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Re:Shopping Sucks Now by vector_spaces on Friday December 13, 2019 @04:36PM (#21785768)
I feel this so much. Sometimes I'll look up objects I've bought in brick & mortar stores that I've been completely happy with, and find that they have dismal reviews. This is why for certain items I make a conscious effort to not bother looking at the reviews. Even if it were possible for me to find the best doormat, it simply wouldn't be worth the time, labor, and emotional energy of sifting through reviews and forums and blog posts, and discerning fake reviews and influencer marketing and people who have different requirements and expectations than me, and product SKUs that have changed since reviews/posts/whatever were written.

As an aside: I'd love to find the best cat wand toy. I've tried hundreds from pretty much all the major eCommerce sites and they all suck. If someone knows of one that won't break immediately I'd be willing to pay top dollar for it.

But yeah, unfortunately as other commenters have pointed out, in small towns and even where I am in Albuquerque, brick & mortar stores are either disappearing or aggressively shifting their business to the internet, so it's becoming more and more unavoidable to come into contact with reviews and whatnot even for relatively basic items.

Re:Shopping Sucks Now by egypturnash on Saturday December 14, 2019 @01:25AM (#21788147)
Go outside and find a reasonably solid stick, clean it up a bit, and take the cord and toy off of one of your broken cat wands. Or visit the hardware store and get a reasonably solid dowel and do the same.

It won’t be The Best but it will have a much lower carbon footprint than buying another plastic one made in China, shipped across the ocean, and then shipped around three or four times while people try to arbitrage costs between major e-commerce sites. And if you have any kind of mystical bent then it can also have the bonus of being charged with you thinking about how much you love your little mouse-murderer, and that will make it far better than any mass-produced toy.

Re:Shopping Sucks Now by Stratoscope on Friday December 13, 2019 @10:08PM (#21787542)
> I'd love to find the best cat wand toy.

I don't know if there is a best one, but after trying several, my cats found one they really like:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01ANUU12I/

We got this expansion kit to go with it:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00UZK5WQC/

One nice thing about this wand is that it has three telescoping sections, so the tip section is thin and wiggly.

It's so wiggly that the cats learned to use it on their own!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46rROBUDPYI

Re:Shopping Sucks Now by evanweaver on Saturday December 14, 2019 @04:22AM (#21788608)
Never had any problems with Da Bird wand.

https://www.dabird.com/da-bird