Case in point, I need to buy a new medium sized kitchen knife. I essentially know what I want, but I went to Amazon today to check out the state of things.
I am in Germany, however, on the first two (!) pages of search for "kitchen knife", only two companies that I actually know make knives are present (the big ones: Wüsthoff and Victorinox).
ALL other results, that is over 80 results, are fake Chinese companies with "German like" names, essentially selling the SAME product - a fake Damascus (laser etched) knife with wooden handle. Most of them have 53+/- something HRC (probably widely fluctuating around 50 HRC) and are made of "German (style) steel", whatever that means. Indeed, names and presentation suggests that the knives are made in Germany. They are not.
Sometimes, the company is registered in the EU, but if someone uses the question function to ask where the knives are produced, it is always China.
All of them have fake reviews, naturally.
I mean... how useless Amazon has become to order even a midrange price good, like a decent but not top range kitchen knife.
Now, I am not in principle against buying goods from China, but I can use Aliexpress myself thank you.
We also all know the quality of these products when they arrive, and the inability to return them (as the price point is chosen that this is not worth it).
What I hate about it is the constant deception. Nobody would buy a knife if it would say "Price 10€, made in China". So instead, it's 30€, the name is something like "Schneidwerk" and the Amazon page is littered with German flags (ugh), whereas the company probably does the same in every other European country (with, for example, French or Italian flags).
I am in Germany, however, on the first two (!) pages of search for "kitchen knife", only two companies that I actually know make knives are present (the big ones: Wüsthoff and Victorinox).
ALL other results, that is over 80 results, are fake Chinese companies with "German like" names, essentially selling the SAME product - a fake Damascus (laser etched) knife with wooden handle. Most of them have 53+/- something HRC (probably widely fluctuating around 50 HRC) and are made of "German (style) steel", whatever that means. Indeed, names and presentation suggests that the knives are made in Germany. They are not. Sometimes, the company is registered in the EU, but if someone uses the question function to ask where the knives are produced, it is always China. All of them have fake reviews, naturally.
I mean... how useless Amazon has become to order even a midrange price good, like a decent but not top range kitchen knife. Now, I am not in principle against buying goods from China, but I can use Aliexpress myself thank you. We also all know the quality of these products when they arrive, and the inability to return them (as the price point is chosen that this is not worth it).
What I hate about it is the constant deception. Nobody would buy a knife if it would say "Price 10€, made in China". So instead, it's 30€, the name is something like "Schneidwerk" and the Amazon page is littered with German flags (ugh), whereas the company probably does the same in every other European country (with, for example, French or Italian flags).
Somehow, this makes me really irate.