Timber Framers Guild Forums General General Forum Questions anyone shop at Amazon?

Would you say that it is basically not polite to shop at Amazon? Should specialized tool merchants be the focus?

One thing that is nice about Amazon is the customer reviews.

I was just looking at Shark saws. I want to know what it's like to make a really good clean small-kerf cut.

"Amazon" doesn't appear in any search results, so apparently nobody has mentioned it.

Not polite? Money is money. Everyone has to balance making their money go far enough to get what they want. To me this is a silly question. If someone is specialized, doesn't that mean you can't find it commonly anywhere else? If you find it cheaper on Amazon or somewhere else and it's the same, well I'm going to make my money go as far as possible. Keep in mind that you should take into account shipping cost, and how fast you need something. Competition is the check and balances of capitalism. You either compete of price, service, speed, or niche. If you're not competitive in one or more of these areas you shouldn't survive.

You forgot marketing, which is why some survive that shouldn't :-)

CB.

I hear what you're saying.

I think that sometimes people theorize as follows. The specialty merchants still sell garden-variety tools for bread-and-butter money. The expert wholesalers like Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc., only sell some of the bread-and-butter stuff. So, there is a risk to a set of suppliers when the wholesalers start dealing in the bread-and-butter items. This in turn could make it harder to procure specialty products.

I know a work crew that does good work, and have chatted with them about shopping at 'Home Depot' type places vs. local specialty hardware stores. They prefer the latter, but for some reason often end up at the former.

Anyway, I was just wondering about people's opinions. I think I would prefer to patronize specialty sources, because they'll know what they're talking about, and can even pre-service tools (sending them sharpened already, for example).

Support your local economy. Jim Rogers here on the forum is a good source of old tools. eye like wood, you could up date you profile as to where your location is. Tim

Big box stores often don't have the more specialized products we need. But the big box stores are convenient because they are nearby. Big box stores sell circ saw blades, but not the brand or configuration I want so I bought from Rockler through amazon.
Usually if you need a specialty or a high quality tool, you're going to go to specialty sellers. Big box has basics like some screws, or garbage bags, or some insulation or some plumbing stuff etc. I rarely have need to buy from their tool dept though. I did buy my first brad nailer from a big box though, but that's a more generic item.
Speaking of screws, I get so frustrated when my local lowes doesn't have a screw that should be a standard. There are holes in their offerings. It usually doesn't make sense, they have it in one size but not the other. Or they have it in one style head but not the one I want.
I've said it for a long time, you get a new competitor in there who focuses on their hardware, carring everything you need including the odd stuff, and use the hardware as a loss leader (just break even on hardware or don't charge big margins), keep it stocked and organized, and you'll pull in a lot of loyal customers from the other competitors. Then they'll buy all that other bread and butter stuff from you and not the other guys- power tools, wood, plumbing, etc etc.