@Steve-Miller said in Learned some stuff:
On a cosmic level this is a problem and costs us all. Here in the heartland, however, it’s not my problem. I evaluate the price against the local price and make my decision based on that. Bezos seems to be doing OK so I’m not too worried about it.
Indeed! Re who pays, I’m sure you’re right, we are all paying, we just don’t see it. It’s like shoplifting, the costs are there and probably baked into the ultimate prices.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of all the different costs that compares the total cost (including costs to the environment) of a consumer buying in-store versus an online ship-to-home purchase. It would have to include the difference in warehouse costs vs store overhead, the trucking/distribution and shipping/delivery costs vs the consumer driving to the local store, all of that. I’m sure someone has done that kind of thing. Oh and then a comparison of incident purchase, IOW the idea that when you shop in-store, you buy things you didn’t intend to, versus the idea that online shopping and next-day or same-day delivery spurs more purchases. Oh and then the comparison would need to factor in the likelihood of returning something purchased in-store versus online< and include the environment costs of returns as well. Even with all that, I suspect that the current model of online shopping results in far more purchases and profits than in-person shopping. (Although the environmental costs are likely higher)
Anyway it’s sort of thread drift, but my point is, the cost of porch pirates is eaten in there somewhere, but Amazon is still making bank.
So far the resolution is to let them bill the closed account and when the payment is declined they can decide what to do.
And then there’s this, which is just so stupid.