People Now Spend More at Amazon Than at Walmart

segmondy 2021-08-18 02:20:39 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Why won't they? The other day I needed a set of air hose tools and looked it up at Amazon, saw it for $19. Went to my local store auto parts store because I wanted to support my local business and they have a fraction of the Amazon set for $42. I ordered it from Amazon and had it in 12 hours. Needed lawn mower filters, at home depot, it was $10.99 for 1 filter. For the 2 types I wanted, got them for $8.99 for 4 and 5 pieces. Using amazon is not even fair. I won't buy food, expensive electronics, or really bulky items from them, but for most things they are seriously crushing the competitors.

tablespoon 2021-08-18 03:56:29 +0000 UTC [ - ]

> Using amazon is not even fair. ...but for most things they are seriously crushing the competitors.

Not in my experience. I've seriously dialed back my usage of them, but what started me on that path several years ago was comparison shopping for the first time in a long time, and finding that local stores usually matched and sometimes beat Amazon's prices. Why wait 3+ days for two day shipping when I could literally pick it up now for the same price? Now the main issue I have is all the garbage products with fake reviews.

SevenSigs 2021-08-18 08:23:47 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Amazon shows different prices to different people... now that they got you hooked, you better watch out.

systemvoltage 2021-08-18 06:15:44 +0000 UTC [ - ]

The main advantage of Amazon is not the price IMO. It is the fact that I don't have to deal with driving up to Walmart/Target, navigating through the crowd, standing in the line, traffic, etc and robbing 2 hours of my day. Click and it shows up at the door is the best part of any online shopping experience, Amazon's 2 day shipment is the cherry on the cake.

rdtwo 2021-08-18 14:04:20 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Yeah the time to go there and the 50% chance that they don’t have the product when you get there are the worst

Grakel 2021-08-17 17:15:54 +0000 UTC [ - ]

The article doesn't mention Walmart's website, which has become very good and widely used, especially as a more trustworthy source for real products than Amazon.com.

Also the article is worded as if Walmart is in decline- the future is bright for both of these companies, not that anyone is concerned.

silisili 2021-08-17 17:34:37 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Walmart is getting better, but still way behind on the web front. They'll show you things in stock, then tell you it's out of stock upon checkout. Go back to product page, shows in stock again. They also use way, way too many captchas. Lastly, they divide walmart.com from walmart pickup and delivery for no reason. Some things you order on the .com side are only 'shippable' if your local store has it. So, it's pickup and delivery yet doesn't show up on that side. I laughed because when I ordered a fishing rod for my child, it was literally a fishing rod leaned against my house. No box, label, etc.

I still try to use them as I trust their products more than Amazon. I love their new tool lineup, quality stuff at a decent price, with next day or 2 day delivery. I really like that for returns, they'll come pick it up. AMZ charges extra for that.

Amazon has much better CS though, hands down.

tangoed 2021-08-17 18:30:25 +0000 UTC [ - ]

The Walmart.com and pickup/delivery division on their website is not a thing anymore. They seem to be testing a new beta version of the website, and I got to try it yesterday. I have Walmart plus and this is how it went:

One seamless search option, no pickup/delivery and Walmart.com options. I added everything, including groceries and other non groceries to my cart. I selected delivery. Some items were not available in my local store but it didn't matter. Walmart automatically divided my order into two parts, where it decided to ship me some of the things I ordered (chips and club soda) that weren't available at my local store. It was definitely great experience and the UI was clean. I didn't get any out of stock errors at checkout too. Can't wait to use it full time.

