I'm pretty leery of car parts on Amazon. I did a motor mount on my Odyssey a month ago and it's really tough to find a trustworthy part on Amazon. Looking at reviews, some people will say it's a good part and others will say it's obviously a knock-off part. How is a person to know if they're getting a true OEM part? I ultimately ended up buying from the local dealership to get a guaranteed OEM part. Buying a knock-off part would mean a potential engine mount failure in the near future and, while it took me about an hour to replace, I'd rather not do it again...especially if I only saved $20 up front.

That said, I buy brake pads on there (Akebono ceramics) as they are HALF the price of what I'd pay for them locally.

 

I try to avoid Amazon for car stuff as much as possible. I'm very fortunate to have 4 auto parts stores near my house (within a 3 mile radius). Heck, O'Reilly's is less than 1 mile from my house. Sometimes, mid DIY wrenching project, there's no substitute for a local auto parts store. So I'd rather not screw them out of business.

Of course, owning a Porsche and a VW, there are a lot of items I need that they do not stock, haha. Even oil and oil filters (ridiculous).

 

I haven't checked recently but AMZN for a while didn't/doesn't make money on its retail side, the cloud business is what makes money and subsidizes the retail business. In this sense it's certainly not a "fair" market to smaller businesses that have to have higher than low single digit margins to survive. As with all monoplies, they will be cheap until all the competition is out of business, then prices will rise.

 

The jobs are voluntary, but $31k/yr is not decent money in 2020.

 

i don’t know many retailers paying $15. I’m really not sure what people are comparing this too. Why are people so blinded and ignorant to facts?

autozone pays $10-15. FYI.

 

My statement is in a vacuum. Just because other retailers also don't pay well, doesn't mean that $31k is good money. Autozone doesn't pay good money.

If the discussion is truly relative, then yes $31k is less bad than the $15k/yr that is the minimum wage in my state. Neither are good.

 

If you want oil to be $6/qt you cannot pay $20/hour. Minimum wage isn't minimum life style. Consumers seem to be rushing to low cost leader, like other internet debates most folks aren't actually living out their values. Coscto is an exception, but they're also a warehouse model.

So if you really feel that people in retail should make more money, give your check out person $10-20 for helping you. Nothing stops you from doing that.

Live like you talk.

 

I think you're trying to spur a debate where one doesn't exist. I'm not placing a burden upon anyone. I'm simply saying that $15/hr for shit work isn't good money. Sounds like we agree. How we got there and what to do about it is another discussion that i haven't said anything regarding. I didn't say that i feel people in retail should make more money. Nobody asked me, so i didn't offer opinions.

 

I'm just not sure how $6 QT oil gets shipped to me with 2 day shipping and there is any money made....

 

Because the actual cost of the oil is probably about $0.99/bottle.

I'd pay more, doesn't matter.