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Amazon warehouses won't offer significant pick-up services at their warehouses because it's pointless and likely not profitable. It requires staff to man, disrupts normal delivery scheduling and stocking, puts an onus on customers to check the stocking of items and an onus on Amazon to have every warehouse stocked with the full range of popular in-person pickup goods. Paper Tiger pointed out some of the other pragmatic issues too. This kind of store already existed in the UK - a big high-street retailer called Argos in the UK, basically brick and mortar Amazon before Amazon, has catalogue stores which are just big stockrooms fronted by small reception areas with catalogues (formerly physical, now touch screens). They are shuttering these stores because they don't make profit compared to their online store. Not to mention Amazon warehouses are by and large out of the way on industrial estates.
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Dec 2, 2020 14:20
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Schubalts posted:Retail space is constructed very differently from housing. If you're converting a full mall into actual living spaces, you might as well just tear it down and build an apartment building/complex on the land Here's a great article about the pitfalls of reusing offices. Even if this poo poo-box was razed to the ground and something decent built (yeah right) it would still be cut-off from most basic needs. The UK policy was all about reducing "red tape" so companies could fleece the citizens, as well as siphon from the welfare state. Nice conservative low-friction capitalism. Bastards. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/27/housing-crisis-planning-converting-office-blocks-homes-catastrophe-jenrick Regarding Amazon, they wouldn't want to offer customer service for stuff they are just warehousing and shipping, as well as the other reasons mentioned. Knowing how large these places are (worked in the largest EU one, sadly) it just wouldn't make any practical sense. YerDa Zabam has a new favorite as of 15:10 on Dec 2, 2020 |
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Dec 2, 2020 15:06
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Here's a question I've asked in a thread or two before: In some areas they effectively have this already; it's called Amazon Hub Locker+. The one by me is a little room attached to the side of the warehouse. You order something online, if you have a warehouse with Hub that has the item it lets you know and you can pick it up same day. You go to the warehouse, they have a little room to the side with those Amazon lockers but they open straight through to the warehouse area, in the app you let them know you're there and someone puts your thing in the locker. You can also return stuff there as well.
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Dec 2, 2020 16:33
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ReidRansom posted:What you're essentially describing there is a giant Service Merchandise. That’s exactly what I was thinking. Bought a CD player there once...might have been a tape player.
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Dec 2, 2020 16:39
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All the Rite Aids in NYC voluntarily gave up a lot of shelf space for Amazon Lockers.
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Dec 2, 2020 16:43
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Here's a question I've asked in a thread or two before: In addition to what's been said already: their whole inventory management system isn't designed to grab arbitrary items quickly. It's not like they've got somebody standing by and the instant your order comes in they go "Hey, Teriyaki just requested a single baby Yoda Pez dispenser, I'm going to go grab that." It's designed around how to optimally pull a given batch of orders quickly: all the orders get put into a queue and then sorted to optimize how fast the stock-pullers can grab them. It's an extremely efficient (and inhumane!) system. Changing this up by having another employee jump in and go "whoops, I need to pull like twenty different Funko pops that this neckbeard out front wants" throws off the entire system.
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Dec 2, 2020 16:52
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Amazon has been trying physical stores. Just not at their warehouses. https://www.amazon.com/find-your-store/b/?node=17608448011
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Dec 2, 2020 17:29
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Back in the day, Tiger Direct warehouses had storefronts bolted on. It worked pretty well, but almost certainly wouldn't scale to Amazon levels.
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Dec 2, 2020 18:14
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Zero One posted:Amazon has been trying physical stores. Just not at their warehouses. One actually popped up not too far from me (in a dying mall no less  ) and I went to check it out a couple months ago. It really feels like one of those mall stores that pops up, sells way too broad an inventory, then disappears in six months. It's one of those 4-star ones, and the idea is they just have a bunch of stuff rated 4-5 stars there alongside Amazon branded stuff (like Echoes, Fire Sticks, etc). It was ok, but I really don't think I'll ever go back there. I can order literally everything there online with more options (color/size/etc), in addition to comparing it to similar brands and whatnot, and have it at my apartment in two days. It's just really not worth the gas.
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Dec 2, 2020 18:33
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I live in a town with a fulfillment center on the outskirts and if you order early enough and it's already in that warehouse they will drive it to my place or a locker; I've had things arrive within two hours (this is of course predicated on it being in that particular fulfillment center which there is no way to predict). Also it's weird to see people talking about Amazon lockers like a new thing when I've been using them for 5-6 years at this point. I just kind of assumed they were commonlplace, because they're in front of every convenience store in town (all Quik Trips and franchise 7-11s) and now some of the larger apartment complexes have full hub lockers now (especially ones targeting people under 30) . . . but maybe this is a west of the Rockies thing. --- RE: Malls Pre-COVID some malls were seeing a comeback. These are ones that encouraged local businesses to fill the empty spots, creating interesting spaces where you can visit your mom and pop board game shop and then walk into a GNC or Bath and Bodyworks. COVID has kind of put a bullet in that.