The only reason I use Walmart is that I don't trust the products from Amazon anymore, even when they are sold by Amazon. I once ordered shampoo sold my Amazon that was obviously fake, and then I searched around and realized Amazon has a program where they gather the products from different sellers and put it in one huge bin and call all of them sold by Amazon.com

gurchik 2021-08-17 19:34:02 +0000 UTC [ - ]

> I once ordered shampoo sold my Amazon that was obviously fake, and then I searched around and realized Amazon has a program where they gather the products from different sellers and put it in one huge bin and call all of them sold by Amazon.com

This is a common scam. Third party sellers will send a fake product to Amazon to be FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon). When someone buys this product from the seller on the product's webpage, the seller is hoping the buyer will actually receive a genuine Amazon product instead that happens to already be in the warehouse. The buyer will be happy and will not complain, so the seller receives their money. However that fake product is still sitting in the warehouse, and when some unlucky buyer receives the fake product, they'll demand a refund. Some unlucky third party seller will have to foot the bill for that refund.

Youtuber "chaseontwowheels" ordered a $6000 camera Sold and Shipped by Amazon.com. He instead received a box of rocks. He got a refund from a suspicious Amazon and shipped him another camera. While filming a video about the incident, he opened the box and it was rocks again. He ended up buying the camera from B&H and finally got the legitimate product.

https://www.diyphotography.net/buyer-orders-6000-camera-amaz...

I've run into a similar problem. I ordered an electric beard trimmer and the box looked new but there was hair inside so it was obviously used. There were a lot of recent reviews about this from different sellers. I'm assuming some third party seller sent a bunch of returned stuff to Amazon and they threw it all into the same bin.

nebula8804 2021-08-17 20:45:30 +0000 UTC [ - ]

How do I get access to this beta? I would shop at Walmart a lot more but their website has been hot garbage as far back as I can remember. The exact scenario you mentioned is what makes it a miserable experience. I just tried it again

1) I put in my zipcode and checkmark my store. 2) I search for "AA batteries" 1) I put in my zipcode again and checkmark my store because it forgot the previous search. 3) I select In store pickup 4) As I scroll it co-mingles results that are in store with results that require a shipment. Seems like it does this for items that are not sold by walmart so while it correctly filtered out items sold by walmart that require shipment, whats the point if items not sold by walmart are still there.

As a sidenote, it does not tell me where in the store the item is. I just want to get item location, go into the store and pick it up.

Back in 2016 I tried the ship to store service. When I arrived, I went to the back of the store in order to pick it up. I was the only one there. I signed in on their kiosk and then waited. The clerk disappeared into the back and I kid you not, it took 30 mins to retrieve my order. She couldn't care less about getting my package. Keep in mind that I was the only one there and their fancy screen was listing my name as the only one in the queue!

The cherry on top of all of this is that their prices and selection are not always competitive with Amazon in my experience. It would be fine given that I am guaranteed to get legitimate equipment and get it same day but all the issues above steal enough time that it makes it not worth it most of the time.

I assume Walmart Labs is developing all this stuff. They must have better work life balance because their output is nowhere near the quality of Amazon.

I find this problem with Target to an extent as well. They have a better ship to store experience but I have found that their inventory status on their website has no correlation to reality whatsoever and their search is terrible. I have been trying to build an app to scrape all their items so I could build a personal tool that works better. I really want to avoid Amazon if I can but the competitors just make it so hard to do so.

silisili 2021-08-17 21:14:18 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I can't say the experience has changed a lot on the pickup side. I bought a few hooks and thought I'd zip on by for curbside. Huge mistake. Every spot was filled, people hanging out of their car looking miserable like they'd been there a long time. I made a loop and parked while I assessed everything, and in the five or so minutes I was there, never saw an employee. This was just last week. I'll definitely not do pickup again.

silisili 2021-08-17 18:35:19 +0000 UTC [ - ]

That's great to hear - thanks for sharing. I'm also a plus member, but I guess not in the beta. The app and website both still segregate the two.

How you describe it working is exactly how I've always wished it would work. Glad to hear it.

ethbr0 2021-08-17 17:51:21 +0000 UTC [ - ]

> they divide walmart.com from walmart pickup and delivery for no reason

I can hazard an informed guess as to why that is -- they built .com as an independent company, in order to get it off the ground faster and with less interference from the brick and mortar side.

