Admit your ignorance - things you've only just realised/learned

[ebikeerwidnes]

Many years ago I was working for a big company and we were talking about a new system to sort boxes in the warehouse

The company we were thinking of buying it from took us to a system they had installed that was sorting out returned book for WH Smith
which was pretty big at the time

The book came in from where-ever and were put on a long conveyor belt
all the hardback ones were separated and scanned - then put onto shelves for re-sale
The paperback books were not worth reselling and were just all dumped into a skip fro shredding and re-cycling

I presume the concepts are the same and paperback books are so cheap to produce they are not worth storing prior to sale

(P.S. the managers of the company went to a warehouse system in the Caribbean for several days
we went to Swindon!!)

 

[matticus]

I'm sure that batch printing must be cheaper for best sellers, but the Pareto Principle must be at work here, with the majority of sales coming from just a small minority of all the titles published.

I believe that has shifted in the last 30 years, possibly even being flipped, with the growth of internet sales. I can't find any numbers to back me up! But the %age of sales coming from the "Long tail" has definitely grown enormously. If you're a less-known author (or musician, I suspect) this is a big plus compared to "the old days". It's also good for buyers/sellers of ferrules for 50yo bikes.

Here is the best text I can find describing this (more eloqeuently than I could), but sadly - as I said - no hard numbers:


"
The term “long tail” was popularised by Chris Anderson in his 2004 article and subsequent book, where he explained how the internet has shifted the economic model from mass markets to niche markets.

In traditional retail, shelf space is limited, so businesses focus on a smaller range of high-demand products. But in the digital world, that constraint doesn’t exist.

The long tail refers to the vast number of products that individually sell in small volumes but collectively account for a significant share of total sales. Imagine a graph: the short head represents your bestsellers, the ones with high demand. The long tail is everything that follows, the nich or unusual variations that only a small group of customers might be looking for. What makes the long tail so valuable in ecommerce is the fact that technology, warehousing, and digital marketing now make it easier and more cost-effective to cater to those niche needs. Platforms such as Amazon, Etsy, and eBay have built entire ecosystems that thrive on this model, allowing sellers to reach customers who are seeking products that were once too obscure or impractical to stock."

 

[Alex321]

I'm sure that batch printing must be cheaper for best sellers, but the Pareto Principle must be at work here, with the majority of sales coming from just a small minority of all the titles published. According to Google there's currently 170 million titles published, what proportion of those haven't sold a single copy in the last 6 months? Each book's unique, so there's little scope for rationalising stock levels, and you end up with a warehouse full of books just on the off chance that someone might buy a copy some time or other.

That factory at Dunstable's owned by Amazon AFAIK, so if publishers are cooperating with them by sending digital copies of their books for the printer, it's presumably because it's saving the publishers money as well.

That all makes a lot of sense generally.

The publisher I worked for (Nelson Thornes) was an educational publisher, with significant quantities of books going to schools, though we did everything from pre-school to university textbooks.

Amazon and WH Smith both bought books from us on the basis of paying when sold, not when we send to them. Which did lead to some rather odd anomalies when Amazon sold a book that had been sitting on their shelves for over 10 years, and had not been transferred to our new system when that was created 5 years previously.

This also meant that our books came in a very wide variety of paper size and quality, which I suspect that Amazon printer might find trickier to deal with than our printers did (mostly in China). The Excel spreadsheet for that was by far the most complicated I have ever seen, with thousands of lines of macros.

 

[Fastpedaller]

I wondered if these 'Amazon printed books' were titles only sold by Amazon, but it appears not to be the case. When Amazon dp a print, surely it must have some differences when compared to the original - minor binding differences, colour of front/back?

 

[matticus]

People are still using Amazon?!?

 

[Pblakeney]

People are still buying printed books?

 

[Alex321]

People are still using Amazon?!?

Given they are the third largest retailer by UK sales (after Tesco and Sainsbury's), obviously millions of people are.

