241 replies to this topic

[spanky123]

Not sure if I already said this but one time I ordered something from ebay and the tracking indicated it went all over the USA before getting to me.

 

Standard these days.

[Nparker]

The plot thickens.

Fastest flight ever from YYZ-YVR

[aastra]

 

Fastest flight ever from YYZ-YVR

 

It's like when the tracking indicates your package is still sitting in Montreal, but then five minutes later it's at your door. And then all of the intervening tracked events suddenly appear all at once. I like to imagine the delivery guy running back to the truck and hastily entering the missing records out of thin air so as to provide a semi-plausible account of the package's journey. But sometimes he messes up and forgets you can't get from Narita to Victoria via Cincinnati in only 45 minutes.

 

 

Standard these days.

 

Is it really? This ebay experience I'm talking about was probably ~10 years ago now. Crazy if they're still doing things that way. Although as a civilization we now seem to be doing absolutely everything in the most comically inefficient manner, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Which reminds me: I need to brace myself for the annual agony of dealing with the CRA and its Soviet-style absurdities.

[Nparker]

Another interesting journey for my latest Amazon purchase.

[spanky123]

GHG reduction baby!

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

The towering walls of the new Amazon Distribution Centre on the grounds of Victoria International Airport came alive this month.

 

The plain concrete facade now sparkles with mountain and ocean scenes — Mount Baker, the Olympic and Beaufort ranges, the Malahat, Mount Arrowsmith and the low forested hills of the Saanich Peninsula, all highlighted against a glimmering Salish Sea.

 

 

It’s an ever-changing display brought to life by natural light and shadows — the work of an artist who was raised in Victoria but has never before had the chance to display his ground-breaking technology here.

 

Roderick Quin, the principal of Vancouver-based Ombrae Studios, has architectural art displays on 90 buildings around the globe — Singapore, Los Angeles, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Sydney, Christchurch — as well as locations in Vancouver and Edmonton and across the United States and Mexico.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...e-walls-6686689

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 12 March 2023 - 05:03 AM.

[Sparky]

We popped out and had a look at this art close up this morning. Nice work on mesh panels.

I like this building. I want to go on a tour inside this place.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nparker]

...I like this building....

I like that it means I get more of my Amazon purchases within 2 days of ordering! 

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 August 2023 - 10:28 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

First world problem.




B.C. woman buried in Amazon packages she did not ask for and does not want

https://www.cbc.ca/n...kages-1.6926200

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 August 2023 - 07:08 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

First world problem.




B.C. woman buried in Amazon packages she did not ask for and does not want

https://www.cbc.ca/n...kages-1.6926200

Why doesn’t she just start an online shoe store? She’s got a steady supply of free inventory. Only a fool could screw that up.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 August 2023 - 08:47 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Amazon founder and reigning richest Washingtonian Jeff Bezos announced Thursday that he’s leaving the state from which he built his empire for Miami.

While Bezos’ departure raises questions about the future of his Kent-based space venture, Blue Origin, and his Evergreen State philanthropies, it also opens up the spot of Washington’s richest billionaire that he has held since 2017.

The Amazon executive chair has $161 billion in wealth, up from 2022 but down from his all-time high in 2021 of $201 billion, according to the Forbes 400 2023. That makes Bezos America’s second-richest person, trailing Tesla’s Elon Musk.


According to Forbes, as of September the richest people in Washington state were:

Jeff Bezos ($161 billion)
Bill Gates ($111 billion)
Steve Ballmer ($101 billion)
MacKenzie Scott ($37.1 billion)
Melinda French Gates ($10.3 billion)
Charles Simonyi ($6.4 billion)
Gabe Newell ($4.3 billion)
Howard Schultz ($3.2 billion)

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 November 2023 - 12:03 PM.

[Matt R.]

I am finding Amazon less and less competitive. Recent purchases like a 30” range fan, blundstones, pants, office supplies, all less expensive from other websites and delivery just as quick. The fan was delivered in two days to my local home hardware for pickup, everything else shipped direct.

I guess this was the end game anyways.

[Mike K.]

Right. Amazon is now routinely more expensive, and often by a huge margin.

[Victoria Watcher]

I guess this was the end game anyways.

Indeed. That’s why the guy is at the top of the list.

That’s quite a list.

15 guys that made lots of money. Plus two ladies that were formerly married to them!

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 November 2023 - 07:17 AM.

[max.bravo]

Amazon's product quality is noticeably degraded too. I never expected made in china stuff to be superb, but the last few things i've ordered have been borderline unuseable due to product quality issues. A kitchen faucet I ordered straight up didn't work (took hours of fiddling to realize in the reviews there's a known cartridge issue). Less than impressed.

[Victoria Watcher]

I ordered a spool of wire.

It wasn’t until the 4th delivery that one arrived without the plastic spool broken.

The great thing is they only asked me to return 1. So I got 2 free spools.

Maybe that’s why things are so expensive now.

[Victoria Watcher]

As Amazon continues to add perks for Prime members, it says it’s increasing the value to customers. But the Federal Trade Commission sees a threat to fair competition — one that has actually led to higher prices.

 

In 2021, Amazon considered making it possible to purchase only portions of its Prime subscription package, a deal that now costs $139 annually and includes a range of benefits from free, two-day shipping to gaming and video streaming to prescription refills. At the time, Amazon discussed “decoupling” those benefits and offering customers the chance to sign up for a “Prime Shopping” subscription that includes only unlimited shipping and other shopping-related services.

 

But the company backed away from that plan — despite knowing it was something customers wanted — because it didn’t want to lose its competitive advantage in the online superstore market, FTC attorneys argue according to recently unsealed portions of the antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. 

 

“Amazon internally acknowledges that many consumers would prefer the freedom to pick and choose among the services it has combined into Prime,” and that doing so would allow Amazon to offer those services “at a lower price point,” attorneys for the FTC wrote in the lawsuit. 

 

But that would also mean “loosening Amazon’s grip over both shoppers and sellers,” the FTC continued. 

 

Instead, Amazon “deliberately” implemented an all-or-nothing strategy to its Prime program, “despite knowing that offering additional choices for consumers would lead to more competition and better prices,” the FTC alleged. 

 

 

 

https://www.seattlet...Registered User

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 November 2023 - 08:10 AM.