" for these Spring months, which they've excused as being "due to essential items only, can't keep up with demand."
I've noticed something that I found extremely curious: I've ordered several random things in the last month from Amazon, and all have been severely delayed. These are not surge items: drumsticks, a guitar wall hanger, and an APC ups. All were Prime items, and all have been severely delayed, waiting weeks now. I get it, they are 'focusing on essential items' and my guitars will be fine to wait a while longer. However...
I have not noticed many Prime delivery vans out in the neighborhood. During the holidays, Prime vans are everywhere. Today, they are not. Last mile shipping is one of those businesses that gets gloriously efficient with scale. Bezos announced that 100,000 person hire a few weeks back, which I assumed would be rehiring their holiday surge subcontractors. But few vans on the streets today.
Finally, what essential items does Amazon have in stock that is overtaking their delivery supply chain?
Amazon sucks now. I can't buy most of the specific items I use in my work, and when I do find something it's swimming in a sea of clone crap. The best thing it does still is books. Anything else is a mizxed bag. AMZ is just Ali Baba for people who can't wait for the ship.
This. I used to read this comments and think it only applied to the US. Also happening to Spain. Amazon has become useless. Rankings are weird, quality stuff is is very hard to find and I have to resort to forums that point to Amazon links that you cannot find using Amazon search.
Also, I'm more and more attracted to specialized shops again. For example for the last two years I've been buying most electronic stuff from a local shop. I needed a laptop charger and it was a totally awful experience going by Amazon, even typing output values and such. Fed up, went out, walked 15 mins, got one that wasn't the same I had but did the job and matched the specs.
It's exactly that. Why should I use Amazon if I can go to Alibaba or Aliexpress, what's the point if it isn't more convenient than moving my ass to a local store or get it cheaper in China.
I find this odd. I read these sorts of comments every time Amazon in mentioned on HN, how its literally only clones, fakes, and scams, and impossible to find legitimate products anymore.
I have literally never received a fake/clone/scam off amazon, and I can't explain that discrepancy. I personally only buy things that are sold or fulfilled by amazon, never shipped by third party sellers, but surely everyone else as savy as HN readers does the same? Why order things with brutal shipping costs and times, only things fulfilled by amazon are quick.
Absolutely agree, Amazon used to be my first stop for most online purchases. If I was shopping for something I wasn't super familiar with it was a fair bet I could quickly find most of the 'best' products in whatever category it is on Amazon. These days I have to wade through cheap clones of the exact same product rebranded, all with wildly different reviews and product descriptions in broken English.
Recently I find myself doing a 180 and returning more to in-store purchasing (Current pandemic situation aside) because I've been burned so many times by random Amazon orders in the last few years. To be fair their support has always made the situation right, but after a point the value from ordering from Amazon is gone if I'm rolling the dice on whether the product will match the description or be defective.
Amazon first solved the Discovery problem, and they went and solved distribution, but somehow Discovery was completely lost after they solved Distribution.
You cant make distribution work without huge selection and volume. And selection is the enemy of discovery. It is a hard balance.
Agree with you about Amazon experience becoming less ideal.
Since the beginning of 2020, I submitted a couple of product reviews with detailed and factual explanation about why products in question aren't good enough. One of them was Amazon basic chair [https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Low-Back-Computer-Chair-...], which makes squeaky noises after 6 months of use (I'm a 135 lbs male), and another was Secura milk frother, which also make screechy noises after 1 month of light use (once or twice everyday). Turns out my review for their chair didn't get posted, so I tried again and finally wrote a question on the product page as to why my review isn't showing up. Then the review somehow showed up a week after. For Secura, they don't have a way to upload a video in product review (I see some people uploaded videos/images, but in my Amazon account UI for product review, there's no such feature), so I took a video and uploaded it to YouTube and shared the link as an example in my review. They wrote me a week later saying my review was not posted because of third-party links, so I went ahead and removed the YouTube link and only described the title of my YouTube video if anyone wants to search for it. No words from Amazon after two weeks of submitting that revised review. So I just checked the product review button (as seen in My Orders section) and the message I wrote there is still there. So I just clicked submit again. We'll see what happens.
In the past, when you write review, you get an email from Amazon telling you either that they are reviewing it or that it has been posted. Now, the experience is super confusing and subpar. In the worst interpretation, you even start to suspect if they post every review or they censor some based on their bias toward the seller (e.g., Amazon Basics products get less negative reviews)
Also, since COVID-19 made the shipping times are significantly slower on Amazon, I opened an account on AliExpress last week and started ordering some items. Unfortunately though, the effort it takes to sift through products on AliExpress is still much more challenging/tiring than that is on Amazon now. So some of the comments here are correct that although Amazon is not living up to our ideal vision of how an online retailer should be like, they are still ahead of their competition... I hope it changes some day and we see a decent competitor so that it is better for consumers (although I'm not sure if it'd be better for warehouse workers though...)
