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Comment by oceanghost | Hacker News Reader

Competing against amazon with an animated Giraffe and a 3x markup was never going to work. If anything I'm surprised they made it this long.

That is not to say that Bain, TPG, etc aren't objectively evil.

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Do you buy toys? Amazon is almost always the most expensive retailer.

What is less expensive than Amazon?

Pretty much anything as compared to Target, Walmart or ToysRUs.

Plus, you’re less likely to get counterfeit product, and at Christmas you lose the risk of fulfillment fubar.

You're overstating the markup, and they've price matched (including Amazon) for a while.

"The guarantees typically require shoppers to provide proof of a lower advertised price on an identical item in stock at a nearby competitor’s store before a price match will be approved. However, many big-box retailers work directly with manufacturers and sell products with unique model numbers. As a result, the retailer can deny a price-match request, as no other store carries an "identical" item. Other common reasons for denial: the competitor is not "local," the ad lists a percent discount rather than a specific price, or the customer doesn't offer acceptable proof of the competitor's price.[9] Even if all criteria are met, retailers grant price-matching requests on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of store employees."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price-based_selling#Price-matc...

Where on the spectrum are you? :-) I was overstating the problem for comedic effect.

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