Why Slate is a poor excuse for most anything.

He´s right. I have had nothing but great service from Amazon. If I pay for two day shipping, I almost always get it the next day. Love Amazon!

Im with #2. Amazon does so many things right. They nearly always have what I´m looking for. They have fantastic customer service. The free/ low cost books on kindle have provided me with hundreds of hours of pleasure, and when I´m done with the book, the book reviews on Amazon are almost as interesting.... =)

Another great site is Zappos...for shoes and clothes. Free shipping, free returns.

Amazon is great but to criticize stores for being out of a certain toy on black Friday illustrates downright idiotic thinking.

I wonder if the author realizes he was interacting with a string of Obama voters every time he got a shrug of the shoulders.

The Wal Mart exec is priceless: ´misaligned incentives.´. That means he knows his mouth breathing staff really can´t be bothered.

If he wanted to play TODAY, like he said, he has no choice. He has to shop at a brick and mortar store.

"After all, wasn’t I the moron for expecting a pain-free shopping experience on the busiest day of the year?" Yes.

I love Amazon. The customer service there is so good - I hope they never change.

I like Amazon for things I can wait on to be brought to me. But I have two Walmarts near me, equidistant, that I don´t hesitate to go to for groceries and as first-check for everything else. I do try to avoid both of them on the first weekend of each month, however. Crazy busy with EBT card shoppers.

The place I won´t shop is Target.... not until they allow the Sal bell-ringers back.

LOL, #8, I totally agree on the EBT shoppers. We have a wonderful super Walmart near us and use it almost every day, I know many of the clerks on a first name basis. One day I commented to the check out lady that the store seemed super busy.....She looked at me and said, "You come here all the time, you should know better than to come here before the fifth day of the month."

I wish Hong Kong had a Wal-Mart!

They are in China and the locals love them

Walmart is still my hero until they prove otherwise.They´re the main reason consumer inflation has been held in check for the most part the past 15 years+.

The unions and other liberal goons who stop them from being built really don´t have people in mind. Walmart employs thousands of people other businesses won´t touch.Looks don´t matter.
No matter how good Amazon is,they can´t make a postal worker move any faster.

The actual Walmart employment is closer to 1.3 million. No wonder the Union slugs want a piece of the action.

Remember Wal-Mart heir Sam Walton gave Obama $40,000 for his re-election. Personally, I shop elsewhere.

I´ll do without before I buy anything from China-mart.

His "pesky toddler" vs. some stupid video game. Mark this dude down as father of the year. Too bad for his doomed kid. Maybe you should need a license to reproduce after all.

Amazon has always been great. I dont care for their constant spam, but it is easily deleted.
Wal Mart is ok too, for the same reason that our local all you can eat place is ok. Prices are ok, selection is ok, but service and quality are lacking.

Well, #14, there is always another store to buy from but keep this in mind......You will be buying the same China-made stuff they have at Walmart, you will just be paying 20-30% more for it.

Amazon is the best and always has been. Zappos, too, since that was mentioned by another poster. Both send you the ´already shipped´ email within hours. Dependable, in stock notifications are correct, and good customer service. What more do you want? Actually after shopping 4-5 years online all websites I order from have great shipping and service now. I do 95% of my Christmas shopping online and couldn´t be happier. UPS and USPS tracking is great, too. You can track from warehouse to your front door and delivery is quick and dependable with both.

The article´s complaint was that some websites online say they are in stock at your local store and they are not. That´s a very valid complaint. With computers it should be automatic that when each item is sold and goes through the computerized cash register in any store it should be automatically deleted from that store´s in stock online. I don´t blame this author being ticked off. It´s the fault of the web masters and computer system if website shows in stock and the store is not, not the local retail employees.

Choice - screaming toddler versus spending all day running around town looking for an x-box.

Yea, let granny handle the toddler.

I have no clue who Farhad is; but he says he has spent tons of hours interviewing Walmar Executives. Why?

Agree with others, if your only quest in life is to find an x-b and then write a long winded story, you probably need a new life.

And take your toddler with you and take care of him like a responsible adult.

ObamaVoter ??? Probably

#18, you expect a company with thousands of locations to update instantly when any of the millions of items they have in stock are sold? Never done much programming with databases have you? Updating massive databases is a resource-extensive process. Essentially, what you want is technologically impossible right now.