Amazon used to protect books for shipment, sealing them in plastic with a piece of carboard so the book couldn’t move. Now they just shove it in an envelope. Almost all books are delivered with at least minor damage. You’re better off buying a used book.
I didn't renew my prime membership. Why am I paying for things that no longer get shipped in a timely manner, and a lot of things I want I can no longer get because they have determined it's "non essential." Most deliveries take 2 weeks to get here instead of 2 days. Yes, I'm aware what's going on, but that doesn't change the fact I'm paying $100 for a service that I am no longer receiving.
It is surprising that their relevance algorithms isn't able to show diverse results. If you look 4 or 5 pages down the search, you can still find innovating items but they are literally in the sea of almost exact same looking white-label items. My guess is that there are SEO businesses making ton of money by SEOing the hell out of Amazon for white label products off of Alibaba.
If Amazon did nothing else but allowed to filter products by where was it made/designed, the problem will be solved in significant way.
I've essentially stopped shopping at Amazon, their Audible product is really all I use.
I used to be an Amazon seller, and ran through maybe 100K in sales a year, but I stopped (wasn't profitable enough for the time spent.) I should have known, with my experience all those years ago, how easy it would be for scammers to get into the market. Hijacking a listing or mislabeling your product under a listing was really really easy. And for the volumes you can move, I can see why you'd do it.
I have some acquaintances that just buy in bulk from Alibaba and then sell them on Amazon. The seller usually doesn't know what they received is fake...nor do they care. The margin is high enough. Amazon seller fees absorb so much of your profit, you're fighting a losing battle unless you can find a cheap supplier or own the market on an in demand item. Then there are actual scammers that know what they are selling is fake and are manipulating listings...so there are multiple problems with the setup.
Of course the bad thing is Amazon doesn't seem to care, and if anything they try to screw the people doing the -right- thing with huge seller fees, and then killing them with their own line of Basic products.
I don't know how to solve it, and I don't think Amazon does either. I actually don't think Amazon cares, because their ultimate goal is to absorb fees and to take over markets with their own products. They can't do that without sales data, fulfillment fees, seller fees, etc. On top of that they make the big kids compete for coveted listing space with ads. They compete with their own logistics companies, but have them over the coals because they make up so much volume. It's a racket.
It even sucks for books. Defaulting to the Kindle/Audible versions, changing the search category to Kindle/Audible, and the unique key of a book in a list is (format, title), so collision detection is predicated on you remembering which format you preferred. Absolute garbage overall and very hostile to prospective bookbuyers who prefer paper formats.
Well, that's a pretty strong indictment of how badly their business operates. Every book I've ever ordered from Amazon has been damaged (either badly folded covers or even ripped pages). I started buying from local bookshops and the experience is infinitely better.
Agreed. I've had so many problems in the last few months. An incredibly lazy fake that was "Sold by Amazon", a book with water damage in pristine packaging, and food items that had gone stale.
I’ve had an annoying time with books too. In particular with ordering a book which is not particularly common and getting something that was printed on demand. The quality has been terrible, much worse than something offset printed. But I’ve heard that Amazon’s print on demand offering produced pretty good quality books so maybe this is an issue with the sellers of the books I’ve bought. Obviously I notice bad printing but don’t really notice good printing
They're prioritizing only essential goods, everything else is delayed until later. That's the best solution for the largest number of people, especially those at higher risk, for whom one click one stop shop is a very attractive value proposition. But if you can, this is a perfect time to buy direct from your local businesses who offer curb side pick-up or delivery.
What is the competition though. We need someone with a clue on competition. I'd go with anyone with a broad / reliable selection - ebay has been working recently - is that the future?
Literally any article about Amazon on HN inevitably devolves into a bunch of useless anecdotes about how much Amazon supposedly sucks. You could set a watch to it. It's beyond tiresome. If you did nothing but read HN you'd think Amazon was filing for bankruptcy imminently.
This is quite significant given market is very bullish on Amazon (Goldman is just all over it). The expectations are set sky high to do well during these times. But if you look at things as consumer, it doesn't look so good. Personally, I've significantly less orders on Amazon these days because of huge delivery times. Sure, orders for "essentials" might have gone up but can that offset the gap? Also, sellers are very dissopointed with their items not getting delivered and many have started to look for alternate channels.