End result: quick iteration, but now two completely separate supply chains. You'd be amazing how complicated warehousing, inventory, shipping, etc. get when you've got 2 SKUs for every item + a bunch of hacks to duct tape everything together.

And it's not trivial to reconverged them, when you're as optimized as Walmart logistics is.

lotsofpulp 2021-08-17 17:54:27 +0000 UTC [ - ]

HomeDepot and Bestbuy are what I would hold up as the best websites. Target is decent too, except they started allowed resellers and I was not as easily able to find how to restrict to items sold only by Target.

ethbr0 2021-08-17 18:02:47 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Good engineering teams working with KISS frameworks build good sites. Counter example: Sears.

Resellers are a necessary evil for warehouse retail. You need the scale for margin and product diversity for long tail sales, but you've got to keep a tight leash on them. I can't begin to express how unreliable their submitted metadata about listed items is.

I feel like auditing and kicking people off the platform would honestly be the best approach, although that'd probably just cause more fly by night "new" vendor signups.

lotsofpulp 2021-08-17 18:05:37 +0000 UTC [ - ]

> Resellers are a necessary evil for warehouse retail.

As long as there is a simple option to not clutter my search results with them, it does not affect me whether or not a retailer also sells their website to resellers.

floxy 2021-08-17 20:35:03 +0000 UTC [ - ]

>HomeDepot and Bestbuy are what I would hold up as the best websites.

https://www.mcmaster.com/

lotsofpulp 2021-08-17 20:46:56 +0000 UTC [ - ]

McMaster is certainly very nice, but I was considering broad retail businesses with lots of physical locations and lots of variety in items sold.

monksy 2021-08-17 20:00:42 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Menards is great for this. The stores tend to fullfill orders and ship. Also, you have flexibility in how you get it shipped. Also, they tend to show live POS stock counts. (Expect 1 item to be 0 left)

They're not the best in shipping.. but I haven't see the garbage resellers on their platform.

toomuchtodo 2021-08-17 17:56:43 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Home Depot is good, but their iOS app still lacks a lot of polish around selecting a store, payments, and list management.

lotsofpulp 2021-08-17 17:58:46 +0000 UTC [ - ]

What I also like about Target and Hope Depot is I can put my phone number in when I am checking out at the store, and the purchases will show up in my account online so I can reference them later or not need to keep the physical receipt for returns.

silisili 2021-08-17 18:33:45 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I know I'm starting to sound like a shill, but I'm just impressed with the progress they've made recently... but Walmart does this too.

Any in store purchase made with a credit card saved in your account shows up in your purchase history. Don't even need to type in a phone number :). That's actually really new, they emailed about it sometime in the last month and I can confirm it works.

toomuchtodo 2021-08-17 18:04:52 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Definitely, although I wish Home Depot wouldn’t ask each time about the digital receipt. They should (imho) provide a setting to always receive the digital receipt copy (with the email address associated to a credit card number).

2021-08-17 18:08:00 +0000 UTC [ - ]

cpwright 2021-08-17 18:30:36 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Home Depot stores the receipts by credit card; so that if you use a card saved to your online account you automatically will see your in-store purchases show up.

endisneigh 2021-08-17 20:50:13 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I’m genuinely curious - why use the app instead of the website?

toomuchtodo 2021-08-17 21:01:48 +0000 UTC [ - ]

iPhone is always with me, a computer less so. If I’m scanning an item’s barcode to source or add to cart, need a camera on the phone. If I’m looking in aisles for a part, need the phone for aisle and bin #. I remember something while I’m spending time out with the family or running errands? Mobile app. “Mobile first lifestyle.”

