
The Amazon Whisperer (2013) - mirap
http://www.fastcompany.com/3021229/chaim-pikarski-the-amazon-whisperer
======
dawnbreez
Now _this_ is a capitalist. This guy is what happens when you make it easy for
someone to go make a new-and-improved product.

~~~
psykovsky
Now that he's on the news the patent trolls will get to him. Wait and see...

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anonu
Can you clarify this statement? It's not clear to me that this business model
necessarily violates patents. It seems like they're just taking already well-
established products and tweaking them. Then they're applying marketing
techniques to get to the top of Amazon and Ebay searches...

~~~
intopieces
It likely doesn't violate patents, but that has never stopped patent trolls.

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nickpsecurity
Great article with a stellar business model. This guy's scheme is literally
"give the people what they want!" Need more of this kind of thinking in
software. Unfortunately, lock-in techniques will likely prevent it from
working in many places it's needed most.

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post_break
Less than stellar reviews.

[http://www.amazon.com/Ivation-Waterproof-Bluetooth-
Handsfree...](http://www.amazon.com/Ivation-Waterproof-Bluetooth-Handsfree-
speakerphone/dp/B005Z3GINK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1451500588&sr=8-2&keywords=hipe+speaker)

~~~
wf
au contraire:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TQ5TDLC](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TQ5TDLC)

~~~
tomsaffell
Does it bother anyone else that the three customer reviews on the product page
all give five stars, and all three reviewers _received the product for free_
in exchange for an 'unbiased' review? (And that fact is only visible if you
click each 'see more' link at the end of the truncated review). I just have a
hard time believing this practice doesn't create bias, even if unintentional.

I'm finding I have to work harder to parse meaning out of Amazon reviews than
I did a few years ago. I don't see how this benefits Amazon, but I also don't
see them doing much to fix it.

~~~
ck2
Completely ignore amazon reviews.

They are mostly bogus these days.

Unless you can find 3 star reviews, I usually read those.

~~~
mulmen
If you think a review is bogus you could always click the "no" button to
indicate that the review is not helpful.

You can also report the review and tell Amazon that you think the review is
bogus.

Do you have any data to back up the claim that most of the recent reviews are
bogus?

~~~
ck2
Yeah, all the ones that start with "I received the complimentary product" in
some form.

That's a bogus review, it's paid. You might argue free product is not payment
but the IRS would then like to have a word with you (ask the people who got
"free" cars from Oprah).

~~~
tass
This is fairly anecdotal, but I've read some people's experiences with free
products for reviews. They received products while they were giving good
reviews. The products stopped once a bad review was posted.

Amazon also gives free products for review (Amazon Vine) but these are made
very clear with a banner above the review, and will remain part of the program
so long as they continue to receive a high number of 'helpful' votes on their
reviews.

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anindyabd
Anker ([http://www.anker.com/](http://www.anker.com/)) does something very
similar to this company -- except, I think, it has a smaller selection of
products. Judging from reviews on Amazon, Anker is also doing very well for
itself.

~~~
gohrt
Anker instantly offers free replacements to anyone who posts a bad review.

~~~
jessaustin
It seems that policy could backfire? Eventually, they're basically subsidizing
the production of bad reviews.

~~~
ashmud
Possibly, depending on what rate this is happening. I'd wager that this gets
them brownie points with the public, similar to a "connect with fans"
approach. Chalk it up to a form of marketing and budget it that way.

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ecommerceguy
"Private Label" manufacture of goods is a fairly large cottage industry.
Unfortunately many of the mostly fly by night home based Alibaba arbitrage
schemes fail pretty hard. I've certainly purchased these off amazon ebay etc
and have found they rarely stand up to the hype. For instance, I recently
purchased a WooPower dual 2.4 amp charger off Amazon. Total POS doesnt come
anywhere near 2.4 amps per output. I have a suspicion the 300+ reviews are
fake.

Not to throw shade on these guys but you get what you pay for.

~~~
post_break
It seems like Anker and Aukey are the only two companies I trust these days
with accessories.

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darkstar999
> Before us are rows of cubicles, almost entirely inhabited by bearded,
> yarmulke-wearing men in crisp white shirts. These are Pikarski's buyers.
> (About half of C&A Marketing's 150-person staff is Orthodox, though the
> buyers division is more homogenous. "The buyer that does all the storage
> products, he's the only guy I let work out of home," Pikarski says. "He's
> Italian.")

Did that bother anyone else?

~~~
nickpsecurity
Jews stick together. One of reasons for their resilience and business success.
Unsurprising he brought a lot of his own in on the business. They do that in
upper-ranks in my area, too.

Now, you probably won't see the media report on racist hiring practices in
Jewish companies as quickly as they do anti-Semitism. ;)

~~~
adventured
I don't think it's a racist hiring practice, it's religious nepotism. Mormons
and scientologists often stick together in the same way (and really probably
any small group of people very closely connected; immigrants often initially
do the same thing in a new country as well).

~~~
nickpsecurity
It's actually both. Religious nepotism often requires discrimination based on
religion.

