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A comment on Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices. Parent comment

Re:Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Dev... by sageabilly on Thursday October 01, 2015 @02:28PM (#10313433)
Amazon has never been able to keep up with physical store prices on loss leaders- items that stores frequently mark down below inventory costs to get people in the door in the hopes they will also buy enough marked up merchandise to make up for the loss.

I did compare Bounty paper towels and Charmin Ultra about a month ago between Costco and Amazon and found that the dollar savings I got at Costco didn't make up for having to drive 20 minutes to get there (and battle all the soccer moms for a parking space). This might not be the case everywhere and for everyone, of course, but for me I am usually willing to pay a little more for next day delivery to my door in exchange for shopping in my pajamas.

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Re:Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Dev... by _delirium on Thursday October 01, 2015 @02:39PM (#10313531)
Even on just middle-of-the-road household goods, ignoring weekly sales, Amazon doesn't seem very competitive with brick-and-mortar stores for staple goods, or at least those I buy. I occasionally run down a list of stuff I typically buy at Walmart (shampoo, detergent, OTC drugs, sponges, that kind of thing) to see if any of it has gotten competitive on Amazon, and it usually ends up being way more, not just 5% more or something but more like 50%+.
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Re:Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Dev... by burkemw3 on Thursday October 01, 2015 @03:21PM (#10313926)
Prime Pantry is extremely competitive for me (in New York City) compared to brick-and-mortar stores.

I agree that before Prime Pantry, however, that Amazon was more expensive or I had to buy way to many items (e.g. 10 bottles of shampoo).

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Re:Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Dev... by chc on Thursday October 01, 2015 @05:12PM (#10314764)
Interesting. Just a couple of days ago, I compared some kitchen cleaning supplies at my local Target to Amazon and found Amazon quite a bit cheaper. I wonder if it's a matter of regional variation, where Amazon just isn't pricing competitively for your local market and Walmart is.
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Re:Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Dev... by sageabilly on Friday October 02, 2015 @07:43AM (#10317863)
Probably very much the case- I live in one of the most expensive metro regions in the US so unless I drive a ways out of town to a Walmart things are marked up pretty far.
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Re:Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Dev... by porsupah on Thursday October 01, 2015 @07:07PM (#10315448)
Not even limited to such items, I'd say - when I was looking to buy a (then new) Nikon D7100 in 2013, Amazon's price was quite in the middle of the pack, with some tiny stores offering the best prices.

These days, for anything non-trivial, I'll treat Amazon as the virtual storefront, then look around for competing prices, with Amazon as the last resort.

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