I wanted to get printer photo paper for my printer, a Canon. I went to Walmart, They had nothing. Went to Target, they had one pack of photo paper and it was crazy expensive, so I went to micro center. That one was just as expensive. So finally I went back to Amazon, which I was trying to avoid, and saw the price 25 to 40% lower than anywhere I had been. Literally everything that I was looking for, I could find within seconds. Not even Best buy has even close to the amount of inventory or variety, even when you’re shopping online…
Therefore, I think Amazon has a literal monopoly in the tech industry right now, you’re literally forced to buy from them, because unless you have the money and financial fortitude to protest with your wallet, you’re going to be buying from them. There’s no other choice. They have so aggressively and dominantly taken over the supply chain market that no other tech company can currently compete with them in any aspect at all. You will be paying 40 to 50% more on everything by cutting out Amazon, and no one has the money for that anymore unless you’re upper middle class or above
You should offer printer paper on xmrbazaar.com
So politely, how does Amazon offering a better price on a niche paper product conflate into them having a monopoly on the “tech industry”?
I’d posit the real thing here is that Amazon’s warehouses allow them to keep less-purchased products around in stock that a brick-and-mortar retail store simply wouldn’t bother with at all, but that’s been the case for decades at this point.
And, yes, printing out images has become an uncommon activity and I can’t say I’d blame any of the larger stores for only having a single expensive option available, but that’s their decision, not Amazon’s.
The long tail has always been one of Amazon’s strengths.
That said, buying anything from them runs a good chance of getting knock off garbage these days.
knock off garbage these days
Yep. I actually order more junk from AliExpress than Amazon now, because it’s the same shit except AliExpress is half the cost so if I’m going to get junk at least I’m paying junk-level prices.
(This is mostly components and other hobby-related stuff where there never really was any difference between AliExpress and Amazon, other than faster shipping.)
Bingo. Temu and Aliexpress. Same site, really.
Woodpecker or the item you can freely drop on the concrete floor without crying due to loss of investment.
how does Amazon offering a better price on a niche paper product conflate into them having a monopoly on the “tech industry”?
For starters, it’s typically not “better price” so much as “only people able to consistently obtain supply”. The real price is very likely higher than it was 5-10 years ago when production was prolific.
But also, we saw this game play out with Walmart. The monopoly retailer has an opportunity to outsource to the least ethical producer.
So Amazon gets to be the sole distributor of printer paper, the manufacturer is some old growth harvestor in the Amazon using prison/slave labor for harvesting/processing, and even then you’re paying more for a worse product than when a well regulated and unionized workforce was producing the commodity a decade earlier.
So Amazon gets to be the sole distributor of printer paper, the manufacturer is some old growth harvestor in the Amazon using prison/slave labor for harvesting/processing, and even then you’re paying more for a worse product than when a well regulated and unionized workforce was producing the commodity a decade earlier.
That doesn’t really make sense in this context as this paper is made by Canon not Amazon. You could make the argument that Canon is using rainforest paper, but then the rest of this kind of falls apart.
this paper is made by Canon not Amazon
Rubbermaid had to completely downsize and restructure its workforce as Walmart chewed through the retail competitors who purchased their products wholesale. This was back in the 90s.
Canon is under the same pressure today. Amazon sets the wholesale price point as a monopsony and Canon has to deliver at that price or fail to make the sales.
Not only that but Amazon isn’t the only online retailer to sell stuff like this. OP only checked some brick and mortar stores then went straight to Amazon without even checking out other places like Canon directly, B&H, Walmart.com, etc.
Doesn’t look like they went to an Office Max/Depot or Staples either, which honestly, would be my first stop for printers and printer accessories these days, since printers have very much fallen into just office-use shit and that one damn thing a year you have to print because some jackass is still stuck in 1988.
Honestly, you should probably never go to Office Max/Depot or Staples for printer stuff because they often overcharge. Unless you need to print photos, get a reliable laser printer (Brother is great) and then shop around for toner when it’s time to replace in a few years. I found the toner I needed through the MFG website, then searched around a bit to see if there was a better deal. Toner is almost never an emergency, it’ll warn you when it’s low, which means you probably have a few months to order something.
Also, don’t get an inkjet, you’ll pay out the nose for it. If you do need to print photos, I recommend sending batches to get printed somewhere else. Yeah, it’s not as convenient as having the printer right there, but it’ll save a bit of time and headache, and probably some cash as well.
I buy paper at Costco and toner online at whatever retailer is cheapest. For office supplies, I generally stock up around back-to-school sales in August/September (in the US). The only time I go to an office supply store is if I really need some folders or something around tax season.
Here in Germany there are still plenty of independent online retailers and they’re competitive with Amazon. I always try to avoid buying from Amazon and for tech products that’s usually no problem.
Do you have some good examples? I recently moved there, and want to avoid Amazon, when possible
I like to order tech stuff from mindfactory.de
Just don’t let them assemble anything. I am serious. Whatever they can mess up and break, they will. It’s honestly astonishing how careless they handle sinfully expensive high end parts. And sure you can generally send it back and wait another week or two, but only after making several calls with their customer service. So yeah you better prepare to build your machine yourself. This is not really optional.
