[efaith]

"The problem is that when you do find a few toasters that match your requirements on Amazon, most have reviews like "stopped working after 2 months" "completely uneven toasting" "doesn't pop toast" etc etc. So then you have to wade through review upon review on model upon model in order to find the least sucky toaster. That is when the toaster hunt becomes a time sink."

No, you don't have to. You didn't in a brick and mortar store. Why do you have to here? Because there are customers saying the product broke? But the only difference is that in a brick and mortar store the failures are hidden from you.

Look, products fail. That's just the way it is. Get over it. Realize that every product has a potential story of failure and the best products will have unsatisfied customers.

Counting is good. Statistics are good. I've found Rotten Tomatoes to be much more reliable than individual reviews, and I don't even have to waste my time reading the reviews. Similarly, the Bestselling ranking at Amazon is not a bad way to sort out the better from the worse, if you don't want to spend the time.

If you don't want to spend the time you don't have to! Sure, if you don't spend the time, your choice won't be as good as it could have been. But if we were back in brick and mortar land your choice would be worse! Now you have the choice, and even if you choose not to spend the time, your resulting purchase is still better. It's win win win in every direction.