1123581321 2021-08-17 21:23:32 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I use the app over the mobile website because its data requirements are lower and my reception is poor in-store.

slownews45 2021-08-17 20:20:14 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I was bummed about the target third party stuff - how hard is it to add a target only toggle?

lotsofpulp 2021-08-17 20:48:53 +0000 UTC [ - ]

There is currently a Sold By filter where you can choose Target when I just checked, but it has also not been there so I wonder if they are doing A/B testing or something. Or maybe I missed it.

mindslight 2021-08-17 22:13:02 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Target was good 5 years ago. These days they're pushing more and more items into "same day delivery" only with some gimmicky subscription service. No thanks - I'm looking for a transaction, not a long term relationship. If you really want to charge for shipping, then reduce your prices so that the cost of shipping is no longer built in.

And yeah, the "marketplace" cancer is everywhere. It's turned Amazon into trash, yet traditional companies seemingly can't help but follow in their footsteps. If I want to sort through vendor reputations for gensym-branded white label gadgets, I'll go to eBay or AliExpress.

FWIW the Home Depot website is much faster if you use noscript to block all of their surveillance vendors. Probably the worst website I've seen with regards to that - by default I think they backhaul all of your mouse movement.

wisemanwillhear 2021-08-17 18:43:13 +0000 UTC [ - ]

> Walmart is getting better, but still way behind on the web front. They'll show you things in stock, then tell you it's out of stock upon checkout. Go back to product page, shows in stock again.

2 weeks ago I added a Logitech mouse to my cart which Amazon claimed would arrive in 2 days per the product page. Upon checkout I was informed that it was unavailable to ship and I would get an e-mail when they knew it would ship. Going back to the product page and refreshing the 2 day promised arrival date was still there. It arrived 6 days later. Seems like Amazon has similar problems.

slownews45 2021-08-17 20:21:35 +0000 UTC [ - ]

This can be depending on a delivery address - sometimes Amazon will have local delivery delays (some oregon areas had delivery partner issues a while back). Not sure if that might be part of it.

nerfhammer 2021-08-17 18:05:44 +0000 UTC [ - ]

One thing I appreciate about home depot's web site: they'll tell you not only whether the item is in stock, but exactly where in a given store it's located

silisili 2021-08-17 18:15:57 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Walmart app does this too actually. The main problem is that their inventory tracker is wildly inaccurate. I went looking for an item they claimed to have 4 of, and they in fact had none.

I think for a store as busy and understaffed as Walmart, real inventory gets to be a big guessing game.

nebula8804 2021-08-17 20:50:50 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Why? They know what items are being delivered to the store, they know when they are delivered and they know what they sold. Ignoring inventory numbers being slightly off due to shrinkage, if you just connect the systems you can get a pretty accurate real time count.

spaetzleesser 2021-08-17 18:09:50 +0000 UTC [ - ]

And most importantly they have only one listing for the same item. In Amazon and Walmart you have multiple listings of the same product by different sellers at different prices. In Amazon it's really annoying to see several pages of basically the same product.

sokoloff 2021-08-17 18:52:05 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Amazon tries to coalesce these pages together in a single product-detail page with multiple offers. Sellers frequently try to avoid this coalescing (because otherwise, they're only competing on price). This could be as simple as pad printing a meaningless 5-6 character brand onto the product [making it technically different] or by making the description slightly different.

silisili 2021-08-17 19:12:16 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Yeah, it's a tough problem to solve. But I understand their complaint, it's often an identical product with a different name painted on it, pages and pages.

My favorite was a handheld coffee grinder. The item was unbranded, and the manual had some brand name manually scratched out with an inkpen everywhere it was mentioned. It's actually a nice coffee grinder, believe it or not.

r00fus 2021-08-17 18:07:26 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Target does this as well. Super useful to get in and out, limiting my contact with potentially infectious people - though I usually use their curbside.

OJFord 2021-08-17 18:22:12 +0000 UTC [ - ]

> I really like that for returns, they'll come pick it up. AMZ charges extra for that.

Oof, not in the UK. (At least not with Prime.)