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Dec 2, 2020 19:03
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Paper Tiger posted:- Even if a customer isn't supposed to be on the warehouse floor, by God they'll find a way I suspect that's actually the big one Silly Newbie posted:Back in the day, Tiger Direct warehouses had storefronts bolted on. It worked pretty well, but almost certainly wouldn't scale to Amazon levels. Newegg allows you to pick things up from their warehouse instead of shipping, which is very nice if you absolutely need Thing today, cannot wait for shipping, and your local big box stores don't have it (or you live in the same town and really don't need the package going through a city 30 miles away first). There's a microcenter here that's closer, though, so that's become much less speaking
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Dec 2, 2020 19:46
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Karia posted:In addition to what's been said already: their whole inventory management system isn't designed to grab arbitrary items quickly. It's not like they've got somebody standing by and the instant your order comes in they go "Hey, Teriyaki just requested a single baby Yoda Pez dispenser, I'm going to go grab that." It's designed around how to optimally pull a given batch of orders quickly: all the orders get put into a queue and then sorted to optimize how fast the stock-pullers can grab them. It's an extremely efficient (and inhumane!) system. Changing this up by having another employee jump in and go "whoops, I need to pull like twenty different Funko pops that this neckbeard out front wants" throws off the entire system. This is the reason. I know some people who worked on inventory management at Walmart, and their entire operation is very carefully optimized to lower their overall operating expenses. If they had to support ad hoc requests from customers, it'd be basically impossible to do what they do now. At Amazon or Walmart scale, even something like improving the prediction of arrival dates by one day can have a nine figure effect on their bottom line, so they're not going to take a much bigger hit than that.
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Dec 2, 2020 19:59
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ookiimarukochan posted:The UK government passed legislation allowing this for office buildings etc, and the housing ends up being really really lovely. I mean if you're all for shanty towns then yeah it's a great idea, but really it's not advisable I live in a converted office building and it can be done nicely. But surprise surprise if deveopers cheap out congratulations you have created a slum, same as with new builds.
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Dec 2, 2020 20:05
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I've done same day pickup at the Newegg distribution center and it was pretty nice. They've got a bunch of display PCs and gamer chairs to distract you from the dread of picking up hard drives to rebuild the company SAN that failed.
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Dec 2, 2020 20:10
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Wow Service Merchandise is a name I haven't heard in a long time...memories... But to the poster talking about the Fry's/Microcenter in the west chicago suburbs, I've been to both of those and know exactly what you're talking about. One of my friends even worked at that MC for a few years in the tech dept. I really do miss the high point of the technology stores in the late 90's/early 00's. Walking into a Best Buy or MC, and that tech smell in the doorway was very enticing to a teenage nerd during that time. Being able to look at all the controllers, hardware, and latest software was a lot of hours of my youth. But now with Newegg/Amazon/Steam...I can't even remember the last time I was in a tech store. At the Downers Grove Best Buy, I also remember a KC Masterpiece restaurant next door. They had some great onion straws and was the first place I ever saw that put basically a full sized hand towel down at every place setting.
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Dec 2, 2020 20:10
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A White Guy posted:I can't imagine walking into a mall nowadays, I imagine it'd be just like the last time I visited Fry's this summer. Just empty space, with only the hollow ghost of what once was for company...and a bored cashier asking me if I want to get the loyalty card for a store chain clearly on the brink of financial insolvency. I've probably shared this photo album in this thread some time ago, but this is a perfect time to bring it up again: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thekog/albums/72157680800428832 Back before the pandemic, I worked in an office across the street from the Citadel Mall in Charleston, SC. The food court was on the far end of the mall, so anytime I didn't bring my lunch I'd get to walk almost the entire length of the mall. I started to notice things changing (stores closing/opening, decorations added/removed) every time I went so I brought my camera to document the changes. The photos span nearly three years and include the closing of a JC Penny, its conversion into a medical clinic, the closing of a Sears, its conversion into a filming location for The Righteous Gemstones, the addition of a basketball court, the removal of that same basketball court, and finally the empty storefronts in the middle of the mall being Cask of Amontillado'd a month before the pandemic hit. The current owners of the mall are trying to turn it into an indoor business park. So I imagine the stores that are now covered up are being renovated into office space.