Netherlands here and as well we have so many local shops that outbeat Amazon that it isn’t even fair. There is a very small chance I buy something of Amazon, think the only time I did was for a replacement item for a Dyson.
I think “beat out” may have been what you meant. And in this example I would probably just say they “beat” Amazon.
How dare you expose my mobile typing and/or my not-native language speaker! /s
Please name an actual good store that can compete with Amazon. Now, I’m lucky my local book store has a digital front where I can order but when it has to be something more general, Amazon remains the only address where the majority of orders didn’t range between faulty and actual horror stories so far.
I put some of the blame on retailers as well. Retail stores just don’t want to carry inventory anymore, especially tech-focused ones with many of those just turning into glorified showrooms. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard some version of: “Sorry, we don’t have that in stock but we can bring it in for you.”
We needed a short length of garden hose here for the house so I went to two hardware stores and one garden centre looking for one. Nothing. Not even in their dedicated gardening sections. I had to order it off Amazon. A goddamn garden hose.
Amazon has done a lot of damage for sure but retail is suffering from several self-inflicted wounds too. Home Depot, for example, is a multi-billion dollar corporation and even they have a weaker retail presence now. That’s not Amazon’s fault.
When you absolutely need something to work presicely once between the day you buy it and the day you’re late for jury duty.
I’ve gotten some surprisingly long lasting gems there, but you can never be sure. Like you said, I’ve also gotten a number “single use” tools from Harbor Freight. Overall though, it’s almost always been worth it.
Go on Facebook and ask your local buy nothing group. Check thrift stores line the habitat for humanity restore. Farm and home store like fleet farm/ farm and fleet. Plenty of ways to get ahold of something like that without buying new.
I feel you. Fortunately, in my area there’s a very popular classifieds section at one of the local newspapers, so I can stick to my guns avoiding Facebook.
So check local newspaper classifieds, Craigslist, and maybe your local library (you never know if they organize swaps).
Retail stores just don’t want to carry inventory anymore
Retail stores are more than happy to carry anything consumers want to pay for. If they don’t stock it, it means people don’t buy it, and you can’t fault them for that.
That’s not Amazon’s fault.
That’s mostly the fault of consumers who buy from Amazon (and other e-tailors).
The problem with this “econ101” thinking is that it insists that the whole system runs on the choices of actors in a deterministic system.
Yes, the system isn’t perfectly deterministic, but on average and over a long-enough time period, it pretty much is. People are going to act irrationally, but generally people will be irrational roughly equally on either side of “rational.”
In this case, the market is probably big enough that if a big retailer doesn’t stock something, it’s because the average person has decided that buying it elsewhere (i.e. Amazon) or not buying it at all (i.e. longer is fine) is preferable to buying it at the local store. It’s not the local retailer’s fault that it’s unprofitable to stock that item, it’s a mix of consumers and online competition making that product unprofitable to stock.
That said, you’ll probably have a better shot if you go to specialized stores. In this case, look at farming and plumbing supply stores, since they’re more likely to service those customers who really need that short hose today to complete a project. Your regular home improvement stores (e.g. Lowe’s and Home Depot) cater to homeowners more than contractors (so having a little of everything is better than lots of something), whereas the specialist stores cater to contractors and small business owners.
That’s not Amazon’s fault.
That’s mostly the fault of consumers who buy from Amazon (and other e-tailors).
There’s quite a few retail stores that don’t keep inventory, even for common things. Staples comes to mind, where it feels like half their damn office items aren’t in stock, so you need to wait for them to have it brought in.
The problem is that those same retail stores can’t compete with Amazon’s shipping speed. It becomes a case of:
- I want to buy a thing, I need it fast, so I guess I’ll check my local retails stores
- My local retail stores don’t have it in stock, but I can order it and it’ll be there in 4-5 days
- I can just buy it off of Amazon at a comparable price, and have it tomorrow
It’s alright if they don’t want to carry inventory, but they need to have the shipping speeds to compete, otherwise there’s no reason for the consumer not to just buy it off of Amazon directly.
They don’t want to carry inventory because Amazon doesn’t. The prices are higher because vendors are contractually obligated to sell on Amazon at their lowest price. So retailers, with a need to have a physical presence and having to buy at more or less the same price a product is available for on Amazon, get fucked. Their only hope is vendors who make a “different” product to sell at other outlets. An example of what I mean is, Poppi soda sells for $20/12 pack on Amazon. They sell a 15 pack at Costco for the same price. Because it’s a “different” product they are not in breach of contract.
Mean while my Best Buy has so much crap in the aisles that you can’t pass a person without having to do the weird turn side ways shuffle. Home Depot isn’t much better. Trying to push a lumber carts around is a joke now. So much crap stuck in the middle of the aisles or at the end of the aisles. So I don’t think it’s a lack of inventory but a variety of inventory.
Having worked at a Target like this, I can assure you there is still a lack of inventory on top of these stores being extremely short staffed. Target in particular completely eliminated their storeroom staff a few years ago and just doubled the work load of the floor staff. Both the floor and the storeroom were absolute nightmares to navigate because there were not enough people to actually organize and stock.
Have you checked Staples?
They’re scheduled to close 225 storefronts by the end of 2024.
Even then, they also have an online store.
(And ew, they changed their logo five years ago apparently!)
Damn. Where I live Staples has better customer service and support than most shops.
