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A comment on Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores. Parent comment

Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by esaym on Monday September 03, 2018 @08:01PM (#17905648)
That's not the point. Retailers use a known supplier for their products. Amazon uses any one and anyone else (3rd party) can sell on amazon.

Common products that are normally sold at a high mark-up at retailers, are usually always counterfeit if bought from amazon. Case in point are the expensive electric tooth brush replacement heads by Oral-B.

You will pay $5-$8 per head from a physical retailer. Yet on amazon, there are tons of them being sold for much less. If you do buy one from amazon, the product will not be the same as from a physical store even though the packaging is identical. Its a cheap counterfeit.

Another time, I bought a hand cranked can opener. It was supposed to be a heavy duty "Made in America" can opener. Yet once I got it, the construction was nothing at all like the product images showed (was held together by cheap pop rivets instead of solid rivets) even though all the brand markings (including a big print "made in America") were there. It broke quickly. Looking on ebay I discovered an identical item only instead of it have a printed "made in America", it said "China"...

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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by dsjoerg on Monday September 03, 2018 @09:10PM (#17905896)
"usually always" ?! Where does that go on this chart? https://flowingdata.com/2018/07/06/how-people-interpret-prob...
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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by skookumchuck on Monday September 03, 2018 @09:01PM (#17905863)
I'm surprised retailers don't explicitly take advantage of this by advertising: "Don't be rooked by comingled inferior knockoffs. Get the genuine quality at BrandX stores!"
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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by pjc50 on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @06:13AM (#17907920)
Is this a US problem that's better in Europe, or is it a worldwide problem with Amazon? I've not heard much about it except via HN.
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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by fashionrob on Monday September 03, 2018 @08:21PM (#17905719)
Huh? There are genuine Oral B and Phillips heads on Amazon.
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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by hanklazard on Monday September 03, 2018 @08:28PM (#17905739)
The point is not that there are only counterfeits, but that your chance of getting one is much higher due to mixed supply
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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by pravda on Monday September 03, 2018 @11:07PM (#17906324)
The Chinese have gotten much better with the Oral B toothbrush head counterfeits.

I bought some on eBay, advertised as genuine but not. The packaging was near perfect. The only thing that gave them away was the different mouth-feel and two misplaced mold release marks.

Genuine Braun dual-action brushheads have two divits on top of the brushhead. The copies have the two divits on the side.

I sent a note to the seller warning him that some counterfeits might have gotten into his supply. Seller refunded me.

If you get counterfeits from Amazon I am sure the 3rd party seller will refund you.

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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by Buge on Monday September 03, 2018 @08:41PM (#17905779)
Have you bought them?
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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by jhou2 on Monday September 03, 2018 @10:07PM (#17906121)
I’ve bought both the brand name and cheaper knockoff Oral-B electric toothbrush heads. Haven’t been able to distinguish them yet in terms of quality and performance. YMMV.
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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by paulie_a on Monday September 03, 2018 @08:13PM (#17905690)
Banana republic uses multiple suppliers and apparently 32 inches mean different things in different countries. By upwards of half a foot. I bought 3 pairs, three different countries, three different lengths. There is no guarantee from a normal retailer either.
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Re:Hard Lessons Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores by ajmurmann on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @10:25AM (#17909243)
The fashion industry is completely crazy that way. It's not just banana republic. Years ago I worked on a ordering system for a fashion retailer and it was mind-blowing. Orders would be filled on a best-effort basis. You order 1k black M and 1k blue L and you receive 1.5k L white and 500 XXL red for example. So we'd have not only to store the order but also what was received. On top of that the designer might change vendors between orders and now you have different SKUs for what's supposed to be the same product.
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