Amazon Owns a Whole Collection of Secret Brands (qz.com)

Mike Murphy, writing for Quartz: After decades of selling products -- and knowing exactly what people are buying, and when they are buying it -- Amazon has started cutting out the middle-man by selling self-produced items. Through its AmazonBasics house brand, it sells all sorts of small items, from iPhone chargers, to batteries, power strips -- even foam rollers, backpacks and washcloths. It's the sort of stuff that you might not be too brand loyal over -- who really minds whether it's a Duracell or a Panasonic battery? Amazon sees that a product is selling well, and may decide to work with manufacturers to make the product itself -- it's a tactic that is already worrying vendors, and can't bode well for partnerships in the long run. But those are the obvious instances. Now, Amazon is selling products across a wide array of categories, using a host of brands that do not exist outside the confines of amazon.com and do not make it clear that they are Amazon-made products. Trawling through over 800 trademarks that Amazon has either been awarded or applied for through the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Quartz identified 19 brands that are owned by Amazon and sell products or have product pages on amazon.com: Arabella, for lingerie products; Beauty Bar for cosmetics; Denali for tools; Franklin & Freeman for men's shoes; Happy Belly for fresh food; James & Erin for women's clothing; Lark & Ro for women's clothing; Mae for underwear; Mama Bear for baby products; Myhabit for consumer goods; North Eleven for women's clothing; NuPro for tech accessories; Pike Street for linen; Pinzon (by Amazon) for linen; Scout + Ro for kid's clothing; Single Cow Burger for frozen food; Small Parts for spare parts; Smart is Beautiful for clothing; and Strathwood for furniture.

Comments

Just like every store

[omnichad]

Make this out like this is some big bad monopolistic move, but every major retail company sells private-label goods. Whether it's Wal-Mart with its Ozark Trail or Mainstays, Aldi / Trader Joes and almost every product, or Target and Market Pantry, Archer Farms, etc.

This is not nearly news. AmazonBasics is very old news.

I did see Happy Belly products on an asian Amazon site. I'm not sure if they have many US products under that brand yet.

Re:Just like every store

[MBGMorden]

Yep - everyone else is doing it too, and honestly, I've not found a single AmazonBasics product that didn't work well. Usually they're completely no-frills simple versions of whatever you're buying, but they seem to be well-built in all cases. I'm using several of their mice/keyboards, quite a few USB & audio cables, a laptop bag, DVD-R's, and a whole pile of rechargeable batteries. All have worked well.

Compared with the generic stuff from Wal-mart I actually LIKE Amazon's stuff, and at least they're confident enough in it to put their own name on it. I'm not sure everyone really know that Walmart owns Mainstays, Ozard Trail etc, so after a while if the products are crap they can just change their brand name and start the cycle over.

Re:Just like every store

[peragrin]

It is called private labeling and every company can do it. You buy in bulk and get your name on the product.

As you said it isn't a big deal. However it can cut both ways or have we forgotten Amazon basic USB cables that under performed during the USB cable scandal a couple of years ago? True it affected lots of people but Amazon basics got burned.

As it is Amazon basic products have a lot of mediocre reviews especially cables.

Re:Just like every store

[Tyr07]

Walmart etc isn't an auction site where I go into the store and put my items for sale however.

They're directly competing with you if you sell well on their site, it's a bit different.

Re:Just like every store

[Anonymous Coward]

have we forgotten Amazon basic USB cables that under performed during the USB cable scandal a couple of years ago?

Obvious paid shill post by your sibling poster is obvious. To paraphrase Upton Sinclair:
It is difficult to get a man to remember something when his salary depends upon his not remembering it.

Re:Just like every store

[jellomizer]

A lot of smaller stores does this as well. Back in the days before every business decision seems to have a deep underhanded conspiracy, they use to call them generic brands, often sold at a lower price. Because you are not paying for the brand name. Or sometimes they will make their own product at a higher quality and put a fancy premium name on it. To get peoples attention.

While Amazon would probably be happy that people may choose their brands. It isn't like there is a huge advertising push to get these brands well recognized.

Re:Just like every store

[EvilSS]

Walmart etc isn't an auction site where I go into the store and put my items for sale however.

They're directly competing with you if you sell well on their site, it's a bit different.

Are you maybe confusing Amazon with eBay? Amazon is not an auction site by any stretch of the imagination. Now if you are talking about sites with third party sellers, then yes, actually walmart.com is exactly that. Thousands of third party sellers on there. Sears.com as well, btw.

Re:Just like every store

[jimbo]

Indeed, it's been common forever, and not just store brands, many brands we think of as unique are "OEM" type brands.

I read a comment from a worker at a toothpaste and shampoo factory; he said they put the same shit in tubes from different brands, sometimes with a flavor change added, sometimes unchanged. Similar story from a guy making vinyl siding - same stuff packaged in differently branded boxes, one was their own umbrella brand.

Re: Just like every store

[fubarrr]

Not entirely true. Back in the days when I worked in OEM electronics industry, pretty much all big retailers were outsourcing running of their private brands to private brand operators.

We were having a meeting with guys like Amazon, and BestBuy once in two months or so, showing them catalogues of what "Cheap Chinese Shit (TM)" we can bring to North America, nicely packed, certified, and labelled with their private brand.

