Other online retailers (well, only the huge ones) seem to be stepping up their game and getting closer to Amazon's logistics and shipping ability.

It reminds me of how Netflix had more or less a monopoly on big-name video streaming for a ~decade but now every major rights holder seems to have either white-labeled somebody's tech or developed their own and are clawing back their IP to only show on their own platform[0].

Amazon had a long head start in online retail. It's true that they will probably never be surpassed in catalog depth ("the everything store") but I don't delve into the long tail of that depth very much and I'll be happy to move my retail spending elsewhere.

... well, now that I think on it, my only payment method on Amazon is my Amazon Visa, which gives me something like 5% cash back / equates to a 5% discount on everything I buy from Amazon. So any competitor is going to have that headwind to fight against as well.

[0] I wonder if this was a Netflix misstep: could they have prevented this by giving a greater share of the subscription revenue to the groups they licensed content from?

Amazon has also become a dumpster for poor quality products and high prices now a days here in Canada. Few months ago, I bought some bedsheets which claimed to be Egyptian cotton but upon delivery, that wasn't true. I have had this experience with other products too now on Amazon.

Their customer service and returns are still very good but the product quality and online marketing is filled with lies.

In my experience they've always required me to go to a UPS store or retail location (Kohl's, Whole Foods, etc.) to process a return, even when it's a counterfeit product.

Returns I've elected are a great process; being forced to run errands for a $trillion+ company because they've deceived you about the bedsheets they are selling is something else entirely.

There's a point to be made about how it's not possible for Amazon to check every single listing (made by other companies) for authenticity, nor they can use user feedback as a way to check/block those companies as many people use a different return reason than the real one (eg. "I don't like it" becomes "it's counterfeit").

It's unfortunate but you'll have to learn how to navigate the new amazon, and possibly use the mentality that everything CAN be counterfeit on this platform.

I think this is definitely true - and it's enough that I just don't find it worthwhile to use the service anymore. The overhead of doing detective work to determine whether something might be counterfeit, and the too-commonly-realized risk that I'll need to re-pack something and schlep it to UPS makes it utterly not worthwhile.

One will basically never encounter this problem with, e.g., Target, Best Buy, NewEgg, Ikea, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, or other retailers - what makes Amazon preferable to any of those brands, when the diligence you described is required to shop there and not elsewhere?

And yet sometimes I'm basically forced into using them. Twice in recent months an item bought from a retailer is 20-40% cheaper if I buy it from that same retailer but through their amazon account. It infuriates me. I'm trying to avoid amazon as much as possible, but if you charge 20-40% more for the same item when ordered direct from you vs your amazon storefront, I'll give amazon my business every time. I wish retailers would stope doing this. One item was fire starters and the other was a barbell.

Clearly that seller is getting some benefit for selling the product through Amazon, probably close to 20-40% of the value of their product if they didn't. They aren't just using Amazon because it's fun. It provides them some value.

> I'm trying to avoid amazon as much as possible, but if you charge 20-40% more for the same item when ordered direct from you vs your amazon storefront, I'll give amazon my business every time. I wish retailers would stope doing this.

Unless you change "I'll give amazon my business every time" to "I won't accept it" it will continue. It's basic economics in a competitive environment with a lot of buyers and sellers. To you, the cost of the Amazon experience is worth the financial benefit. There are likely other consumers that the Amazon experience is not worth it who buy it from the manufacturer. And likely, on the other side, there are those would use the Amazon experience for a mere 5-10% discount instead of the 20-40%. Those people receive a "consumer surplus" for getting it at 20-40% below value instead of 5-10%. The market has settled at 20-40%.

Big picture, if you don't like it in a competitive environment, buy from the manufacturer and help shift the supply demand curve.

> Clearly that seller is getting some benefit for selling the product through Amazon, probably close to 20-40% of the value of their product if they didn't.

Or the small pool of people who refuse to use amazon are willing to pay 40% extra out of principle, and the seller is happy to exploit this behaviour while it lasts.

Somewhat of an aside, I'm pretty sure at least one of the items was on amazon at that price in error. The manufacturer/retailer charged a large shipping cost (40lbs) when ordered through their website while on amazon the shipping was free. The item still shipped from the seller (not Amazon and not prime), so I saw it as likely either an oversight or an error because what I paid could hardly cover the shipping costs of such an item.