what happened to Amazon?

[herb fellows]

This is not a bargain, but an inquiry into why Amazon doesn't seem to have any anymore?? Some kind of policy change?
12-18 months ago, it seems half the alerts here were for bargains on Amazon. I can't remember the last time I got a deal there. Can you?

[mschrank]

This is not a bargain, but an inquiry into why Amazon doesn't seem to have any anymore?? Some kind of policy change?
12-18 months ago, it seems half the alerts here were for bargains on Amazon. I can't remember the last time I got a deal there. Can you?

I'm not sure if the bargains are really gone (I haven't been shopping for woodworking stuff much lately), but I notice that Mr. Jeffery Schronce hasn't been as active in alerting us to the bargains as he was in years past.

[phrog]

I haven't seen many bargains on Amazon lately either. Nor have I seen any posts from Jeffrey Schronce lately. Hope everything is okay with him.

[Knottscott]

The bargains still come and go, but sometimes only last a few hours. In the past few months they've offered Freud router bits sets for $27 shipped, Kempston 40T blade for $15 shipped, Milwaukee 5615 for ~ $90 shipped, CMT 252.060.10 ITK for $26 shipped, etc.

[crokett]

Nothing has happened to Jeffrey, he is just too busy with work to do much else.

[radhak]

Jeffrey Schronce is no longer a regular woodworker, according to his post in Sightings, and hence does not frequent us as often, or Amazon either.

Amazon remains my first destination whenever I am considering any purchase (tool or otherwise); in many cases, their prices are still among the lowest you'd find anywhere; in the rest, they even list competitive sites that might have equal or lower prices! And their reviews are easiest to read or write, which might be the reason they have so many, good, reviews.

Of course you might be right - they used to have door-buster deals that I don't hear off now (maybe because I'm no longer in the market for the bigger stuff). My better deals have been the PC pan-cake compressor with two guns for $155 shipped; Bessey parallel clamp set for $80; Bosch jigsaw for $90 and the Jet Airfilter for $140.

Now I feel good - reliving those deals !

(another benefit of Amazon : I can see my order history for the past 7 years!)

[jussi]

I agree with radhak. Still the first place I go. Even when I check CL I always go to Amazon to see what kind of deal I'm getting.

Last Amazing deal there was like 50% (after combining deals) off Router/Router accessories deal. I got a Bench Dog CI Router table and Lift for half price. Recently I got 10 bosch circ saw blades for $9. I just got confirmation that it shipped yesterday. Let's see if I actually get 10 blades or just 1.

[thrytis]

I haven't seen the $x off $y codes on Amazon for a long time, such as $60 off $300 on saws or $40 off $220 on power tools. These used to give pretty good sales on an entire category rather than just one or two items at a time.

I have a very full cart of save for later items (around 150 items), and although i see a dozen or two price changes a day, it is very rare to see more than a couple dollar change on anything these days.

I think there are still deals to be had and i know i'm not looking as much because my shop is much better equipped now, but i don't think there are as many great deals as there were a few years ago.

[Uncle Cracker]

After complaining loudly for many months about the dwindling home improvement deals on Amazon's "Friday Sale" (sometimes the Home Improvement category isn't even included), I found to my dismay that this morning's FS offering was bare of all categories except one... groceries. Absolutely pitiful.

[cgallery]

I suspect part of it is a new focus on the bottom line rather than the top line.

Part of it may be manufacturers offering fewer kickbacks to Amazon.

I'm actually sort of relieved. I really can't keep affording to save a ton of money on tools. I'll go broke.

[phi1l]

These guys don't put stuff on deep discount because they like us. THey do it be cause the are drowning inventory & need to reduce there financing cost.

I expect that is is just that inventories are now down to the bare minimum now. So none of the retailers are feeling they have dump product to reduce inventory financing costs. Also I think there is a seasonal product cycle effect where last years models are all gone but the new product is not quite out yet. This year because of perceived low demand the retailers have dumped the old inventory early.

As an example I just called the Johnson Creek Direct Tools Outlet to see what they had in the way of routers. The guy said they have no router in stock & haven't been able to get any for 2 weeks.

[cabinetman]

Amazon remains my first destination whenever I am considering any purchase (tool or otherwise); in many cases, their prices are still among the lowest you'd find anywhere; in the rest, they even list competitive sites that might have equal or lower prices! And their reviews are easiest to read or write, which might be the reason they have so many, good, reviews.

Same here. I also check CL, but you can't ever tell about the sellers there.
.

[herb fellows]

I also go to Amazon to check prices and to read reviews, but much to my surprise over the past year, I've found on many occasions that Amazon was in fact over priced compared to the competition.
I'm inclined to agree with Phil that inventories are down. I'm surprised that they don't change their business model to being a clearing house for deals and leaving the actual shipping to manufacturers.
While they would lose some control, they have enough clout to make the suppliers do a good job or become an ex supplier. You can save a lot of money if you don't need warehouses because you don't carry inventory.