Perhaps not quite as easy (for small enough items) as when I mostly commuted, and could print a label and leave it in an outgoing mail pile, but certainly from home I way prefer that than going to a post office (even in the absence of coronavirus restrictions).

I actually bought a printer for that purpose. A direct thermal label printer, because that's all I needed it for (and it was cheaper, has no ink to run out/dry out during a period of no use, etc.).

silisili 2021-08-17 18:26:18 +0000 UTC [ - ]

It actually depends on who their partner is. In my last city, it was USPS, so I could in fact put it with the mail.

Where I live now, Amazon delivers but uses UPS for returns. I can either drop it off at a Kohl's location, a UPS store, or pay for them to come pick it up.

Normally it's not a huge hassle, but it's a really nice gesture to me, especially for heavy items. I almost kept a TV stand, new in box, that I didn't need because I didn't feel like carrying it back into the store. Luckily, that's when I noticed they'll do free pickup on returns.

OJFord 2021-08-17 20:00:16 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Oh interesting. We tend not to really have variations like that across the UK (not having different states in the same way), so beyond remote islands etc. (by post code) and things like Uber/Deliveroo rolling out city by city/town by town, it's all just the same.

Amazon uses various couriers to deliver and return here (even me being in one location, in London, but also the same in the country) but when you select a return only Hermes offer pick-up. (Otherwise there's Amazon locker, Royal Mail print label, Royal Mail drop-off, various other drop-off places of the kind that are a sort of 'side gig' for a grocer or newsagent, etc.)

coding123 2021-08-17 18:36:06 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Oh, another example of that local vs distant store thing is that it's kinda up to the store. You may order a BROWN blanket, but your local store is somehow notified and they go, OH I HAVE THAT BLANKET! And then they switch you from it being delivered from far away to having some guy that's getting off work that lives near you drop it off. And then you open it up and it's that BLUE blanket you already saw locally and didn't want!!!!!

castlecrasher2 2021-08-17 20:33:58 +0000 UTC [ - ]

>Lastly, they divide walmart.com from walmart pickup and delivery for no reason.

This is actually changing very soon, and both results will be on the same site.

TMWNN 2021-08-17 21:49:10 +0000 UTC [ - ]

>Walmart is getting better, but still way behind on the web front. They'll show you things in stock, then tell you it's out of stock upon checkout.

Anyone who's tried to buy a video card or other in high-demand item from Amazon knows that the same thing happens there.

tyingq 2021-08-17 17:39:14 +0000 UTC [ - ]

WalMart does also have 3rd party sellers where you have to watch what you buy. I suppose Walmart has a broader variety of in-house sold than Amazon though.

lotsofpulp 2021-08-17 17:57:06 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Walmart has a filter option on the left side to show only Walmart sourced products. (Unlike Amazon).

meragrin_ 2021-08-17 17:59:35 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Amazon still has one too. It is just harder and harder to get to the point were you are presented the option which might explain why people now spend more time at Amazon.

dave5104 2021-08-17 18:33:06 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I thought the problem with that was even if you chose to "buy" a product from Amazon, if a 3rd party seller is using Amazon's warehousing, Amazon intermingles products that they source themselves and from the 3rd party? So, you could be getting a product sourced by Amazon, or you could be getting a product sourced by a 3rd party.

lotsofpulp 2021-08-17 18:43:49 +0000 UTC [ - ]

That is also a problem, and they used to have the commingling fact displayed in an easy to find place on their website, but now that is hidden somewhere, or removed from what I can tell.

lotsofpulp 2021-08-17 18:07:04 +0000 UTC [ - ]

They definitely removed it years ago, at least for me. The option to check mark “Amazon.com” as the seller was there and then it wasn’t over and over, and then eventually just disappeared.

Edit: I just searched shelf and hot sauce on Amazon.Com on iOS Safari, and the filter options do not show any way to restrict to items sold by Amazon.com.

oliveshell 2021-08-17 18:28:52 +0000 UTC [ - ]

The option to filter by seller is still there— barely.

