Amazon?

[JDZ735M]

Before the Buffalo wing popularity came along in the early 90’s the chicken wing was a low end byproduct of the bird. At the processor level they sold at about 40 cents a pound. Normally now they go for $2/pound or so. Now it’s the leg quarter that is difficult to move, America’s prefer white meat.

Restaurants like little wings, buy them by the pound then sell them by the piece.
For me wings are like raw oysters, yeah I’ll eat a couple but then bring out the real food.

100%!

 

[Jstpssng]

as for small businesses not competing: it’s mostly their own practices that lead to their failure

I see things differently. Small businesses keep a lot less in stock because they need to compete with prices from Walmart, Amazon, et.al.
I used to be able to go into any general store and find things like decent pocket knives, basic hand tools, and the like; now you’re lucky to find chainsaw files.
Often I can get the same thing through them for comparable prices. The only differences are that I have to call rather than order online, and drive to their place of business to pick the item up. That may be too inconvenient for some, but I feel it’s worth it to do business with somebody I know, rather than somebody who has more money than they can ever spend, so can afford to keep finding more ways to take business away from the little guys.

 

[Dftodd]

Two drunk red neck truckers got into a “discussion” with a couple of motor cycle riding “bikers”, and things just escalated faster than I could talk sense to them.

Generally the bar patrons were truckers on their mandatory rest stand down, and if they started to get riled up, or too grabby with the cocktails waitresses, you could point out that there was a small army of security, and if they got involved, a beat down would occur, then the police would come gaffle them up and take them to jail. And, if their rig sat for 24-hours it would get towed. That would be about five hundred in towing fees, and eat most of the day.

Guys driving trucks are generally on pretty tight budgets for both time and money. $500, and a days delay was a serious issue for them, and they would usually go out to their truck to sleep it off.

Those semi wreckers won't leave the yard now days for less then a $1,000 minimum.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I may appear sacrilegious but what is the fascination with wings and hot sauce? At 70 years old, I finally tried Buffalo Wings with a multitude of different hot sauces and have yet to understand the a "why" of it all. Gristle and fat with a little bit of meat. Ribs seem to be more to my liking and don't need any type of hot sauce.

I ditched the buffalo wings for thunder thighs. Marinade chicken thighs in hot wing sauce for a couple hours, then grill them. Tasty and meaty at the same time. Way better than wings.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

How do you not pay shipping if you’re not a prime member?

There's a minimum order for free shipping, and it is always the slowest option. Prime shipping is universal and faster.

 

[reb]

There's a minimum order for free shipping, and it is always the slowest option. Prime shipping is universal and faster.

I haven't noticed a difference in delivery times. I had, temporarily, a prime membership. The promised delivery time with prime is maybe a day. Not worth it to me. I have ordered things that were delivered at the same time promised for prime delivery.

 

[reb]

I have noticed a couple of things with Amazon. One is the ratings. Sometimes I look at the ratings and see some with fewer than 5 stars. When I try to read them, I get a notice that there are no ratings with that number of stars.

Another problem is in the search function. I have found items listed that normal searches do not list. One was a lift chair. A search for that particular brand did not show one with a lower price, which I found another way.

 

[ponytug]

I order small items weekly due to limited retail store inventory in my area. Over the course of a year, my free shipping is worth a couple hundred dollars. I looked at some small items on eBay last week; they were cheaper than Amazon, but the shipping was almost the same cost as the item.

I comparison price shop pretty often. I used to find "good buys" on eBay, but less so as time goes by, which I guess is the sign of a competitive market that has earned the value of items. Ditto WM. For the items I need, Amazon is usually cheaper, often by a significant percentage. I try to buy used items at estate sales, where I can usually fix it if it has moving parts, or pick up quality tools for pennies on the dollar.

As for supporting mom & pop businesses on eBay, many of the sellers that I buy obscure items from on Amazon are clearly mom and pop operations as well. I think that it hard to generalize, but more than half of what is sold on Amazon is sold by third parties, of whom 15,000 sold over $1MM in 2019. Amazon.com: Sell Products Online with Selling on Amazon.

I think that it is a better mousetrap. And yes, the search is dysfunctional. Totally.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Oaktree]

There's a minimum order for free shipping, and it is always the slowest option. Prime shipping is universal and faster.

But not necessarily all that much slower. Seems to depend on what you order, I get the impression that different items are stored in different warehouses, and they'll consolidate the order when they have all (or most) of it, then ship. If everything's all in the same warehouse, the orders seem to ship within a couple days. I can live with that. I wish Rock Auto would do that...seems whenever I order multiple items, they're all from different warehouses and I have to pay for shipping separately on both.

As far as minimum order goes, it's only $25. I'll usually keep a list of items I want but am not in any hurry for and just use them to pad out smaller orders. If I need something NOW, chances are I'm not ordering it online.

 

[tallyho8]

As adults, with a minimum of a 6th grade education, it is easy for us to figure out whether or not it is beneficial to us to pay the extra for Prime on Amazon or to pay the membership fees at Sam's or Cosco. It doesn't take a PHD in college to tell us that if we only go into Sam's once a year to buy a rotisserie chicken, we aren't saving money by paying a membership fee. Don't listen to others who save $thousands by all their business purchases on Amazon and spend hours a day watching their prime movies if all you want to do is buy a bag of dog food cheaper. SHOP AROUND!!!!!!!!!!