Given all these, I wonder how things will pan out. Wall street expectations for Amazon to do well this quarter is sky high but behind the curtain things might have taken significant hit.
This is sort of a "no one goes there anymore, it's too crowded" criticism. Huge delivery times are because they're getting so many orders (which means so much revenue, which means so much profit).
Unfortunately, Amazon isn't measured against some platonic ideal of what an online retailer could be. They are measured against their competition. And, as far as I can tell, there is no credible competition.
I'm the opposite. I use them for 99% of my shopping. Almost everything I buy can wait a few days. I hate finding parking, waiting in line at registers, and driving to the store. It's a whole morning of my weekend off to go shopping. The amount of time saved from using Amazon in my day to day life is staggering.
The headline is pretty sensationalist. It's not like he is coming out of retirement. He is just updating his schedule to focus on immediate problems rather than longer term projects (like every other CEO in the world right now).
The other issue which Bezos has less control over is delivery, especially in areas where its own logistics service is limited.
A friend living in rural New Hampshire says Amazon will no longer deliver goods to people in his town, which indicates a last-mile delivery problem.
Another friend in North Carolina said the U.S. Post Office stopped delivery to all of the buildings in his apartment complex because the leasing office was now closed.
There are other situations in which delivery companies understandably don't want to follow pre-COVID procedures because it's no longer safe to do so.
Has anyone else noticed Amazon shipping them more of items than they ordered? I've recently had this happen in two separate orders, including receiving 3 SSDs when I'd just ordered 1, for a free $300 of SSD.
I don’t know what is going on but their “essential items” excuse is totally bogus. There are no essential items in stock! Go try to buy toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, etc. I can’t buy ANY of that and haven’t been able to for at least 4-6 weeks.
And the “normal” products have shipping delays of 4+ weeks sometimes. And then other times, none. It seems totally random and nonsensical.
I think they have serious labor issues that they are covering up. I’m just guessing here with absolutely no information. Just can’t make sense at what is going on.
Not sure why comments change to the degrading quality of Amazon retail.
The article is pretty obvious. The CEO needs to always focus on the most critical matter. Sometime it's long-term strategic investment, like Alexa. Some other time, it's a ongoing emergency that will have profound long-term impact.
And Mr. Bezos is doing the right thing to align the company right now.
What a missed opportunity, Boeing is on its knees and shown it cannot compete with SpaceX, and Blue Origin has the best opportunity to displace SLS with New Glenn program once and for all. When else will you be able to kill a crony-Goliath like ULA, by their own incompetence no less, and gain the public's adoration for it as CEO?
I get it, this is his golden goose and its undergoing huge stress and delays due to COVID; but for all the talk about why he got into tech and wanted to make Billions was essentially to get into Aerospace in the first place makes it seem like the vapid platitudes of Billionaire.
I'm not surprised, just disappointed in Bezos. I guess we're going to have to live with ULA clogging up the system and spending billions more without producing results all while SpaceX is sending astronauts to ISS next month.
I don't buy things from Amazon anymore, their supply chain optimization results in inhumane business practices, and despite having access to Prime I still prefer to stream shows on it elsewhere. The quality looks equally mediocre in comparison to Netflix on a 4k screen anyway.
Jeff being back to day to day will make a difference. Ex-amazonian, I've seen a lot of people go work for them recently and more than a few are B, and at least one a C level players.
OP1/OP2 presentations in front of Jeff will make a difference.
Maybe this will bring him back to Earth and see that not everything is as good as in the bubble he lives by focusing on futuristic projects. It'd be nice to see an impact
[+] [-] ethagknight|6 years ago|reply
I've noticed something that I found extremely curious: I've ordered several random things in the last month from Amazon, and all have been severely delayed. These are not surge items: drumsticks, a guitar wall hanger, and an APC ups. All were Prime items, and all have been severely delayed, waiting weeks now. I get it, they are 'focusing on essential items' and my guitars will be fine to wait a while longer. However...
I have not noticed many Prime delivery vans out in the neighborhood. During the holidays, Prime vans are everywhere. Today, they are not. Last mile shipping is one of those businesses that gets gloriously efficient with scale. Bezos announced that 100,000 person hire a few weeks back, which I assumed would be rehiring their holiday surge subcontractors. But few vans on the streets today.
Finally, what essential items does Amazon have in stock that is overtaking their delivery supply chain?