It only shows up if you restrict your search to a specific department, e.g. “Sports and Outdoors”.

zzt123 2021-08-17 19:56:17 +0000 UTC [ - ]

That’s just makeup over the underlying commingling, no?

2021-08-17 18:28:53 +0000 UTC [ - ]

handrous 2021-08-17 18:23:54 +0000 UTC [ - ]

So does Target, I think. Becoming a shady online flea-market must be incredibly lucrative, since everyone who can seems to choose that over just being, like, a normal store, but online.

jjeaff 2021-08-18 01:21:34 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I don't think it's about the profitability, at least for non-amazon stores, none have the volume to make it worth their while. But what they are going for is trying to get somewhere close to the wide selection that amazon has.

If you need something specialized like say, upholstery glue, Walmart may have 5-6 different options, one or two of which might be sold by Walmart themselves, if you are lucky. Which means likely long shipping times for all the others as they won't qualify for Walmart plus or whatever they call it.

If you search that on Amazon, you will find probably 30-40 different brands and types of upholstery glue available in all difference sizes, in a jug, in a spray bottle, bulk sized, etc. Most of which is available for Prime 1-2 day shipping and will show up next day.

Walmart and other retailers need to be working with some warehouse logistics companies that basically do what amazon FBA. Because as it is, most of the 3rd party listings on other retail sites are just drop shippers trying to arbitrage off Amazon or ebay products. If you buy from them, the seller will just purchase it from Amazon or ebay and have it shipped to you.

The rest are sellers that already sell on Amazon and ebay and just check the Walmart box in their listing management software to add a few more sales here and there. But without amazon and ebay, they wouldn't be able to maintain their business on Walmart, target, and probably about every other retail platform combined.

And I'm not even sure if ebay amounts to much any more. When I was in the business a few years ago, ebay did still account for maybe 20% of sales. I assume that has gone down, but likely varies depending on category.

dawnerd 2021-08-17 19:17:20 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Target at least isn’t quite as bad and they do seem to vet their partner sellers a lot better than the other marketplaces. They also make it very clear it’s a partner instead of hiding it like Amazon does.

handrous 2021-08-17 20:25:55 +0000 UTC [ - ]

You're right that they're not all equivalently terrible, and Target's better about it than Amazon and Wal Mart.

bitcuration 2021-08-17 22:10:43 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Trustworth? not sure sure. Walmart 3rd party seller is hard to contact for a return in case of problem. Walmart seems set up a way encouraging shop from Walmart own source than 3rd party on Walmart web site, which I don't blame them as that's where most of Amazon's problem came from.

However, Amazon does have one key appealing, regardless who's the seller Amazon almost guarantees the free return, where in Walmart you'd better take it back to Walmart store even it's sold by Walmart themselves.

The return policy is the one single reason Amazon trumped all other online e-commerce which is not hard to see but difficult to clone.

_huayra_ 2021-08-17 18:31:54 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Is there a better way than google shopping to find deals across sites for products?

I try to avoid using Amazon out of practical (e.g. products often being cheaper elsewhere, often have less worry about getting some SKU-identical knockoff that amazon absorbed from some FBA hack) and sometimes ideological (a CEO who rides a particularly phallic rocket into space and then gloats about it while his employees are treated like subhuman machines is an infuriating character to say the least).

However, I'm not sure if there is a reliable non-Google way to search a wide variety of other shopping sites without getting hits for bad aliexpress or ebay auctions for clearly stolen / counterfeit items. I already own a pair of Abibas and that is more than enough :/

wombat-man 2021-08-17 18:41:50 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I kinda gave up on amazon too at this point.

I'm at the point where I trust a few stores to not sell me bogus stuff. Target, Walmart, Costco, REI. All are good. Yes I know walmart and target have 3rd party sellers, just don't buy from those.