Their only contribution to development of such brands was them filling checkboxes in catalogues, and issuing a latter of credit.

Re:Just like every store

[MightyYar]

You buy in bulk and get your name on the product.

In fact, most of the 3rd party sellers on Amazon do exactly this, and I am never sorry to see them go. 9 times out of 10 you can take the 3rd party item on Amazon, do an image search and find the exact item on Alibaba or similar. All they do is import it and sell it on Amazon. Some are even more brazen and simply go to Harbor Freight, buy some crappy "Chicago" tools and resell them without revealing the source.

Re:Just like every store

[Anonymous Coward]

but amazon is large enough to say to suppliers: lower your price (*FOR US*) or we'll sell our own brand.. or.. awwww, don't like our store brand? whatcha gonna give us to make it go away?

walmart does this every day, btw.. uses competing store brands (sometimes just the verbal threat of them) to extort lower prices from branded suppliers. they can get away with it because store brands constitute the majority of their sales... amazon ain't to *that* point yet... but they will get there.

Re:Just like every store

[gfxguy]

I had a problem with Amazon HDMI cables, so I am pretty cautious about their stuff.

Re:Just like every store

[SB5407]

Have we forgotten Amazon basic USB cables that under performed during the USB cable scandal a couple of years ago?

I don't recall that. I searched Google but found nothing about underperforming AmazonBasics USB cables. Do you have a source?

Re:Just like every store

[GonzoPhysicist]

I wonder how many of those are actually owned by the stores or are just relabeled versions of other brands. I know Costco (I think Trader Joe's too) does this.

Re:Just like every store

[omnichad]

Have you searched Wal-Mart's web site lately? They offer a third-party seller platform too. It's garbage, and it really just makes good search results hard to find - not quite as bad as NewEgg's program, but close.

Re:Just like every store

[MightyYar]

I was at the mall and there was this store called GAP. Inside was nothing but "GAP" branded merchandise. Later I found out that this same company also sells "Old Navy" and "Banana Republic" branded stuff. None of those stores reveal their affiliation with one another. EVIL! How are third-party re-sellers supposed to survive at GAP?

Re:Just like every store

[GuB-42]

At my local big box store (Carrefour), they even have 3 levels of generic brands for food : discount, standard and quality. Discount is obviously the cheapest and lowest quality, standard is on the same level as mid-range brands and quality is about the best you can find in a supermarket. There is a significant difference between each tier. I especially like the high tier : good quality at affordable price, stepping up means going to gourmet shops and paying at least double.

As for the actual supplier, it is usually identified by a code which you can look up the internet if you want. But considering that these are made to order, just because it is the same as one brand name doesn't mean the end result will be the same.

Re:Just like every store

[Sir Holo]

... every major retail company sells private-label goods. ...

Yep.

The Nordstrom Rack has a reputation for being Nordstrom's garage sale – designer and mid-range for cheap. That it certainly is. But also, in order to keep the racks full, Nordstrom's also has some labels specifically for the 'Rack' only.

Evergreen-brand T-shirts. I'm wearing one right now.

Re:Just like every store

[im_thatoneguy]

And groceries! These recent news stories are a little rediculous.
"Amazon to start selling Groceries! What does this mean for commerce!? Is Amazon a monopoly" You mean selling durable goods and groceries just like Fred Meyer and Costco and WalMart and Target and ...

"Amazon now selling white label house brands! Is Amazon a Monopoly!? What does this mean!" You mean just like Safeway and Krogers and Costco and WalMart and Target and QFC and Bartell's and RiteAid....

Costco also sells vacation packages, Gasoline, ready-to-eat pizza, hotdogs and even car washes. Amazon has a long way to go to 'catch up' to Costco.

Re:Just like every store

[Comen]

The Grocery Store I shop at, Harris Teeter does the same thing, in fact I notice that it must also watch what sells the most and can be replaced most easily and works with the manufactures to duplicate the items, just cheaper with their own name brand, it is a popular thing to do. It must seem unfair if you are the company it decides to replace.

Re:Just like every store

[tlhIngan]

I wonder how many of those are actually owned by the stores or are just relabeled versions of other brands. I know Costco (I think Trader Joe's too) does this.

Most private labels are owned by the store in question, but they contract out its production to generally well known brands to produce - almost no one produces private label stuff in house.

Costco's Kirkland brand (named after well, the city of Kirkland in Washington, where they started I believe) is basically specially packaged brand name stuff. As typical for Costco, it's usually of very high quality - Costco buys it in huge bulk orders that the brand name holding companies just do special runs for Costco. Costco also does special runs of other products, but doesn't label them under Kirkland - everyone knows about Costco specific models of products. Again, because they're large and can order in such large quantities that manufacturers will do custom requests.

But many other private labels are the same brand name stuff inside too. Unfortunately, everyone keeps it hush-hush as to who makes what and what is directly equivalent. The only way you find out is often during a recall where a name brand and a private label get simultaneously recalled (same product), or someone happens to leak it out.

I don't know about AmazonBasics, but I do know their stuff is OK. For someone who keeps losing USB cables on a monthly basis, I wouldn't bother with anyone but AmazonBasics. It's good enough. Ditto batteries - I use so little of them that we just buy a box and it sits there for a couple of years. If the remotes last a month shorter, no one's noticed.