 

[matticus]

Oh, you want me to be less subtle? My pleasure:

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycott-amazon
Ethical Consumer has been campaigning for a boycott of Amazon since 2012, particularly because of Amazon's tax avoidance.

But the list of reasons to avoid Amazon extends beyond tax, and includes its services to fossil fuel giants, workers' rights abuses, greenwashing and harmful environmental practices.

 

[Animo]

Oh, you want me to be less subtle? My pleasure:

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycott-amazon
Ethical Consumer has been campaigning for a boycott of Amazon since 2012, particularly because of Amazon's tax avoidance.

But the list of reasons to avoid Amazon extends beyond tax, and includes its services to fossil fuel giants, workers' rights abuses, greenwashing and harmful environmental practices.

Handy though

 

[roubaixtuesday]

My son was using one of those soy sauce bottles with two spouts yesterday.

I had no idea the second one was to interrupt flow before watching him.

 

[Alex321]

Oh, you want me to be less subtle? My pleasure:

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycott-amazon
Ethical Consumer has been campaigning for a boycott of Amazon since 2012, particularly because of Amazon's tax avoidance.

But the list of reasons to avoid Amazon extends beyond tax, and includes its services to fossil fuel giants, workers' rights abuses, greenwashing and harmful environmental practices.

That is a completely different thing, not just "less subtle".

It boils down to "People shouldn't be using Amazon", which is very different to "Are people still using Amazon"?

 

[ColinJ]

I have just discovered the difference between a powerline extender and a WiFi extender.

My sister has a big house with a big garden. She has a TPLink wifi extender which provides WiFi at the opposite end of the house to her router but its signal only reaches the bottom half of the garden.

I bought a used TPLink powerline extender on eBay to provide coverage for the top of the garden, which has some nice shaded seating which I want to use while doing post-ride web browsing.

The extender arrived today. I soon had it paired to the network and took it up the garden to test. It locked onto the network via the garden mains wiring but... NO WiFi.

I spent about 30 minutes trying to work out what the problem was. Then I realised that... Powerline extenders do not have WiFi circuitry!!

I am heading back to eBay now to order a WiFi extender!

 

[Alex321]

I have just discovered the difference between a powerline extender and a WiFi extender.

My sister has a big house with a big garden. She has a TPLink wifi extender which provides WiFi at the opposite end of the house to her router but its signal only reaches the bottom half of the garden.

I bought a used TPLink powerline extender on eBay to provide coverage for the top of the garden, which has some nice shaded seating which I want to use while doing post-ride web browsing.

The extender arrived today. I soon had it paired to the network and took it up the garden to test. It locked onto the network via the garden mains wiring but... NO WiFi.

I spent about 30 minutes trying to work out what the problem was. Then I realised that... Powerline extenders do not have WiFi circuitry!!

I am heading back to eBay now to order a WiFi extender!

Most powerline extenders do include WiFi - but not all. as you have found.

Look for "Powerline extender with WiFi"

e.g. https://www.argos.co.uk/product/5585575

 

[matticus]

That is a completely different thing, not just "less subtle".

It boils down to "People shouldn't be using Amazon", which is very different to "Are people still using Amazon"?

OK, happy to help. I'll rephrase my comment(s):
---------------------------------------------------------------------


People are still using Amazon?!? I assumed everyone would be aware of the issues with them:
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycott-amazon
Ethical Consumer has been campaigning for a boycott of Amazon since 2012, particularly because of Amazon's tax avoidance.

But the list of reasons to avoid Amazon extends beyond tax, and includes its services to fossil fuel giants, workers' rights abuses, greenwashing and harmful environmental practices.

 

[ColinJ]

Most powerline extenders do include WiFi - but not all. as you have found.

Look for "Powerline extender with WiFi"

e.g. https://www.argos.co.uk/product/5585575

Thanks. I just ordered another used one on eBay (for £13.93!) but made sure it does do WiFi this time!

I will get my sister to sell the other one and try not to lose money on it. Any profit could go towards the cost of the replacement device.

I am impressed by how easy it is to set these devices up, and how effective they are.