this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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So politely, how does Amazon offering a better price on a niche paper product conflate into them having a monopoly on the "tech industry"?
I'd posit the real thing here is that Amazon's warehouses allow them to keep less-purchased products around in stock that a brick-and-mortar retail store simply wouldn't bother with at all, but that's been the case for decades at this point.
And, yes, printing out images has become an uncommon activity and I can't say I'd blame any of the larger stores for only having a single expensive option available, but that's their decision, not Amazon's.
The long tail has always been one of Amazon's strengths.
That said, buying anything from them runs a good chance of getting knock off garbage these days.
Yep. I actually order more junk from AliExpress than Amazon now, because it's the same shit except AliExpress is half the cost so if I'm going to get junk at least I'm paying junk-level prices.
(This is mostly components and other hobby-related stuff where there never really was any difference between AliExpress and Amazon, other than faster shipping.)
Bingo. Temu and Aliexpress. Same site, really.
Woodpecker or the item you can freely drop on the concrete floor without crying due to loss of investment.
Eh, going to disagree that Aliexpress == Temu.
Not that I'm saying Aliexpress is a paragon of virtue, but Temu is full of dark patterns, scammy "discounts" and just nonstop playing games trying to get you to buy now, refer people, and "win" shit. It's a gambling app that happens to sell toxic trash as a side gig.
Aliexpress really has cleaned their shit up and basically sends you what you expect to get, when you expect to get it, and has made refunds for blatant bullshit (I had to return some clearly counterfeit remarked chips) if not easy then at least something you could actually accomplish.
100% agreed. There's no way I'm touching Temu, but I do go to AliExpress every now and then. And most of the time, I can line up the Amazon listing for whatever I'm buying with a bit of research, so I can benefit from the reviews there (and not the 5 star reviews, but 1-2 star reviews).
Not only that but Amazon isn't the only online retailer to sell stuff like this. OP only checked some brick and mortar stores then went straight to Amazon without even checking out other places like Canon directly, B&H, Walmart.com, etc.
Doesn't look like they went to an Office Max/Depot or Staples either, which honestly, would be my first stop for printers and printer accessories these days, since printers have very much fallen into just office-use shit and that one damn thing a year you have to print because some jackass is still stuck in 1988.
Honestly, you should probably never go to Office Max/Depot or Staples for printer stuff because they often overcharge. Unless you need to print photos, get a reliable laser printer (Brother is great) and then shop around for toner when it's time to replace in a few years. I found the toner I needed through the MFG website, then searched around a bit to see if there was a better deal. Toner is almost never an emergency, it'll warn you when it's low, which means you probably have a few months to order something.
Also, don't get an inkjet, you'll pay out the nose for it. If you do need to print photos, I recommend sending batches to get printed somewhere else. Yeah, it's not as convenient as having the printer right there, but it'll save a bit of time and headache, and probably some cash as well.
I buy paper at Costco and toner online at whatever retailer is cheapest. For office supplies, I generally stock up around back-to-school sales in August/September (in the US). The only time I go to an office supply store is if I really need some folders or something around tax season.
For starters, it's typically not "better price" so much as "only people able to consistently obtain supply". The real price is very likely higher than it was 5-10 years ago when production was prolific.
But also, we saw this game play out with Walmart. The monopoly retailer has an opportunity to outsource to the least ethical producer.
So Amazon gets to be the sole distributor of printer paper, the manufacturer is some old growth harvestor in the Amazon using prison/slave labor for harvesting/processing, and even then you're paying more for a worse product than when a well regulated and unionized workforce was producing the commodity a decade earlier.
That doesn't really make sense in this context as this paper is made by Canon not Amazon. You could make the argument that Canon is using rainforest paper, but then the rest of this kind of falls apart.
Rubbermaid had to completely downsize and restructure its workforce as Walmart chewed through the retail competitors who purchased their products wholesale. This was back in the 90s.
Canon is under the same pressure today. Amazon sets the wholesale price point as a monopsony and Canon has to deliver at that price or fail to make the sales.