Re:Just like every store

[pnutjam]

Doesn't look like their quality is always that good

Just like every other major retailer

[GrumpySteen]

Wal-Mart has Sam's Choice, Great Value, Equate, Mainstays, Ol' Roy, Dr. Thunder, Special Kitty, Parent's Choice, Price First, etc.

Kroger has Big K, Fresh Selections, Home Sense, Pet Pride, Private Selection, Simple Truth, Abound, etc.

Sears has DieHard, Kenmore, Craftsman, etc.

This is not new behavior.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[Anonymous Coward]

Wal-Mart's Dr. Thunder: I assume that's their lingerie line?

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[lactose99]

Sears *HAD* Craftsman, recently sold it though

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[Topwiz]

Dr Thunder is a clone of Dr Pepper. They also have Mountain Lightning (Mtn Dew).

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[EvilSS]

Sears *HAD* Craftsman, recently sold it though

Ah Sears, the company that should have been what Amazon is today, but instead is in a slow, inevitable death spiral instead.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[japhering]

Sears *HAD* Craftsman, recently sold it though

And *HAD* Diehard .. and is now selling Kenmore through Amazon

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[slew]

Sears has DieHard, Kenmore, Craftsman, etc.

FWIW, Sears started some interesting things before that...

Allstate (until 1995)
Prodigy (until 1996)
Dean Witter, Coldwell Banker, Discover Card (until 2007)

Also as trivia for ./-ers, Sears also happened to be the exclusive distributors of the first home edition of Atari-Pong (which they called Telegames)

In contrast, Costco (yet another Seattle based retailer) has had pretty good success keeping things straightforward with a single Kirkland brand. Apparently, you don't have to make up all sorts of "secret" house-brands to be successful with this strategy...

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[Anonymous Coward]

Do they have Whoosh?

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[demonlapin]

They couldn't have become Amazon, for a wide variety of reasons. Let's say that they had tried. Amazon grew by learning how to do logistics well and applying it to a slowly-growing number of categories. They started with books and music, which are relatively easy (they don't rot, and they basically always work so returns are exceedingly rare). Once they got good at that, they started branching out. Sears, by contrast, would have been expected to offer (almost) their entire catalog online at once. There's no way they could do that, not without cannibalizing their existing business - and it definitely would have done that. I doubt they could have grown the online business quickly enough to outpace the effect.

They also wouldn't enjoy Amazon's lack of sales tax for most buyers (which, let's face it, was a big advantage). They could have pioneered ship-to-store, perhaps, which is still one of their few advantages, but it also points out one of their greatest weaknesses - all those long-term leases on relatively expensive mall property. Amazon's warehouses just have to be near a highway.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[MightyYar]

We bought so much Dr. Thunder when we were building our race car that we approached Wal-Mart to see if they wanted to throw us some sponsorship money. They didn't, but we put the sticker on anyway for our own amusement.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[EvilSS]

You are forgetting that from it's inception until the very early 90's Sears already was what Amazon is today. They already had the logistics worked out, with stores, warehouses, and distribution hubs already in place across north america. They had already mastered what Amazon had to learn from scratch. They were the kings of the catalog business and that isn't very different at all from what Amazon does today, just with a different delivery medium (paper vs online) and a faster timeline. All they had to do was have the vision to see the future and transition their catalog sales to the internet. Had Sears embraced online retailing early the they would be a very different company today. Instead they stuck with their ways until it was too late.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[cfalcon]

> Telegames

I would get gamevision, but telegames? What's remote about the games? Ludicrous!

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[omnichad]

Sears has been a catalog-order company for over a century. Logistics is something they had figured out. They blew it all on brick and mortar and the the Internet came in and ate their lunch.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[Sir Holo]

Sears *HAD* Craftsman, recently sold it though

Really? Those things have a lifetime guarantee. Or maybe had... Good tools.

Who bought the brand?

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[Anonymous Coward]

They could have pioneered ship-to-store, perhaps,

The DID pioneer ship-to-store - they were doing it for decades before Amazon existed! And their entire catalog was already available for telephone ordering, online ordering would have simply been a different input mechanism. Their problems are the same problems they still haven't solved - high overhead costs from physical store locations and building an online ordering system that isn't a steaming pile. All of the back-end processing was already in place, they just needed a functional digital storefront. Sadly, they will probably never have one.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[Anonymous Coward]

Do they have Whoosh?

I believe that is their Nike knock off.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[CanadianMacFan]

Except in Canada where Sears has been making a series of PR mistakes and turning it into a fast, inevitable death spiral instead.

Things like closing a bunch of stores, not giving the employees any severance, and announcing a big retention bonus for the upper management that got them into the troubles in the first place. The the same geniuses decided to close down a couple franchise stores in rural towns (different word for it), all but one of whom were making a profit despite supply problems from corporate, and breaking the contract by not giving them the contracted reimbursement for breaking the contract.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[demonlapin]

They would have had to have avoided making those long-term mall deals. No bricks (low overhead) was a huge advantage for Amazon. But, in 1970, why wouldn't you sign a 40-year lease?

