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Source: (consider it) Thread: Amazonification
Brenda Clough
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# 18061

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I know an author who shops for her characters at Saks (on 5th Avenue in Manhattan). She learns more about them by contemplating what kind of Manolos they would wear. She does not of course buy these things. I have been known to shop for the right truck, for a character to drive, but I do this by sitting in traffic. I don't actually buy the vehicle. This type of shopping is now largely superseded by Pinterest, where you can put pictures of stuff for reference.

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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page

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mousethief

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I research books on Amazon, then message the local brick-and-mortar owner, and she gets them for me. Usually my message consists of a screen shot of the Amazon page for the book, and the words, 'I need this.'

[ 03. September 2017, 13:45: Message edited by: mousethief ]

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Uncle Pete

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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by Egeria:
Nobody "needs" to use Amazon.

This is ableist. They are a godsend to people with mobility impairments, as well as the blind. And for people who live out at the end of a 100 mile dirt road in East Bumfuck, Arkansas, they may be many times cheaper in time and gas than driving to the nearest place to get a book not carried by Walmart.
Nonsense! I make trips to local stores all the time. My money stays local. I am aging and disabled. I used Abebooks before they were subsumed by Amazon. I have never used Amazon or any on-line purchase which requires me to stay home to receive offerings and to repack and send back substandard goods.

If the store is local, I buy on-line, to be sure, but then I arrange someone to pick it up and deliver.

Colour me old, disabled, and grumpy.

[I hit enter before finishing]

[ 03. September 2017, 14:12: Message edited by: Uncle Pete ]

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Even more so than I was before

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mousethief

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quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Pete:
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by Egeria:
Nobody "needs" to use Amazon.

This is ableist. They are a godsend to people with mobility impairments, as well as the blind. And for people who live out at the end of a 100 mile dirt road in East Bumfuck, Arkansas, they may be many times cheaper in time and gas than driving to the nearest place to get a book not carried by Walmart.
Nonsense! I make trips to local stores all the time. My money stays local. I am aging and disabled. I used Abebooks before they were subsumed by Amazon. I have never used Amazon or any on-line purchase which requires me to stay home to receive offerings and to repack and send back substandard goods.

If the store is local, I buy on-line, to be sure, but then I arrange someone to pick it up and deliver.

Colour me old, disabled, and grumpy.

[I hit enter before finishing]

Yes because one example of a disabled person able to go to the local shops, and whose local shops sell online, disproves all the other people who say when asked that Amazon has improved their lives hundred fold. How could I have not seen that?

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lilBuddha
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quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Pete:

Colour me old, disabled, and grumpy.

And a pensioner, correct? You have the time that others might not.
Also, your preferences are just that; yours.
The fact is the world is becoming Amazonified because this is what most people want/like/accept.

I find it somewhat distressing because, as much as the internet expands, it also collapses.

quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
This type of shopping is now largely superseded by Pinterest, where you can put pictures of stuff for reference.

This sort of illustrates one problem with the internet. It can provide the idea of greater depth when it is merely expanding the areas in which one can be superficial.

This is not in any way, shape or form meant to imply anything about you or your writing.

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Hallellou, hallellou

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Uncle Pete

Loyaute me lie
# 10422

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Ah, I get you now. Because I am a pensioner, I have all the time in the world to sit by my window waiting for delivery. [Killing me] [Killing me]

You are a working person, correct? Ah, the misconceptions of youth!

I have to go somewhere.* I then wait til the next morning to book my transport, which may or may not pick me up at the time I desire the following day. Then I go shopping. Waiting time + travel time eats up a morning. A simple trip to the grocery store and 20 minutes shopping takes between 3=4 hours. When do I have time to be at home to wait for parcels? None.

* I use shopping as an example. Consider: doctors, lawyers, dentists, meetings or any of the other tasks of an old man. When I have free time I go to bookstores, or outside for exercise.

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Even more so than I was before

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mousethief

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quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Pete:
When do I have time to be at home to wait for parcels? None.

You're gone all day every day seven days a week? Good God, man.

I assume you live in a rough neighborhood. If we're not here they leave the package on the porch and we get it when we get home.

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Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
lilBuddha
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OK, apologies for assuming. You do not have more time. But who sits waiting for parcels anyway?

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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou

Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008  |  IP: Logged
Uncle Pete

Loyaute me lie
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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Pete:
When do I have time to be at home to wait for parcels? None.

You're gone all day every day seven days a week? Good God, man.

I assume you live in a rough neighborhood. If we're not here they leave the package on the porch and we get it when we get home.

How nice you live in a house. I live in a well settled neighbourhood in a well maintained condominium medium rise building. Neither the Post Office nor couriers will leave parcels in the foyer. So unless I wait, who will? PO and courier deliveries are Monday-Friday, which, because those are the days that I am likely to be out and about since those are the days where the places I need to go to are open.

I am so glad I am not you, making assumptions, in all directions.

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Even more so than I was before

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lilBuddha
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quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Pete:
Neither the Post Office nor couriers will leave parcels in the foyer. So unless I wait, who will? PO and courier deliveries are Monday-Friday, which, because those are the days that I am likely to be out and about since those are the days where the places I need to go to are open.

It still doesn't negate mt's point that, for some, ordering online is a positive.

Amended to say that this potentially sucks for you, if your shops cannot survive the competition.

[ 03. September 2017, 20:35: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]

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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou

Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008  |  IP: Logged
mousethief

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quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Pete:
I am so glad I am not you, making assumptions, in all directions.

I am so glad I am not purposely goading people and generally being an asshole like you.

