@DaveMcNaul &
@mechka_grizli
I know and like both of you, and I hate to see you two going at it when I really think you're mostly talking about different things.
I'm going to make one post, just in hopes that it helps ease this between the two of you, and then I'm going back to not posting and not checking here as much bc I'm still pretty pissed over the bs here earlier in the week.
Amazon has hurt many brick and mortar small businesses, but it has also allowed many people to start their own small businesses as sellers on its platform.
Dave - Mecha owns a business where he sells on Amazon (nothing to do with supplements) - so while I do understand what you mean about Amazon putting many small businesses out of business, there is the reverse side in that it allows for him to have one. I think he took your post about Amazon personally since he has a business on Amazon, but I believe your statement, if I'm not mistaken, was talking more about Amazon corporate and their policies relating to supplements, and nothing to do with small business sellers that sell on the Amazon platform.
Mecha,
- I can totally understand how as an Amazon seller, and being a small business owner yourself on the Amazon platform, you may have taken Dave's comments the wrong way.
- I can't speak for Dave and I'm not trying to, but I'm 99% sure he didn't know you were and Amazon seller and didn't mean his original comments offensively towards you or any other private Amazon sellers.
- Dave has participated in, asked questions in, and tried to learn some things in several of the threads and conversations where the quality issues with Amazon were being discussed; and in full context of his post about Amazon, he seemed to be talking about supplements and about how their policies hurt both supplement companies and supplement retailers bc they knowingly allow products to be sold on the Amazon platform that don't meet label claims.
I may be completely off base, and if I am, sorry for even bothering to try to add context and post, but what I took that as him meaning by his comments were:
You can buy some supplements sold by amazon or the brand if you cannot find it in your local store.
If you want an specific ingredient (always from legit sources).
^^ I took this as him saying that you can buy supplements on Amazon if you can't find them at your local store (I would add or other online retailers) but to be careful and make sure you buy from legit sources (legit brands) because of the amount of brands on Amazon that have been shown to not meet or in some cases, not even try to meet label claims.
Also, several brands have warned consumers of counterfeits of their products being sold by Amazon sellers.
I don't like amazon because their lack of moral, they destroyed a lot of small local stores.
^^ I took this as him meaning brick and mortar supplement stores. And if that's the way he meant it, Amazon is the leading cause of brick and mortar supplement stores going out of business and a lot of it is because there are a large number of supplements being sold on Amazon that don't meet label claims and therefore are being sold at impossible prices. There is no way for brick and mortar supplement stores to buy legitimate supplements and be able to sell them and price compete against brands on there that don't and aren't even trying to meet label claims.
I think what he meant by their lack of morals is that Amazon is aware of the problem, but chooses to let it continue as many of the brands involved are some of the ones spending big money in sponsored listings and advertising.
A big part of page 1 of this thread was on discussing one example of this - a company claiming to sell PA on Amazon at a % that doesn't even exist in the supply chain and just blatantly violating a patent by doing so, but having an address listed in the UK and Amazon just allowing it.
I'm not anti-Amazon, but I do not like the way that a lot of companies that fail testing over and over are continued to allow to sell on there because it makes it impossible for legitimate companies to compete with them, and its also very unfair to general consumers that have no idea that this is going on.
But for full context for anyone reading and trying to figure this all out, here is a list of test results from where NOW Foods has tested many of the brands that exist solely or almost solely on Amazon and many of them fail test results over and over, yet Amazon continues to allow the products to be sold on its platform.
(And let's be honest - a lot of these failures are on cheap products/ingredients - if its this bad on inexpensive items, can you imagine how bad it would be on expensive ones?)
I hope that that helps and is able to provide some context.