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Dec 2, 2020 20:47
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Oxphocker posted:Wow Service Merchandise is a name I haven't heard in a long time...memories... That was me. I still go to that Microcenter a lot. When I was a baby computer janitor in the early 2000s, it was all about the CompUSA and the Tiger Direct retail outlet by work down off 59. Microcenter has never failed me except the one time I went by needing rack hardware. I'm there once a month or so, and the quality is still there. Pain in the rear end drive from west of 355 though.
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Dec 2, 2020 21:07
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For a while there I had a small LLC to sell my FiL’s maple syrup. The biggest problem was shipping. It’s a heavy vicious fluid and there’s no easy way to move it...except maybe if I sold it via Amazon. Only problem was I still had to ship it to Amazon. I tried to see if they’d let me drop off the inventory at a distribution center, but no go. So it was pay to ship it and give them 30%. The economics in my case just didn’t work. Amazon distribution centers are monuments to efficiency and unintended consequences. They do one thing really good and a lot of things bad.
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Dec 2, 2020 22:32
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Silly Newbie posted:That was me. I still go to that Microcenter a lot. When I was a baby computer janitor in the early 2000s, it was all about the CompUSA and the Tiger Direct retail outlet by work down off 59. I used to drive from Tucson to Phoenix to go to Frys back when they charged freight shipping for server racks.
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Dec 2, 2020 23:41
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Doggles posted:I've probably shared this photo album in this thread some time ago, but this is a perfect time to bring it up again:   loving at how half-assed the megachurch is. Why the hell didn't they try harder to remove the shadow of the old Sears sign? "Good enough, just put the new sign up, no one will notice!". And I hope the entrance inside the mall was just a temporary thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if they just left it as propped up unpainted drywall.
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Dec 3, 2020 00:03
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SO DEMANDING posted:
Like Doggles mentioned, it's a set for The Righteous Gemstones show, so I'm not really surprised they didn't want to pay to have the Sears shadow sandblasted off or whatever. Also it kinda fits with the theme of the family in the show to not do that. The entrance is opened up in the actual episodes of the show, too: 
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Dec 3, 2020 00:16
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Ah, kinda misread that hadn't heard of the show before. So in that case, nice detail I guess, hah.
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Dec 3, 2020 01:17
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Thank you for all the explanations! Amazon is a frightening behemoth of a thing.
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Dec 3, 2020 01:56
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Krispy Wafer posted:Only problem was I still had to ship it to Amazon. I tried to see if they’d let me drop off the inventory at a distribution center, but no go. So it was pay to ship it and give them 30%. The economics in my case just didn’t work. Psst, next time just make a fake courier waybill for Krispy Kourier and drop it off yourself.
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Dec 3, 2020 04:27
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Here's a question I've asked in a thread or two before: We called this “Consumers Distributing” where I grew up.
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Dec 3, 2020 04:45
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Ghost Leviathan posted:IIRC a problem with dead malls is that malls are pretty lovely for any function other than being malls, and renovating them to be something else is enough hassle you might as well just flatten them and build something new. That's exactly what happened to a couple of local dead malls in my current neck of the woods. One of them became a "don't call it a strip mall, but it's totally a strip mall" shopping center with one of the remaining buildings from the old mall retained due to a couple of retailers still using it. One was a Toys-R-Us that eventually got subdivided into a Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree. The other dead mall is currently being redeveloped into a "town center" thingamajig with a TopGolf and some other BS. Silly Newbie posted:That was me. I still go to that Microcenter a lot. When I was a baby computer janitor in the early 2000s, it was all about the CompUSA and the Tiger Direct retail outlet by work down off 59. The moment I found computer nerd nirvana was the moment I found out there was a Microcenter just a couple of blocks' walk away from the apartment I had just moved into. Now I have to drive 3+ hours just to shop at a place that doesn't upcharge on parts, have a lovely selection, or both.
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Dec 3, 2020 07:54
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Rick posted:RE: Malls The main issue I saw was that the restaurants had really declined. Last I visited, the indoor food court was completely shuttered except for a Panda Express, and all that was left outdoors was a Cheesecake Factory and a California Pizza Kitchen (LOL) and a couple of mediocre coffee places. There used to be a decent Sprecher branded restaurant (local Wisconsin root beer maker) but it closed a couple of years ago. The property developer seemed to be pushing condos upstairs from the street level shops, but with the lack of restaurants or anything other than shopping to do nearby, it seemed really dreary to me. Hard to say what will survive the pandemic there.
