[rtpg]

I was having a conversation earlier today with an acquaitance who bought rubbing alcohol off of Amazon because according to him none of the pharmacies in his city have it.

He lives in Seattle.

It really feels like people's behaviors have been permanently changed for the worst, even if a "proper" competitor comes in.

I no longer have prime shipping, and seeing "shipping: $5" next to anything on Amazon definitely helps me to do at least cursory searches in local stores... would probably be a net benefit to society to outlaw Prime

[crooked-v]

I tried to find replacement shoelaces locally and none of the shoe stores in a 20-mile radius had any at all. Not the big chains, not the independent places, nothing. My only option was to buy them online.

[2b3a51]

Is there nothing like Timpsons [1] in the US? Small units in arcades and indoor markets or near railway stations in most UK towns of any size. They do key copying, watch batteries and straps, shoe repairs (where feasible) and, yes, shoe laces.

Stoll's site, the Klein bottle hats and Mobius scarves! "Two manifolds for one low price". I'm after those for autumn.

[1] https://www.timpson.co.uk/

[thaumasiotes]

> It really feels like people's behaviors have been permanently changed for the worst

I recently spent a year in Shanghai, and when I would ask a friend where to go to buy something I needed, the response was always a confused "buy it online and have it delivered".

I don't care for that. I'd like to have things available in stores.

[badwolf]

>none of the pharmacies in his city have it. >He lives in Seattle.

Stores may have it, but have it locked up or behind the counter (or just not carry it at all) my (seattle) grocery store carries hand sanitizer, but not on the shelf. You have to find an employee (good luck...) and ask them to go get it from the back/wherever. Or order the same product on Amazon for same-day delivery for the same price or cheaper :-/

[mschuster91]

Here in Germany, you used to be able to buy chemicals at pharmacies. Then, the EU plus the usual German compliance-by-the-letter came along... the EU imposed serious controls on chemicals because many can be used to make bombs (e.g. acetone plus hydrogen peroxide yields APEX/TATP) or various illicit drugs. That legislation now not just requires a bullshit amount of paperwork for each transaction but also requires pharmacy staff to pass and renew a certification for dealing with chemicals. No, the actual doctor in pharmaceuticals that one needs to pass to open a pharmacy is not enough.

As a result, nearly all pharmacies here dropped the entire lines of making medication on-site and selling chemicals, because only the latter kept the former financially viable.

So, your only options left are either: a) buy from Amazon or eBay sellers that outright don't care about the German peculiarities or b) if you manage to qualify, buy from the usual selection of lab supply wholesalers. But something like "start a German NileRed channel", that's completely out of the question. The kind of stuff he buys, no way to get that without a commercial entity, and good luck getting that in place without at least a bachelor's degree in chemistry.

[fc417fc802]

I agree with your general sentiment of regulatory dysfunction. But I'd like to point out that it's not so straightforward to purchase a lot of that stuff in the US either. Perhaps not quite as legally involved as the EU but still not simple.

You can also just make most things yourself. It isn't cost effective for a commercial entity (due to wages for highly educated professionals) but for a hobbyist, who cares? That of course calls into question the bulk of the regulatory approach. When I can pull up a youtube video of someone making solid rocket fuel with a plastic jug and a phone charger what was the point of requiring all the paperwork?

If you're lucky the recommended videos will even have footage of someone getting arrested for misusing something substantially similar.

[fl0id]

Nile has even a masters in chemistry I think, and very likely at least a business entity. So might work. And even for him some things are hard to get, a Canada has similar restrictions.

[fc417fc802]

If you want to order from a supplier typically the minimum bar is going to be a commercial entity and commercial warehouse space in an area zoned for light industrial where you have someone physically present during business hours to sign for deliveries. And that's just the minimum; you'll still run into other hurdles depending on the details.

[mschuster91]

He does but IIRC he started the channel when he was still a student and did his early videos in his parents' garage. Something like that is unachievable today.

[Cthulhu_]

> e.g. acetone plus hydrogen peroxide yields APEX/TATP

TIL, didn't know that. Acetone is right next to peroxide in the local household items store (in the Netherlands) over here. But a few aisles over you can also find CBD oil and melatonin, heavy duty painkillers like diclofenac, etc.

[mschuster91]

These are available here as well, but the concentrations (especially of the hydrogen peroxide) are far too low to be useful in bombmaking or most classic experiments involving it, and on top of that dilution from the factory, it's likely a bunch of the peroxide dissociated since it was manufactured. You need to concentrate the hydrogen peroxide up to be useful for more than cleaning blood stains, and that's pretty dangerous.