Amazon should get the Nobel Price in the category of the science of customer friendly. What a website!

A number of posters have mentioned how customer-friendly Amazon is. Here´s a thought: it´s easy to be friendly to a customer you never have to come face to face with. I suspect many of you have never actually worked as a retail associate.

What #15 and #19 said. This pathetic obama-voter needs to stop playing with children´s toys and GROW UP.

I sing the praises of Amazon. They are speedy, accurate, well organized and extremely helpful if there is a problem. I´ve begun ordering other items besides books from them. Long live Amazon!!

Both have great internet service.

It is easy to stand on NO-Wal-Mart principle when the nearest on is 45 minutes away. All the same, I am content to patronize my small locally-owned businesses whenever possible, even if it means paying a few pennies more. Often, if I need enough of something to make a difference, cost-wise, I can ask the local hardware store guy to match the big-box price, and he willagreek and assure me that my stuff will be in on the truck that arrives Thursday morning. Of course, my life is vastly simplified by NOT needing an X-box today, or ever.

Amazon backs the collection of taxes by state of purchaser.
I can drive to Delaware and pay no taxes or buy through Amazon and have my info passed aliong to the State so I can pay my ´fair share´.

Yard sales for me.
I will NOT support the Monster Gov´t.

#17 Thanks for posting!
That needs to be repeated over and over!

To listen to some one would think Walmart is the sole importer of Chinese goods!

I am so glad I grew up with a real man as a dad who would hold me and play with me as a little guy, and would never pass me off to grandma for a "free day" so he could run around on the busiest shopping day of they year, not to buy a precious toy for me or my mom or sisters, but for himself.

No wonder women have such a hard time finding a man. So many are like this wimp.

Note, if anyone ever pointed a REAL gun at him and not in the video game, he would probably hide behind his infant and cry.

I am an enthusiastic Amazon "Prime" shopper. (Won´t be when they start charging sales tax). I recently bought a 52" HD TV set. It was delivered by truck instead of UPS (too big I guess). The driver brought inside the house, unpacked it, carried it into the room where it was going, hooked it into my DirecTV system , turned it on and tested it. I told him i was impressed with level of service and asked him "why". He told me that he was independent, Amazon had just started using him, knew that Amazon solicited comments on deliveries and wanted a good comment from me(he got it and a $20 tip).

Are they tech savy--yesterday I did some research on a particular Dyson vac on their site, added it to my wish list. A minute ago I clicked on a news link from the Lucienne site. Up popped an Amazon ad for that same model. Coincidence??

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Kudos, #19 and #29. This self-centered (no doubt)liberal is perturbed by the burden of his "pesky toddler." Too bad he couldn´t pick up a late-late-late term abortion at WalMart.

Unlike #32, since all computing equipment passes through China, I prefer buying products baswed on price. As for Walmart putting Mom and Pop shops out of business, why is that touted but statistics are never produced?

Love Amazon, where else can I order a Worf, General Martok, Seven of Nine, a pair of Uggs, charge my Grandma´s Kindle account and buy a copy of 7 brides for 7 brothers and have it all arrive within 2 days free shipping.

I did 99% of my Christmas shopping at Walmart and Amazon this year. Even the supplies for my handmade gifts came from those two retailers. And looking at my list I’d say each got about a 50/50 share of my business. I price shop online first at both websites then hit the local Walmart. (There are four within 8 miles radius of my home in Tennessee, one in Kentucky where sales tax is lower.) If I don’t find it in stock at Walmart, I order online through Amazon.

Amazon has been wonderful for shipping gifts to my granddaughter back in Texas and my son-in-law stationed in Europe. We were even able to ship gifts that the post exchange could not get to him in Afghanistan. And when his kindle ‘fried’ in Afghanistan, he emailed Amazon and they shipped him a replacement immediately. It arrived at his forward operating base in Afghanistan within three days.

LOL. No coincidence, #30. If you want to know the companies that really have online shopping down to a science just click on products and retail websites which you might be considering buying or buying from. The good ones with good service will pop up on Lucianne.com almost immediately and will remind you day after day of that perfect gift you were researching.

Amazon is one of many, Barnes & Noble another. I looked at some books for babies/toddlers at b&n.com last night and today those exact books are all over Lucianne.com for me to see. Had 2 pkgs ordered from Amazon delivered today- came in 2 days right on time, one by mail, one by UPS.