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Dec 3, 2020 08:31
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gloom posted:Your comment reminded me of Bayshore Mall on the outskirts of Milwaukee, which has (or had) an absolutely wonderful board game shop. It became my go-to for D&D books when I was visiting family in the area. Most of the other stores inside the actual mall had already closed before COVID hit, and there was even a sketchy Chinese massage place, but things seemed to be going pretty OK in the outdoor square area. drat I would go to a Sprecher restaurant. At least one mall has had places that basically use it as a secondary outlet to their food truck, which seems to work, although I imagine Milwuakee might be difficult to have permanent food trucks year round due to the weather.
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Dec 3, 2020 10:18
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Seems like a good time to post this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cmq5Az2AEs E: There was a computer store in Houston called directron.com in the early 2000's. You could order your stuff and then go drive over to Chinatown (where their warehouse was located) and pick it up. They then expanded and had a small showroom that you could order from the computers in there. They were one of the few, if only, places you could buy SuperMicro cases and server grade stuff in town that I knew of. I bought my massive chieftec tower case there (because they didn't have that badass cube case) I had to look them up, but they're still around! BloodBag has a new favorite as of 19:12 on Dec 3, 2020 |
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Dec 3, 2020 18:26
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BloodBag posted:Seems like a good time to post this: With all the recent mall chat, I was expecting this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmL2l-bcuUQ It's what happens when you take the oldest mall in the US and convert it to apartments. Hope you're not claustrophobic! 
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Dec 3, 2020 18:57
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Woah that's actually kind of nice for $750 a month, though no stove is a dealbreaker. Assuming that's in the middle of the city, it would easily be £1k/m in London.
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Dec 3, 2020 19:09
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Rick posted:drat I would go to a Sprecher restaurant.
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Dec 4, 2020 08:05
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Strategic Tea posted:Woah that's actually kind of nice for $750 a month, though no stove is a dealbreaker. Yeah, that place is right in the middle of downtown, basically. I’ve actually been eyeballing it because it’s like 45 minutes from my job but there’s rarely availability and I’m pretty sure it goes off a waitlist.
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Dec 4, 2020 09:13
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Krispy Wafer posted:The local independent music store near us closed a few years ago because they couldn't make it work even with a fairly robust music lesson business and a goldmine renting overpriced instruments to band students. You couldn't find a parking space for a week every August because of all the parents getting rent-to-own trumpets for 3x their MSRP. Makes me think it's a tough business to succeed in. The only small music stores that I know left in town specialize. One mostly rents and sells strings to high schoolers and the other uses to be a general music store, but now specializes is Martin guitars.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:44
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Strategic Tea posted:Woah that's actually kind of nice for $750 a month, though no stove is a dealbreaker. Except for a stove, that's basically a Japanese apartment.
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Dec 4, 2020 20:06
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So in a twist of fate a company that was circling the drain but now can’t keep up is Peleton. If Covid hadn’t happened they’d definitely would be limping along burning through that VC money.
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Dec 4, 2020 21:37
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the only reason I ever went into my local mall was to visit my favorite game store. here is a story about that. they'd been in the mall I think since it was built (in the 80s?), always a great tenant, robust business, all that noise. suddenly, Simon doubled their rent. the guy who ran the place moved out, bought out his silent partner, and got a much larger storefront in a strip mall nearby, right next to an indie bookstore. now they've got room for gaming and snacks. they were thriving before covid, and started delivering games when the lockdown started. the empty storefront in the mall (right by an entrance, primo spot) lingered for a while until eventually they moved the security office there. I do not know what the gently caress the owners were thinking
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Dec 9, 2020 12:32
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Empty Sandwich posted:I do not know what the gently caress the owners were thinking more money that's literally it capitalists have the self-control and long term thinking of crack addicts
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Dec 9, 2020 13:55
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Ghost Leviathan posted:more money Crack addicts will at least attempt bargain with you.
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Dec 9, 2020 13:59
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esperantinc posted:Like Doggles mentioned, it's a set for The Righteous Gemstones show, so I'm not really surprised they didn't want to pay to have the Sears shadow sandblasted off or whatever. Also it kinda fits with the theme of the family in the show to not do that. The fact that it was a cheaply converted Sears was actually part of the plot. There's a scene late in the season set in the back of the church and it is full of retail fixtures they didn't bother to move out. Speaking of malls, my parents had a restaurant in a mall and when it ended up closing down the mall just gave up on that space. They didn't even try to find another tenant, they just walled off the entrance. Of course this is the same mall that for some reason decided to completely demolish their main entrance, which included the food court. So all the food spots had to either move to a new spot in the mall or just close down, most chose to close.
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Dec 9, 2020 14:35
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