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[demonlapin]

True, but if they hadn't spent a bunch on brick and mortar, it's probable that they would have died even earlier. Businesses founded on anything other than location are always precarious; it's somewhat telling that the longest-running businesses in the world are generally based around hot springs/spas.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[mattack2]

Also as trivia for ./-ers, Sears also happened to be the exclusive distributors of the first home edition of Atari-Pong (which they called Telegames)

Maybe this is well known, but I just heard it from Al Alcorn's recent talk at California Extreme (Classic Arcade Games Show, caextreme.org).

Atari DID go to a toy show (I don't remember if it was the now famous toy show that happens early every year and is covered on the news, etc.), but NOBODY else was interested in Pong.

Sears had the exclusive because they were the only one interested (they had been contacted separately).

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[omnichad]

It's not about how much they spent - it was really profitable at the time. But this was just before the Internet was becoming a thing. If they had the foresight to keep their old stuff alive just a little bit longer, it would have been useful all over again.

Re:Just like every other major retailer

[billybiro]

Obligatory link: https://marketoonist.com/2014/...

There's something missing

[aglider]

Woman shoes (at least 4 brands) and man clothing (another 4).

And they're all generic bargain bin crap

[Anonymous Coward]

If anyone feels threatened by these brands it would be the people who simply import the same Chinese knockoffs and relabel them.

Not news

[Anonymous Coward]

And definitely not news for nerds or news that matters. They have been doing this long enough now there is no reason to even write about it other than some schmuck has run out of material and needs a paycheck.

Every single major grocery store does this. This is not news and not geek worthy in the slightest.

Batteries?

[QuietLagoon]

Buying batteries on Amazon seems to be more or less a crap-shoot. Looking at the comments, there seems to be a lot of knock-off, e.g., Duracell, batteries being sold and Amazon doesn't seem to care about it. Maybe Amazon has looked the other way to make room from their own brand of batteries, or maybe they really just don't care , so long as the sale goes through. Who knows? But I'll never buy batteries on Amazon.

Re:Batteries?

[JohnFen]

I don't buy batteries on Amazon, either. Even they can't beat the price I get at the dollar store.

Re:Batteries?

[R.Mo_Robert]

Yeah, third-party battery sellers (and most are third-party) on Amazon are a crapshoot and I don't trust them to be what they say anymore. Even if you're lucky to get something branded correctly, it's unlikely to be packaged correctly (e.g., pictured with a box but shipped in a bag and who knows who old). Battery Junction and other specialty stores have become my go-to shopping destinations for these, and they're usually cheaper unless your order is extremely small (Battery Junction does charge shipping). I have a lot of ZigBee sensors that use CR2 batteries but gave up on Amazon after a few sellers gave me CR123A cells instead.

I do buy AmazonBasics batteries on occasion. There's a reviewer, "NLee the Engineer" who's done extensive testing on their rechargeable ones (and a few other brands) and it's often the case that they're repackaged, previous-generation Eneloops or similar, which is good enough for me. The AmazonBasics alkaines are nice to have sometimes too, but I don't use many of those and it's often effectively cheaper to just throw in a couple alkalines from another store while I'm at it buying other batteries from them.

Secret? You keep using that word

[Anonymous Coward]

I do not think it means what you think it means.

Not Small Parts

[pz]

... Small Parts for spare parts ...

I can't speak to the other brands, but Small Parts was an independent vendor of small hardware (think tiny screws, nuts, tubing, tools, etc.) that was legion within the scientific and engineering community. Small Parts and McMaster (and maybe MSC from time to time), and that's all you needed to build stuff from tiny to massive. SP had a small in-house engineering staff do to things like cut tubing to length, if you wanted it, too, and they always did a superlative job, even for super-ultra tiny stuff like 32 ga cannulae (substantially smaller than the smallest hypotermic needle that most people would have ever encountered).

Then, Amazon bought Small Parts and it went to hell in a handbasket. I haven't bothered trying to buy anything from SP for a long while because what was once a highly functional web site became a gawd-awful mess. You used to search for, say, "stainless tubing" and get a nice array of selections that allowed you to use drop-down menus to set the different aspects and quickly get a price for exactly what you wanted. Or, you'd search for "spring wire" and get the same highly structured, easy-to-navigate page. Now, you get thousands of individual results and no way to navigate through them to the particular one you want. Bloody mess.

So, this is one instance where the suggested house brand is in fact NOT a house brand, but an absorbed B-to-B vendor. And one that got ruined by being expanded into the vastness of Amazon.

Re:Not Small Parts

[John.Banister]

Back when Amazon attempted Amazon Supply, I had hoped for their site to try and copy the functionality of McMaster.com, but they really failed at search there also. I think that some programmers look at Yahoo vs Google and get the impression that categorized search (and for replacement parts, categorized hierarchical search) is universally less useful for people, but at sites like McMaster and RockAuto, it's very much exactly what people need.

Re:Not Small Parts

[Anonymous Coward]

That's sad to hear. Small Parts came to the rescue when I needed 54-pin cables and connectors for 2.5" SCSI disks and an assortment of funky screws and standoffs.