~~~
adventured
Jewish isn't a race. It isn't necessarily racial discrimination to just hire
Jewish people (a Jewish person can be white, black, whatever).

Is it discrimination based on religion? Obviously.

~~~
nickpsecurity
I was referring to the fact that they mostly hire people that are (a) Jews and
(b) Jewish. Jew is a race that I'm aware of. So, it's usually racist and
religious discrimination.

~~~
maratd
> Jew is a race that I'm aware of.

What? No. Ashkenazim might be genetically similar, but even there, not a race.
And there are also Sephardim. Also Jews from Africa? Definitely not a race.

~~~
nickpsecurity
The references here seem to disagree:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewish_Race](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewish_Race)

Particularly, this statement: "Genetic studies on Jews show that most Jews
worldwide bear a common genetic heritage which originates in the Middle East,
and that they bear their strongest resemblance to the peoples of the Fertile
Crescent.[58][59][60] The genetic composition of different Jewish groups shows
that Jews share a common genetic pool dating back 4,000 years, as a marker of
their common ancestral origin."

That Jew/Hebrew isn't a race is a very new claim to me. What do you have to
support it?

~~~
rycfan
> What do you have to support it?

Is Christian a race?

Also, this (PDF warning):
[https://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/sf181.pdf](https://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/sf181.pdf).

~~~
nickpsecurity
We're talking about a people that share a common origin, physical traits, and
genetic patterns. Not a religious doctrine.

The other commenter thinks that race doesn't exist. Most stuff I've read
implied it did. Nobody doubts the existence of Christian religion.

~~~
rycfan
If it was a race as we contemplate race in its current definition, it would be
on the government form I posted.

It isn't. It's not a race like that (nor, really, in any other way).

Yes, some Jews have a common genetic pattern.

Many don't.

Either you're talking about the religion, which is clearly not a race (as you
said). Or you're talking about a group that generally shares the same
religion, that descended from a few groups that lived co-located thousands of
years ago. Of course, many are descended from those groups. What makes that a
race?

And I didn't mention Christianity to ask if anyone doubted it existed. I
mentioned Christianity to show how silly it is to consider Jews a race. If
Christianity isn't a race (even though many Christians descend from a common
ancestor _), then Jews aren 't a race.

_ \- Technically, if you are a Christian, you probably believe you descended
from Adam & Eve, sort of the ultimate common ancestor.

~~~
nickpsecurity
Finally, a comment with some specific counterpoints. I appreciate it. So,
you're saying that many works just wrongly conflate concepts of a group and
race to the point that there's a misconception about the existence of a Jewish
race? Also, given the form, that there are only 5 races in existence?

~~~
rycfan
Sorry for taking forever to reply.

That's pretty much what I'm saying. I think the 5 races on the form conform to
my understanding of race, so I think that part is right as well.

I guess fundamentally I can't wrap my head around the idea of identifying a
religious group and calling that a race. As I mention, we don't do it with any
other religious group, so why Jews?

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thomasjudge
Its interesting to think about why this enterprise succeeds and yet Quirky,
for example stumbled: this one starts with a known selling product and
iterates on it based on market demand, rather than just coming up with cool
ideas, perhaps. (I'm actually a fan of Quirky so this isn't really intended as
a dis, but one of these two has "nine-figure" (really?) sales, and one
doesn't)

~~~
samstave
This is complete speculation:

Quirky likely had far more scruples and far less connections than these guys,
plus I bet Quirky had far less balls when it came to negotiating with a
vendor.

These buyers are likely expert and negotiating the price down, or even playing
vendors against each other, to get the costs as low as possible.

Their savvy in being able to react quickly with a response product is likely
largely driven by their business accumen in this regard...

Quirky was too altruistic in the way they likely handled the manufacturing.

Remember, success in business can often be a reward for some pretty shitty
behaviors.

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simplegeek
Like Amazon, is there any goldmine for software where I can go and find what
users want after having used different software products?

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WalterBright
Hmm. My product reviews on Amazon often consist of lists of desired
improvements - and none of them have ever been implemented.

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pimlottc
Should be marked (2013)

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dang
Thanks, added.

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Animats
Unable to get past full screen interstitial ad.

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riebschlager
As in you can't emotionally "get past" it? Or you didn't see the "skip ad"
link?

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Animats
With Ghostery enabled, it won't go away.

~~~
imglorp
Ghostery is not the best idea if you're looking for privacy, because it comes
from the ad industry. Consider independents like uBlock, Privacy Badger, etc.