I am okay with paying a little more, or getting a slightly worse deal to get something I know is "genuine" or well made. Especially if I plan on putting it in/on my body.

I know ethically walmart isn't way better. But afaik they still have old fashioned relationships with their product sourcers. Meaning they're probably buying all their cereals/foods directly from manufacturers, for example.

cma 2021-08-18 04:12:21 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Costco, online at least, sells all kinds of bogus stuff:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/ojhrts/costco_is_de...

wombat-man 2021-08-18 14:28:30 +0000 UTC [ - ]

weird! Well, but for normal stuff they usually have good stuff, and a great return policy if it doesn't work out.

bluGill 2021-08-17 19:54:16 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Find small companies with a web presence and buy from them. They type that ship their own product. You will pay a tiny bit more, but because they know their product, and so the description on the website will reflect that. We have 4 different devices that will work, here is why you would choose each. In depth reviews. If you still have questions someone will answer the phone when you call who knows something about the product in question and so can direct you to the right one for you.

swiley 2021-08-17 18:54:48 +0000 UTC [ - ]

IMO: like most of the web it's about accumulating bookmarks.

Newegg is really great for electronics in general

Sparkfun/mouser/adafruit is great for hobbiest parts.

For specific niche stuff check your favorite forums.

1-6 2021-08-17 18:41:19 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Slickdeals, CamelCamelCamel

cprayingmantis 2021-08-18 13:24:40 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Everything is nibbling away at Walmart. The big one that I don't think people are paying attention to anymore is Dollar General. Dollar General has cut out at least half of trips to Walmart just by virtue of convenience according to the people I hang out with.

coolgeek 2021-08-18 17:34:18 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I'm not a fan of Dollar General. But there's something poetic about a smaller competitor eating away at WalMart's margins after WalMart destroyed so many small businesses.

ndesaulniers 2021-08-17 20:05:34 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I use both sites for shopping. Walmart has free (roughly) two day shipping if you spend $35+. For bulkier items and (frequently IME) better prices, I prefer Walmart to Amazon Prime.

I have major concerns over fraudulent or quid pro quo reviews on Amazon, and the prices generally aren't the best around. Free (or rather included) next day shipping is great though.

yann2 2021-08-17 17:20:45 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Long way to go on revenues - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_in...

zamadatix 2021-08-17 17:29:05 +0000 UTC [ - ]

According to the page those numbers refer to FY 2019 or FY 2020. Per the second paragraph of TFA for the last 12 months Amazon has an estimated 610 billion in sales (which are part of revenue), not FY aligned. This actually lines up pretty closely to just naively expanding the y/y growth rate on the page you linked over time. In reality it slightly outperformed that.

yann2 2021-08-17 18:35:24 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Walmart is ahead of Amazon by some 60B in q1 q2 rev and its increasing as covid effect/ecom sales start dropping. They will easily be ahead 100-120B ahead at the end of the year. Amazon cant touch those number any time soon unless covid suddenly surges and lockdowns restart. People are sick of sitting at home and going to Walmart is entertainment for a large segment of the population.

MeinBlutIstBlau 2021-08-17 21:46:10 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Walmart has a grocery service at multiple locations where I live without excessive costs for pantry items. Amazon cant compete there.

SeanFerree 2021-08-17 18:34:58 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Walmart usually has better prices. It's just that going there is a pain. I do prefer going to a store and looking at some things before I purchase them. With the speed of delivery it's hard to argue against Amazon though

FREETELEVISION 2021-08-17 21:54:36 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I ordered six lbs of Salmon Fillet for pickup today. Website said my order was cancelled, however weight adjusted for 4 lbs. Then got a notice my order was ready. They billed me for 4 lbs. But they gave me 16 lbs. This happened once before for 32 lbs. They always give me a couple FREE. Just on salmon. LOL!!!! I eat salmon everday, cheaeper than chicken at this rate.