[+] [-] WhyKill|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iagovar|6 years ago|reply
Also, I'm more and more attracted to specialized shops again. For example for the last two years I've been buying most electronic stuff from a local shop. I needed a laptop charger and it was a totally awful experience going by Amazon, even typing output values and such. Fed up, went out, walked 15 mins, got one that wasn't the same I had but did the job and matched the specs.
It's exactly that. Why should I use Amazon if I can go to Alibaba or Aliexpress, what's the point if it isn't more convenient than moving my ass to a local store or get it cheaper in China.
[+] [-] admax88q|6 years ago|reply
I have literally never received a fake/clone/scam off amazon, and I can't explain that discrepancy. I personally only buy things that are sold or fulfilled by amazon, never shipped by third party sellers, but surely everyone else as savy as HN readers does the same? Why order things with brutal shipping costs and times, only things fulfilled by amazon are quick.
[+] [-] krazyk8s|6 years ago|reply
Recently I find myself doing a 180 and returning more to in-store purchasing (Current pandemic situation aside) because I've been burned so many times by random Amazon orders in the last few years. To be fair their support has always made the situation right, but after a point the value from ordering from Amazon is gone if I'm rolling the dice on whether the product will match the description or be defective.
[+] [-] Someone1234|6 years ago|reply
Two examples:
- Search results used to be order-able by popularity, but now only "featured" aka who pays the most.
- "Customers also purchased" or "Customers also viewed" boxes on item pages now replaced by sponsored boxes.
Amazon has gone from a site which made it effortless to find things and buy them, to a site that values advertising revenue over actual retail.
Unfortunately both Walmart and Target have gone the same way and also offer third party seller's items for sale, and sell paid advertisement.
[+] [-] agundy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ksec|6 years ago|reply
You cant make distribution work without huge selection and volume. And selection is the enemy of discovery. It is a hard balance.
[+] [-] programmertote|6 years ago|reply
Since the beginning of 2020, I submitted a couple of product reviews with detailed and factual explanation about why products in question aren't good enough. One of them was Amazon basic chair [https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Low-Back-Computer-Chair-...], which makes squeaky noises after 6 months of use (I'm a 135 lbs male), and another was Secura milk frother, which also make screechy noises after 1 month of light use (once or twice everyday). Turns out my review for their chair didn't get posted, so I tried again and finally wrote a question on the product page as to why my review isn't showing up. Then the review somehow showed up a week after. For Secura, they don't have a way to upload a video in product review (I see some people uploaded videos/images, but in my Amazon account UI for product review, there's no such feature), so I took a video and uploaded it to YouTube and shared the link as an example in my review. They wrote me a week later saying my review was not posted because of third-party links, so I went ahead and removed the YouTube link and only described the title of my YouTube video if anyone wants to search for it. No words from Amazon after two weeks of submitting that revised review. So I just checked the product review button (as seen in My Orders section) and the message I wrote there is still there. So I just clicked submit again. We'll see what happens.
In the past, when you write review, you get an email from Amazon telling you either that they are reviewing it or that it has been posted. Now, the experience is super confusing and subpar. In the worst interpretation, you even start to suspect if they post every review or they censor some based on their bias toward the seller (e.g., Amazon Basics products get less negative reviews)
Also, since COVID-19 made the shipping times are significantly slower on Amazon, I opened an account on AliExpress last week and started ordering some items. Unfortunately though, the effort it takes to sift through products on AliExpress is still much more challenging/tiring than that is on Amazon now. So some of the comments here are correct that although Amazon is not living up to our ideal vision of how an online retailer should be like, they are still ahead of their competition... I hope it changes some day and we see a decent competitor so that it is better for consumers (although I'm not sure if it'd be better for warehouse workers though...)
[+] [-] viburnum|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cronix|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sytelus|6 years ago|reply
If Amazon did nothing else but allowed to filter products by where was it made/designed, the problem will be solved in significant way.
[+] [-] justin66|6 years ago|reply
So it's Ali Baba for... approximately every American?
[+] [-] partiallypro|6 years ago|reply
I used to be an Amazon seller, and ran through maybe 100K in sales a year, but I stopped (wasn't profitable enough for the time spent.) I should have known, with my experience all those years ago, how easy it would be for scammers to get into the market. Hijacking a listing or mislabeling your product under a listing was really really easy. And for the volumes you can move, I can see why you'd do it.
I have some acquaintances that just buy in bulk from Alibaba and then sell them on Amazon. The seller usually doesn't know what they received is fake...nor do they care. The margin is high enough. Amazon seller fees absorb so much of your profit, you're fighting a losing battle unless you can find a cheap supplier or own the market on an in demand item. Then there are actual scammers that know what they are selling is fake and are manipulating listings...so there are multiple problems with the setup.