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orfeo

Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878

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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
You might should have said that. What you SAID was:

quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
quote:
Originally posted by chris stiles:
Of course they do, the difference is that its easier to click away from a website than it is to walk out of a shop

I'm trying to think of a rational basis for this claim. So far I'm coming up with a blank. But then maybe shops are using magnets and forcefields these days.
The claim here by chris stiles was how easy it is to LEAVE a website. You disputed this. You said nothing about quality, or about wasting time.
Oh FFS. Seriously? It's perfectly clear from that I didn't dispute how easy it was to leave a website. I disputed the idea that it was HARDER to leave a SHOP.

Magnets and forcefields. You blithering idiot, I talked about magnets and forcefields.

His claim was not that it was easy. His claim was that it was easier. Do I actually have to explain the difference between "easy" and "easier" to you? Is that what this is about, your inability to understand comparators?

The conversation in fact moved on and I said different things after that, but I guess the remedial class should start with Step 1.

[ 04. September 2017, 13:41: Message edited by: orfeo ]

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lilBuddha
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quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Oh FFS. Seriously? It's perfectly clear from that I didn't dispute how easy it was to leave a website. I disputed the idea that it was HARDER to leave a SHOP.

Typically, one has made more of an investment in time getting to a shop. So, whilst there are no constraints, it isn't the equivilant of clicking away from a website.

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Hallellou, hallellou

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mousethief

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quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Oh FFS. Seriously? It's perfectly clear from that I didn't dispute how easy it was to leave a website. I disputed the idea that it was HARDER to leave a SHOP.

And it's perfectly clear my using the wrong word just once isn't the point, but I guess when one is wrong, as you are, one snatches at any straw one can find.

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mousethief

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Another point to be taken into consideration is environmental friendliness. Seems to me that, at least in locales with inferior public transportation, it is much more efficient, and with a significantly smaller carbon footprint, for one delivery van to drive by 25 homes than for 25 people to fire up their cars and drive to the shopping district and/or mall.

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lilBuddha
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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Another point to be taken into consideration is environmental friendliness.

And the environmental unfriendliness of convenience meaning people buying more stuff

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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou

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mousethief

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quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Another point to be taken into consideration is environmental friendliness.

And the environmental unfriendliness of convenience meaning people buying more stuff
Which they do when they go to stores, too. For example grocery stores in particular put staples like milk and eggs and bread in places where you have to traverse aisles of stuff you never knew you wanted until you saw it. It's hard to go window shopping with Josephine, lest she spy a hat she suddenly fancies. I am the same way about other things. And don't get me started on used book shops. I would be interested in seeing a differentiation on this. My guess is it would be a wash.

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lilBuddha
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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
I would be interested in seeing a differentiation on this. My guess is it would be a wash.

I don't think so. The internet broadens the consumer base, minimises effort and rewards* spontaneity.
From interest to ownership in minutes.


*In the brain chemistry aspect.

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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou

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Pigwidgeon

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I'm less apt to make impulse buys on Amazon. If something piques my interest, I'll put it on a wish list. I may or may not buy it at a future date. If something catches my eye in a store, I buy it right away because a) I don't want to have to drive back/park/walk another time; and b) it probably won't be there when I come back. Amazon gives me more time to think over my decision to buy or not to buy (or perchance to dream about the item [Biased] ).

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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
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lilBuddha
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I make notes, mental or electronic, both in shops and online. If a shop no longer carries an item, I can usually find and purchase online. For me, that behaviour remains the same in either medium.
I am, in this discussion,trying to separate random preference v general trends. Or rather, my impression of them as I have not read studies regarding them.

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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou

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mousethief

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Well this is survey based, anyways which atvl is better than hearsay or anecdote: Business Insider: You’re probably more likely to make an impulse buy in a physical store than when you’re shopping online

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Moo

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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Well this is survey based, anyways which atvl is better than hearsay or anecdote: Business Insider: You’re probably more likely to make an impulse buy in a physical store than when you’re shopping online

If you see something you like on the internet, you can always go back to the site later. Going back to a store is much less convenient.

Moo

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lilBuddha
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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Well this is survey based, anyways which atvl is better than hearsay or anecdote:

My impression is based on observation. Not saying scientific, mind.


quote:

Business Insider: You’re probably more likely to make an impulse buy in a physical store than when you’re shopping online

I'd like to see the questions and parameters. If you see something in a shop that you were not there for and buy it, it is definitely impulse.
If you see something on your friend's Pinterest, search for it and then buy it, you are still in that magpie moment, but you might not consider it impulse because the purchase was not immediate.

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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou

Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008  |  IP: Logged
mousethief

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quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Well this is survey based, anyways which atvl is better than hearsay or anecdote: Business Insider: You’re probably more likely to make an impulse buy in a physical store than when you’re shopping online

If you see something you like on the internet, you can always go back to the site later. Going back to a store is much less convenient.

Moo

I think it's much harder to see something you didn't realize you wanted online, where there is likely one item per page and maybe a ribbon with five or ten items that other people looked at. Whereas with a store you have a gestalt view of hundreds of products as soon as you enter the aisles or walk onto the selling floor.

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Boogie

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I really like the online reviews, they give a much better idea than shop people do.

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Doc Tor
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To be fair, the best reviews are at Screwfix. A bunch of middle-aged blokes trying to come up with new ways of saying "Easy to fit, looks the part, and the missus thinks it was more expensive. Sorted."

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Jane R
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Some websites are raising the bar for reviews. I made a reservation for a local restaurant online, with the result that I got an email from the online-reservation-platform offering me FANTASTIC REWARDS if I would write a 200-word essay on my dining experience.

What was it Tolkien said? "Things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, or even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway."

I don't hate any of my local restaurants enough to write a bad review, and cannot motivate myself enough to write a good review that goes on for 200 words...

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