Re:Not Small Parts

[pz]

Yes, exactly. The difference between Google / Amazon / Yahoo (flat) search and McMaster (categorized) search is that when one is using the first kind, there are many different results any one of which will probably suffice --- "womens sneakers", "usb-c webcam", "organic toothpaste" --- but with categorized search, one wants not just a screw, but a stainless steel, panhead, philips drive, 8-32 machine screw that is 5/16 inch long. Almost no other screw will do if that's what you need, and matches from other thread sizes, other lengths, or other head styles aren't often useful. It's a far more precise style of search, and under those circumstances, tree-based, or drop-down-based selection is far, far faster. McMaster gets this incredibly right.

McMaster (and, formerly Small Parts) also get another thing right that Amazon utterly fails at: quality. When I buy something from McMaster, there's often a premium price involved, but I have near absolute certainty that what I will be purchasing will do the job, and do it well. They also often offer a highly limited selection. Want a set of wire cutters? Other than different sizes, or different cutting angles, you essentially have one choice. With Amazon, they expand along the price/quality axis which appears to work well for them, but is frustrating for former customers of Small Parts and current customers of McMaster. I don't need to see two dozen different options for 13-piece drill bit sets, I just need to have one, maybe two, and know that they are both good. I don't need to see twenty different rebadged versions of the identical crappy oriental product; just a couple better versions that will work well.

Nevertheless, sometimes you don't want to spend $30 on a high-quality American-made tool when the $10 Chinese knockoff is good enough for your 5-minute use-it-once application. If there were a slider where one could trade off price against, say, customer rating, and get the best matching option for one's desired price-point, well, that could be useful.

Re:Not Small Parts

[omnichad]

It's the online equivalent of rearranging the store shelves. The longer you spend searching, the more likely you are to buy one of the bad matches in addition to the one thing you were looking for. This doesn't work with highly technical searches at all, but it gets them all sorts of extra sales otherwise. On top of that, they don't police 3rd-party vendors who list in completely wrong categories.

Re:Not Small Parts

[John.Banister]

McMaster used to be famous for never telling you the brand name, just describing the functionality, so that they could switch brands as they found a better priced product for achieving the same goal. However, you can find a selection of different quality levels for some tools by looking at differences in the described function. Their "pipe and conduit thread repairing taps" (which can shatter if you drop them on a hard surface) are a much more inexpensive way to have the larger sizes on hand, especially if you're mostly using them to clean up rusty pipe fittings or hand tap pvc. However, they're nothing like the quality of the same size pipe tap in the "pipe and conduit thread taps for hardened steel" category. Similarly, the $35 4066A75 6" diameter hole saw isn't something I'd want to use even on wood, but it's great for adding new passageways to insulating concrete forms and is less expensive than any 6" hole saw I might find locally. The $109 4002A54 6 1/2" dia hole saw and the $267 4002A64 6" diameter hole saw are of significantly better quality, and that's without yet transitioning to the ones with carbide teeth.

One impression I get from McMaster is that they're using tags rather than trees, so that they avoid the shelf organizer's dilemma of "do I put all the mild steel bolts together and then sub sort into inch and metric, or do I put all the Inch together and then subsort into mild and stainless?" RockAuto on the other hand, actually has trees, as no other distinctions matter until the "will it fit" imperative has been met.

One thing that might be interesting for McMaster to try is to allow customers to add their own tags (stored in a big cookie, not messing up the tags for everyone else), so that a customer might tag a 6-32 x 5/16 oval head slotted with "electrical wall plate" or some other locally significant use that could make repeat searching faster. If they see a statistically significant percentage of customers having a similar tag for a product, that might inform additions to their official tag collection.

Hmmmmm

[Oswald McWeany]

What if Amazon secretly own Wal-Mart.

Re:Hmmmmm

[slew]

What if Amazon secretly own Wal-Mart.

It's no secret that, Amazon currently *owns* Wal-Mart...
That's why Amazon "made" Wal-Mart buy Jet.
(yes, it's all part of the bigger illusion)

Re:Hmmmmm

[John.Banister]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is publicly held. The sale couldn't happen in secret.

No to panasonic batteries

[Anonymous Coward]

After 3 years, the batteries in my wireless thermostat were empty. I replaced them with new panasonic batteries. They lasted less then a month. utter and total crap those are. Do not buy!

Re:No to panasonic batteries

[amiga3D]

I'm using the Panasonic rechargeable batteries and they're awesome. Over 150 charges and they seem to last as long as ever.

Re:No to panasonic batteries

[Anonymous Coward]

Were they from a dollar store? Panasonic batteries are usually decent but it seems like every dollar store sells "Panasonic" batteries which are complete garbage.

Re:No to panasonic batteries

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. Panasonic Eneloops have a reputation as being among the best low-self-discharge NiMH batteries on the market.

I've got some Eneloop AA's in excess of 10 years old with probably over 500 cycles. I just tested two of them several days ago, and they came in at 1920 mAH, down from a little over 2000 when new. I consider that quite excellent, given their calendar and cycle lifetimes. I had expected to see maybe half their original capacity by now, but was pleasantly surprised.

Re:No to panasonic batteries

[John.Banister]

They're getting a good name in lithium batteries also. I've seen some sellers of 18650s advertise that they buy Panasonic cells and add their own button, protection circuit and label.

Re:No to panasonic batteries

[omnichad]

Dollar stores don't sell alkalines for a dollar. They sell carbon-zinc "heavy duty" batteries. And since heavy duty means something totally different from what people thinks it means in this context, they still get away with selling loads of them.