Of course the bad thing is Amazon doesn't seem to care, and if anything they try to screw the people doing the -right- thing with huge seller fees, and then killing them with their own line of Basic products.
I don't know how to solve it, and I don't think Amazon does either. I actually don't think Amazon cares, because their ultimate goal is to absorb fees and to take over markets with their own products. They can't do that without sales data, fulfillment fees, seller fees, etc. On top of that they make the big kids compete for coveted listing space with ads. They compete with their own logistics companies, but have them over the coals because they make up so much volume. It's a racket.
[+] [-] realtalk_sp|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cyphar|6 years ago|reply
Well, that's a pretty strong indictment of how badly their business operates. Every book I've ever ordered from Amazon has been damaged (either badly folded covers or even ripped pages). I started buying from local bookshops and the experience is infinitely better.
[+] [-] philjohn|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ng12|6 years ago|reply
I order everything from Walmart now.
[+] [-] dan-robertson|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aioprisan|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] thoraway1010|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Pfhreak|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Rapzid|6 years ago|reply
Sure, if you don't care what state your book arrives in.
[+] [-] mir3la|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crazygringo|6 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] bedhead|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] noncoml|6 years ago|reply
I recently bought a relatively expensive item ($3k) that was being advertised as "New - Open box" one month old item.
What I received was a 5 year old used item. Trying to return it was the most stressful online shopping experience I have ever had.
One you open a return request, eBay gives the seller 5 working days to reply to your request. Seller took advantage of all 5.
When I finally got a return label, the seller left the item waiting for pick up for 3 days, until finally picking it up.
Once picked up, eBay gives seller another 5 working days to issue a refund.
In the mean time there is no way to ask help from eBay. All they do is just close the case asking you to wait.
So for a total of 3-4 weeks I have my money sitting in seller's PayPal account.
At least with Amazon, retail* support is usually pretty good.
[+] [-] sytelus|6 years ago|reply
Given all these, I wonder how things will pan out. Wall street expectations for Amazon to do well this quarter is sky high but behind the curtain things might have taken significant hit.
[+] [-] jdm2212|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toasterlovin|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nickthemagicman|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] paxys|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Florin_Andrei|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ilamont|6 years ago|reply
A friend living in rural New Hampshire says Amazon will no longer deliver goods to people in his town, which indicates a last-mile delivery problem.
Another friend in North Carolina said the U.S. Post Office stopped delivery to all of the buildings in his apartment complex because the leasing office was now closed.
There are other situations in which delivery companies understandably don't want to follow pre-COVID procedures because it's no longer safe to do so.
[+] [-] jdoliner|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cwhiz|6 years ago|reply
And the “normal” products have shipping delays of 4+ weeks sometimes. And then other times, none. It seems totally random and nonsensical.
I think they have serious labor issues that they are covering up. I’m just guessing here with absolutely no information. Just can’t make sense at what is going on.
[+] [-] justicezyx|6 years ago|reply
The article is pretty obvious. The CEO needs to always focus on the most critical matter. Sometime it's long-term strategic investment, like Alexa. Some other time, it's a ongoing emergency that will have profound long-term impact.
And Mr. Bezos is doing the right thing to align the company right now.
[+] [-] coder1001|6 years ago|reply
What problems exist that only the founder can solve and require his involvement? or is that just what he wants to do?
[+] [-] Melting_Harps|6 years ago|reply
I get it, this is his golden goose and its undergoing huge stress and delays due to COVID; but for all the talk about why he got into tech and wanted to make Billions was essentially to get into Aerospace in the first place makes it seem like the vapid platitudes of Billionaire.
I'm not surprised, just disappointed in Bezos. I guess we're going to have to live with ULA clogging up the system and spending billions more without producing results all while SpaceX is sending astronauts to ISS next month.
I don't buy things from Amazon anymore, their supply chain optimization results in inhumane business practices, and despite having access to Prime I still prefer to stream shows on it elsewhere. The quality looks equally mediocre in comparison to Netflix on a 4k screen anyway.
[+] [-] johnrgrace|6 years ago|reply
OP1/OP2 presentations in front of Jeff will make a difference.
[+] [-] blairanderson|6 years ago|reply
They sold out their entire 2020 forecast by mid April.
Amazon warehouses also got a little humility and flexibility towards warehouse workers.
The shipping demands are real.
[+] [-] jhallenworld|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OrgNet|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beart|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fishingisfun|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whoevercares|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WoodenKatana|6 years ago|reply