[rtpg]

Ok but my friend lives in Seattle and like every walgreens reported having it in stock on their website. Maybe some of them are wrong but I don’t believe it.

[mschuster91]

The concentrations in the household cleaner section are way too low to be usable for anything but small scale household cleanups.

There's a reason why you can't get industrial strength cleaners in a Walmart - too many people would either seriously injure themselves because they don't know they actually need PPE or otherwise this stuff will break down their skin, because they mix it and make enough mustard gas to actually kill them, or because they break down their homes because guess what, a highly acidic cleaning agent and most kinds of stone don't mix.

Of course, yes, one can try to concentrate H2O2 but there's easier and less messy ways to off oneself than this.

[rtpg]

Yeah I didn't really challenge my friend on this that much so it could have been that they couldn't find the thing they wanted.

his thing was mostly "pharmacies don't have _anything_" which just feels like a pretty spurious claim.

[krisoft]

I hear your pain about the legislation. It sounds like it sucks.

> The kind of stuff he buys, no way to get that without a commercial entity, and good luck getting that in place without at least a bachelor's degree in chemistry.

NileRed has a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry with a minor in pharmacology.

[parineum]

Not too long ago I bought rubbing alcohol on amazon because it wasn't available in a few places I checked locally. I was looking for a less diluted solution, everywhere around me had, what seemed to be, the standard (I think it was 70%?) solution.

Perhaps that acquaintance was in a similar situation.

[mitthrowaway2]

Side note that 70% is supposedly the best concentration for disinfection, but if you want it for cleaning parts or something, you'd want a more concentrated solution of course. Some drug stores will carry 99% but you can get more concentrated alcohols from scientific supply stores.

[parineum]

That's exactly what I was looking to do with it, cleaning. I wasn't too surprised I couldn't find it at a drug store but I was surprised I couldn't find it at a hardware store either.

[skeeter2020]

I think a lot of it is even less, closer to 50%. Costco has the good stuff, but it's not cheap.

[account42]

I don't have Prime either (and never did except for the free student trial year) but shipping is still "free"* when you just bunch up your orders so they are above the minimum for that.

(*) Of course you pay for shipping via the purchase price but you do that even if you order individual items and also with Prime.

[mulmen]

Most of the pharmacy chains (Bartell, Rite Aid, Walgreens) in Seattle are bankrupt. Last time I was in a Bartell the shelves were nearly empty. He might be right.

[devnullbrain]

Rubbing alcohol is also cheap enough that the 'free shipping' is really just being included in the price.

[account42]

Still better than sellers that only show a tiny price up front but then hit you with unreasonably high shipping costs once you are already invested in making a purchase. And often it's only free with large enough orders in which case the purchase price can still be reasonable - not any worse than what brick and mortar stores add to the price to pay for the physical shelf space the product takes up anyway.

[caycep]

Is this a J Rockefeller move, Amazon selling for below market prices to degrade the performance of competitors in a specific market?

It's easy to sneeze at "deficient competitors" as well, but the whole massive spend on infrastructure - warehouses, delivery vans, etc. is hard to replicate. In one sense, it's worth an antitrust look if that whole system essentially stiles competition

[skeeter2020]

I don't find their prices are below market or the competition though. If you shop brand-for-brand and the same items they are identical or more. Example: I bought a new edging trimmer. Amazon appeared $60 cheaper but it didn't come with a battery. People love the one-stop, one-click everyhting delivered quick more than the prices or actual product. It's today's air travel experience for everything.

[ceejayoz]

Now, yes, but they've already killed off much of the competition by now.

[SoftTalker]

I don't really think so. You can find pretty much everything they sell on either the manufacturer's own website, or another big retail site such as ebay or walmart.com, or on a specialist website. It's more work though, to find and browse those sites than to just pull up Amazon and be done with it, and then getting back to see what you missed on TikTok.

Strange in a way how saving 2 minutes is a differentiator online. Back in the brick-and-mortar days you'd spend 2 minutes at a stoplight on the way to the store without even thinking about it.

And ordering from catalogs? If I got the item in two weeks that seemed pretty fast.

[ceejayoz]

> You can find pretty much everything they sell on either the manufacturer's own website…

Increasingly, I find these just linking to the corresponding Amazon listing.

> or another big retail site such as ebay or walmart.com…

Same strategy/problem there, IMO.