Re:No to panasonic batteries

[LunaticTippy]

Dollar tree has 8 packs of carbon zinc AA cells and 2 packs of alkaline AA cells. The alkalines have precisely 4x the capacity which makes me feel good about their pricing.

Re:No to panasonic batteries

[omnichad]

A 2-pack is believable, but I was thinking 4-pack in my mind.

Where the concern comes in....

[Anonymous Coward]

They have been using the data they get from sales of niche stores products to decide to outcompete said niche store by going direct to their producer/supplier and making them 'an offer they can't refuse.'

The result of this is *EVERYBODY* is too weak to compete with Amazon toe to toe, but nowadays anyone who wants to sell their goods online is stuck between Amazon, ebay, newegg and alibaba, and only the first is considered reputable for the broad variety of goods and the private stores selling through it. There are some even niche-er venues like etsy and what have you, but if you're selling something that doesn't qualify for those other niche storefronts, you're pretty much stuck going to amazon to sell your wares. And if amazon is going to SWAT YOU DOWN and STEAL YOUR HARD WORK as soon as your business is becoming financially successful, why bother starting it in the first place?

The modern world is literally eliminating the room for the little guy without eliminating the need.

Re:Where the concern comes in....

[GrumpySteen]

if amazon is going to SWAT YOU DOWN and STEAL YOUR HARD WORK as soon as your business is becoming financially successful

You mean all the hard work of doing a search on alibaba.com to find some doo-dad that they can buy in bulk and sell at a mark-up on Amazon?

Or do you actually think all those sellers are really sitting around soldering USB 3.0 cables, injection molding iPhone cases and sewing laptop cases by hand in their home office?

Re: Where the concern comes in....

[Anonymous Coward]

You make an alibaba purchase sound so easy, but it is indeed a value added service:
You have to buy in mega-bulk; the 1000s or tons.
You have to ensure quality, screw it up and your mega-bulk purchase is wasted.
You have to MARKET the product, why is this always assumed easy, it most definitely is not.
What Amazon Is doing is evil, they are stealing your hard won marketing insights to sell their product clone.

If you're in the mood for a $5 burger patty...

[kriston]

If you're in the mood for a $5 burger patty, it's not a bad deal. The clothing is unexpectedly good, too.

I care about battery brand, sorta

[JohnFen]

who really minds whether it's a Duracell or a Panasonic battery

On one level, I don't care -- repeated testing shows that the big name batteries do not tend to perform better than house-brand cheapies.

On the other hand, I do care because name brand batteries are insanely expensive compared to the cheap brands that perform at least equally as well.

Re:I care about battery brand, sorta

[Gilgaron]

On the offchance that you have a product ruined by the batteries, like a maglight (since they aren't designed terribly well in restrospect and a battery swelling ruins the whole thing), Duracell is relatively painless to get recompense from.

Re:I care about battery brand, sorta

[Jason1729]

Duracell is the only brand I won't buy. They always leak. I had a table ruined because the duracell batteries in the clock on the table leaked so badly (and the clock was still running). Maglite, xbox controllers, digital scales...everything I own that's ever touched a duracell has corrosion on it. And they don't honor their warranty at all for the past 5 years. They can't since they'd be bankrupt replacing all the things they've ruined. And if you don't believe me, google it. It's just duracell.

Re:I care about battery brand, sorta

[Gilgaron]

Ah thanks for the warning, then... I'd been tending to buy them since I had positive experiences before but perhaps things have changed.

Re:I care about battery brand, sorta

[JohnFen]

It would never have occurred to me to try to get compensation from a battery company in the case of leaky batteries.

But then, I've never had a battery leak unless I left it installed and sitting unused for years, in which case it's my fault, not the battery's.

Re:I care about battery brand, sorta

[aaarrrgggh]

There seem to be a number of fake Duracell batteries on Amazon... or quality has gone way down. Didn't know you could get compensation though... had to re-finish my desk because of a battery leak in keyboard...

Re:I care about battery brand, sorta

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just Duracell, all alkaline batteries will eventually leak due to pressure buildup from hydrogen outgassing.

Re:I care about battery brand, sorta

[Gilgaron]

Yeah it wouldn't have occurred to me if I hadn't searched online for any clever ways to get a swollen battery out of a maglight. Apparently Duracell and Energizer will stand by their products not ruining things. I lucked out in that one battery could be extracted easily enough to verify that they weren't expired. They gave me a check for replacing the flashlight and a coupon for more batteries. Amazon worries me for battery purchases, I usually get them at the hardware store, or if you have a warehouse store membership you can get them relatively cheaply there. Anything that eats them quickly gets Eneloop instead.

Asymptotic convergence to monopoly

[rbrander]

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public,"
  - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

The middle of this story will be filled with golden excess. But it won't end well.

sounds good to me

[doctorvo]

Amazon has started cutting out the middle-man by selling self-produced items.

If they can do it, why not? Middlemen only make sense if they add value, and if Amazon can go directly to the manufacturer, all the better.

Re:sounds good to me

[JohnFen]

I agree with this. The fewer hands between the manufacturer and me, the better.

How is that different from "brands"?