HenryKissinger 2021-08-17 17:11:50 +0000 UTC [ - ]

> Propelled in part by surging demand during the pandemic, people spent more than $610 billion on Amazon over the 12 months ending in June, according to Wall Street estimates compiled by the financial research firm FactSet. Walmart on Tuesday posted sales of $566 billion for the 12 months ending in July.

$610 billion is starting to resemble the tax revenue of some nation states.

smnrchrds 2021-08-17 17:36:06 +0000 UTC [ - ]

$610 billion is more than the GDP of 190 out of 213 countries in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...

pope_meat 2021-08-17 17:41:28 +0000 UTC [ - ]

And some of those 190 even manage to provide healthcare to their citizens, there's no "oh they're just part time citizens, gotta be a citizen for 40 hours a week to qualify for a doctor"

swiley 2021-08-17 18:15:43 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Those countries probably also require upfront price estimates and the hospital admins might not be trained experts in gaming regulation.

handrous 2021-08-17 18:28:26 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Price controls. It's always (AFAI can tell) price controls, whether de facto or de jure. That seems to be the uniting factor in successful healthcare systems. Even Singapore, the closest thing I know of to a "free market healthcare can work!" darling, has some price controls (and uses the very real threat of imposing more to keep the rest of the prices under control).

overtonwhy 2021-08-17 18:20:27 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Ethically they're the same and I boycott both and encourage everyone else to do the same. Vote with your money for how you want the world to work.

sokoloff 2021-08-17 18:54:15 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I want well-priced consumer goods, broad selection, and fast/easy logistics. I do vote with my wallet and Amazon earns a lot of share of it.

mike_d 2021-08-17 18:13:34 +0000 UTC [ - ]

When a shopper enters a Walmart they have a fixed amount of money in their pocket and generally a good idea of what they want. You might get them to grab a candy bar, or buy the next grade up of tires, but it is effectively shifting dollars that would have been spent there already. Revenue growth is all about adding more essential items to the store and eliminating trips to other retailers.

Amazon has much more discretionary budget to try and extract from their customers, so time on site is absolutely critical.

I'd say the two aren't even competitive at this point. Amazon will need many years to build out a robust vertically integrated grocery logistics network that reaches Walmart customers. A few Whole Foods in rich neighborhoods isn't going to cut it. On the other hand, Walmart will never figure out how to sell stuff online without losing money, and will probably kill itself trying to chase Amazon for some unknown reason.

majormajor 2021-08-17 18:18:26 +0000 UTC [ - ]

> When a shopper enters a Walmart they have a fixed amount of money in their pocket and generally a good idea of what they want. You might get them to grab a candy bar, or buy the next grade up of tires, but it is effectively shifting dollars that would have been spent there already. Revenue growth is all about adding more essential items to the store and eliminating trips to other retailers.

People with credit cards shop at Walmart too, and there's a significant amount of marketing effort done to convince people to get new items they weren't planning on while they're there. Plenty of people there can be sold new things without going into a "oh, this new toy for my kid on the aisle endcap looks nice, time to put away the dozen eggs because I only have X dollars allocated for this trip" same-net-spending reaction.

(Anecdotally, my behavior is basicaly the opposite of what you describe: I got to Amazon when I already want a specific thing, and I find their browsing experience god-awful. I go to a physical store when I want to browse or shop without direction. Maybe I'll end up with a new shirt, or a book, or a video game, or a plant... maybe nothing...)

robocat 2021-08-17 23:46:06 +0000 UTC [ - ]

> People with credit cards shop at Walmart too

If people spend next months wages, that only temporarily increases sales.

Long term I would expect that non-Walmart credit would decrease sales, since shopper’s income remains constant but they pay more on interest so less remaining for other goods.

throwaway0a5e 2021-08-18 10:45:00 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Despite tropes to the contrary being very popular around here, not everyone who shops at Walmart is living paycheck to paycheck.