Everything's a Marketplace

Jono8

Jono8

Jono8

Caporegime
Joined
20 May 2007
Posts
40,121
Location
Surrey
Is anyone else a bit fed up of the growing trend in retailers becoming marketplaces? Everyday, it seems like some other well known retailer is now a front for any Tom Dick or Harry with stuff in a warehouse they need to flog.

B&Q , The Range, Robert Dyas etc etc

Sometime its extra irritating (B&Q for example), as google search results take you to products that aren't actually sold by B&Q/that you can collect locally etc.

It just all seems fairly pointless. Might as well just stick it all in one big city sized warehouse complex and have one website.

/rant over.jpeg
 
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Yup, I hate it. Amazon is a complete mess as a result, but has been for years - people must be looking at their revenue and trying to copy suit.

Type "armchair" into Dunelm for example. 247 results. Yeah, right.

It just dilutes the offering and confuses what places actually sell (ie type, quality, brands, styles etc).
 
Russinating said:
Yup, I hate it. Amazon is a complete mess as a result, but has been for years - people must be looking at their revenue and trying to copy suit.

Type "armchair" into Dunelm for example. 247 results. Yeah, right.

It just dilutes the offering and confuses what places actually sell (ie type, quality, brands, styles etc).
Click to expand...

Yep. Even worse is when sometimes the same product is called something different on different sites as well.
 
Russinating said:
Yup, I hate it. Amazon is a complete mess as a result, but has been for years - people must be looking at their revenue and trying to copy suit.

Type "armchair" into Dunelm for example. 247 results. Yeah, right.

It just dilutes the offering and confuses what places actually sell (ie type, quality, brands, styles etc).
Click to expand...

It does indeed dilute things, And makes finding what you actually wanted, like trying to search around in thick fog.
 
Russinating said:
Yup, I hate it. Amazon is a complete mess as a result, but has been for years - people must be looking at their revenue and trying to copy suit.

Type "armchair" into Dunelm for example. 247 results. Yeah, right.

It just dilutes the offering and confuses what places actually sell (ie type, quality, brands, styles etc).
Click to expand...

I only found this out about B&Q a few months back, when I went to search for something a bit generic but not something they typically have lots of (can't recall what now, but was something I needed for the kitchen). Anyway the search returned something like 10k hits, and I was like wtf... Even narrowing down with filters didn't drop that number much, and all the ones I was actually looking at were sold by third parties so it was useless for something I wanted asap.
 
Jono8 said:
Is anyone else a bit fed up of the growing trend in retailers becoming marketplaces? Everyday, it seems like some other well known retailer is now a front for any Tom Dick or Harry with stuff in a warehouse they need to flog.
Click to expand...
drop shipping destroyed the high street and now is destroying the internet.

our local manufacturing disappeared to china etc, and now all you can find anywhere is Chinese tat from ali whatever its called.

life peaked when everyone had a decent job and a tradeskill, even basic DIY skills are now like a lost art.
just transformed into mindless drone consumers.

it's like an ant colony with some billionaire at the top, none of the workers are important at all
 
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Noxia said:
If I get the product I need I don't really care where it came from
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you'll care when the only options are cheap crap from the third world that is poor quality and lasts 5 minutes.
It's already becoming hard to find the good stuff unless you know what brands to specifically search for

amazon etc just show pages of cheap chinese crap if your search is generic terms
 
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arknor said:
you'll care when the only options are cheap crap from the third world that is poor quality and lasts 5 minutes
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Nope, why would I be buying cheap crap? Easily avoidable problem that..

Edit. Wires crossed maybe, I'm talking about branded products, like if I buy say a Bosch drill, I don't care who supplies it.
Then again look at where most of the stuff in b&q is made. I'm sure you won't be surprised.
 
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Was driving me crazy today. I was trying to find an unusual item, kept thinking it was for sale at places like B&Q but it turned out to be just another random third party.
 
Noxia said:
If I get the product I need I don't really care where it came from
Click to expand...

You will do when you need a tool "now", see that B&Q have it "in stock", and then realise that actually they don't, the company they allow to advertise on their website has it in stock, and you can get it in 3 days after you pay for shipping.

Dear B&Q. If I was happy waiting for it, why would I buy it from you to get it in 3 days after paying for shipping, when I can buy it from Amazon (for probably cheaper) and get it delivered tomorrow (or in some cases even tonight) for free?

(Tip for B&Q - filter using the 1 hour click & collect criteria, will show you stuff actually available in your selected store - or just use screwfix {sadly owned by the same company, so don't be surprised if they go the same way soon :( })
 
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