[bickerdyke]

It isn't uncommon that the brand owner doesn't own a production plant but already outsourced that to China and buys its own products labeled and packaged.

Re:How is that different from "brands"?

[Anonymous Coward]

(Replying to what I think you meant, since the language was a little difficult for me). -> Yes. Many western brands now outsource all production to a Chinese company, and put their logo on the result, selling it with a huge markup.

Sometimes you can buy the same product produced in the same factory to the same design for 1/4 the cost without the western company's branding.

Sometimes, the western company still designs the product, but even that is changing fast. There are Chinese companies that will do the design too: you describe roughly what you want, and they'll design it, produce it, and slap on your logo. At that point, the western company is only acting as an advertising and branding arm. Purely middlemen! I don't see any reason they deserve a cut of the profit then. I'd rather just buy directly from the Chinese company that designed and produced the thing, and support the people really doing the work rather than some fat-cat marketing executive.

that sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

hmm, my favorite complaint lately is just how bad those searches on sites, especially Amazon, have gotten lately. As you said the drop down menu to refine your selection have gotten useless. I get 142 results.....25 with brakes and 19 without brakes......NEW MATH FTW ?!?!

Not just Amazon, but they seem to be especially bad lately.

Re:that sucks

[gfxguy]

Well, that's actually understandable... sometimes sellers don't check all the boxes, sometimes they don't list features in the correct places. So the math if fine: 25 brakes, 19 without, and 98 "unknown."

Not that I disagree with the searching being terrible, just that I have learned to accept a few things as actually not being Amazon's fault. One thing to do is actually click on that "Didn't find what you want?" link at the bottom of the page and tell them why their search sucks.

Re: that sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

But the sites *look marvelous*. I blame Millennials entering the workforce.

Re:that sucks

[MightyYar]

Sometimes Amazon deliberately hides results. Not sure why - but you can often find things on Amazon with a Google search that are impossible to find through the on site search, even if you type words directly from the title or description. I assume these are products that they don't really want to sell, but they carry them so that Amazon comes up in any internet search for that item.

I think what everyone is missing...

[thomn8r]

Yeah, other companies have their own in-house brands. We get it.

What's insidious here is Amazon is looking through their data, seeing things from Company X that are selling well, and then short-circuiting that company's supply chain to procure and sell their own knock-off. Company X basically did all the market research and product development, and Amazon steals it reaps the rewards for basically free. Company X is now screwed.

Re:I think what everyone is missing...

[dasgoober]

I'm more concerned about Amazon manipulating Searches and Review in favor of their products.

Re:I think what everyone is missing...

[Anonymous Coward]

All part of their grand cunning plan to rule the retail world.
It is clear to me that they want to be the last retailer standing. Everything and I mean everything we buy outside of fast food and Gas will come from Amazon or Amazon owned entities.
I have resorted to only use Amazon as a last resort. They aren't always the cheapest either.
I was amazed at how much cheaper it was to use another online store than Amazon just recently. And I got free 24hr delivery and didn't have to pay for Prime to get it.

Re:I think what everyone is missing...

[Anonymous Coward]

Company X basically did all the market research and product development, and Amazon steals it reaps the rewards for basically free. Company X is now screwed.

Company X screwed themselves when they deferred to Amazon to handle such piddly tasks as merchandising, customer service, billing, shipping, returns, etc.

Company X put itself in the position to be cut out of the deal. Amazon did not. Amazon wins. Duh.

Re:I think what everyone is missing...

[DRJlaw]

What's insidious here is Amazon is looking through their data, seeing things from Company X that are selling well...

Which is inherent in any electronic marketplace, so the term "insidious" does not apply. What is moronic here is an electronic marketplace seller not realizing that the marketplace owner has complete visibility into their sales, whether it's Amazon.com, Walmart.com, eBay.com, or anyone else.

and then short-circuiting that company's supply chain to procure and sell their own knock-off.

How does Amazon short circuit the company's supply chain? More to the point, why is the company disclosing its supply chain to Amazon, and how would using that information be Amazon's fault?

It's not "insidious" to appreciate that if your vendor is drop shipping you goods from a manufacturer, shipping someone else's goods as a middleman, or otherwise selling something identifiably identical to other items sold by other sellers, there's an opportunity to go straight to the source or at least pit sellers against each other.

"Company X basically did all the market research and product development, and Amazon steals it reaps the rewards for basically free. Company X is now screwed."

Or Company X threw up a minimal storefront, bought the same made-in-China item a dozen others did with an order for custom labeling, and now Company V that actually researched and developed the item, along with labeling it, should not have the opportunity to deal with Amazon as a direct customer because Company X appears more sympathetic to you.

Re:I think what everyone is missing...

[Anonymous Coward]

But isn't that basically what Target and Walmart do? They have sales data and use that to position their own house brands to undercut name brand sales. Sometimes they don't even bother carrying the name brands afterward. Walmart didn't invent or refine LED bulbs, but they did come in when the prices started dropping with $1 bulbs for the masses.

And let's not pretend that every "Company X" is doing its own market research and product development; many of them do the same exact thing and just slap their name on commodity goods. If Amazon can do a better job of culling the substandard products from its branded lines, then it's a win for the consumer. Sometimes you just want to buy a powered USB hub without having to wade through dozens of models that are underpowered, overvoltage, fragile, or otherwise failure prone. Cut out the crap and I'll just go straight to your brand.

Re:I think what everyone is missing...

[omnichad]

More to the point, why is the company disclosing its supply chain to Amazon, and how would using that information be Amazon's fault?

Drop shipping, if they're dumb enough to have it shipped straight from China to the warehouse - Amazon gets most of the info they need to reach out to the supplier.

Re:I think what everyone is missing...

[DRJlaw]

Drop shipping, if they're dumb enough to have it shipped straight from China to the warehouse - Amazon gets most of the info they need to reach out to the supplier.

Yes, I already mentioned drop shipping as a possibility. The solution is, don't do that. There's nothing insidious about using public information that people simply hand to you to climb the supply chain.

Re:I think what everyone is missing...

[Anubis IV]

You say you "get" that other companies have in-house brands, but I don't think you actually do, given that you're suggesting Amazon is doing something different—something "insidious"—when really its no different than what everyone else has been doing all along.

Whether we're talking Walmart, Sears, Kroger, or pretty much any other national or regional chain, they all have access to the data you're talking about, and they're all leveraging it in the exact same way when they launch their puffed pice cereals, mattresses, and washing machines to compete with the name brands. The only thing Amazon is doing differently is that they're doing it online. Their practices (at least in this area) are no more nor less insidious than those of the brick and mortar places who came before.

not the problem

[bugs2squash]

I don't care if Amazon has its own labels.

What I care about is when I buy a product and come to suspect later that that the company selling it didn't have any intention of shipping the order. They presumaby just deceived Amazon into passing the order to them so they can collect the money upon feigning shipping the goods using apparently fake tracking numbers and hope that they don't always have to refund the money.

I have to wonder how many people actually follow through and claim their money back, presumably not 100% and even then at least they get to keep your money for a few weeks

Re:not the problem

[CanadianMacFan]

I've seen a lot of those in the past couple of months. It's some new seller come in with a really low price. I don't know why Amazon allows these sellers on the system. I've had one item that hasn't shown up but it wasn't from someone selling at an obviously scam price. I got my money back no problems from Amazon.

Now I won't buy anything from Amazon that isn't from them or fulfilled by them meaning that they have item in their warehouse. The great thing about buying something from another seller but fulfilled by Amazon is that they ship it out right away. I always save up enough for the free shipping and I don't have prime but whenever there's an item from another seller it's shipped out within 24 hours and if the timing is right I can have the delivery the next day.

Guy in TFA screaming for help!!!

[CanEHdian]

Nobody noticed the upside-down flag on the guy's hat (or does nobody RTFA around here? ...oh... yeah it's /.).

U.S. CODE. Title 4, Chapter 1. 8 "Respect for Flag" -- (a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

Re:Guy in TFA screaming for help!!!

[cfalcon]

It's a hat pin, it just flipped over on the pin axis at some point.

WalMart called and wanted their business plan back

[Anonymous Coward]

No one is missing anything... what you described is the entire purpose of in-house brands. Do you think Wal-Mart, Costco, Sears, etc. picked the most poorly performing products to clone? We were studying WalMart's inventory management in my MIS classes back in the early 90's, before Amazon even existed. WalMart tracked (and still does) every last widget being sold, where it was being sold and to who. WalMart was into "BI" before it was even called that, trying their best to associate credit cards and checking accounts to with specific individuals and families to establish shopping patterns. They were/are ruthless with using this information to cut costs, negotiate lower prices with vendors and ... identifying what items they should white label. CostCo does exactly the same thing.

Even the choice to use different names is common (and WalMart does it as well). The reason? There are some things that consumers don't like to associate with "value/generic" brands. These are sold less generic/"cheap" sounding labels.

There's nothing insidious going on here. Amazon is just doing what they do well, taking established business practices and trying to leverage them to best effect possible.

SEARS

[Anonymous Coward]

Looking at it this way, Amazon is just continuing its expansion into the place that was once occupied by SEARS. They still have a long way to go, since I don't think you can yet order a pre-fab house, power tools, and gardening equipment while remaining within the store brands.

Re:I mind if its a Duracell

[Anonymous Coward]

It's bitztream the autism-hating, custom EpiPen-hating, Musk-hating, Qualcomm-hating, Firefox tabs-hating Slashdot troll!

Amazon kills yet another middle man

[zerofoo]

Here is the final stage of offshoring manufacturing. Billions were made by importers who did not directly manufacture, but instead contracted the manufacture of their products to overseas manufacturers.

This is the warning shot - if you are successful doing this, Amazon is coming for you. You will do the market research, product development and marketing - then Amazon will simply take the business from you.

Any business that does not own its manufacturing and storefront is at risk.

Score:-5, Pwned

[Anonymous Coward]

Witness BitZtream getting pwned!... twice.....three times!

So?

[BitztreamNotARealNam]

How's life in the hypocrite lane?

Brands With No Brand Equity

[Anonymous Coward]

What are these Amazon brands? I've literally never heard of any of them, ever. I'm not a habitué of Amazon but this is still pretty bad. I've never bought a Michael Kors either, but I've heard of the brand.

Yes, if I'm buying certain household goods, brand isn't so important. TP, for example. However these 'brands' seem to be so weak as to be nearly non-existent.