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Comment by e28eta | Hacker News Reader

Yes, in the abstract, this is fairly ridiculous. However, having tried to use kitchen utensils purchased from a dollar store, it's my experience that there are some that are completely useless.

So, I too would read reviews before purchasing a ladle online, because the handful of images wouldn't give me a good idea of the quality of the item I was purchasing.

Although, I personally would probably buy a ladle at a local store (thrift store if you're looking for a deal), instead of getting it shipped to me.

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Amazon Prime eliminated the shipping charges on my $6.15 ladle. And it's snowing outside.

And the physical store has no reviews!

Yeah, but someone in the store might be able to outline the pros and cons..

Its like the electronics stores of yesteryear. Any piece of equipment you ask about, regardless of how expensive it might be, will be met with the response "this is a great x, why I have one myself and it is just fantastic".

This. I clearly remember the day my mental default switched from "trusting sales people" to "ignoring sales people". It was the day my mom was trying to buy a two-line phone, and she had three sales people trying to tell the three different things that she actually wanted ("this cordless phone has two handsets", "this phone has a flash button", "one phone can't have two lines, you need two phones").

If I was buying a ladle on amazon, I'd maybe check the reviews (by force of habit if nothing else). But I'd feel silly asking about pros and cons of ladles at the store.

Those stores are so rare.

It shouldn’t be the case that reading up on something for twenty minutes before going to the store makes me much more knowledgeable about that something than the salesperson.

The only time in recent years I can remember when someone could actually tell me something I didn’t know was when I was buying glasses†.

—

† It was a spontaneous decision, so I didn’t read up on it beforehand but I did some reading afterwards and was utterly confused. There doesn’t seem to be much good information about glasses on the web.

Those days are long gone. The big box store killed commission-based salespeople, now you have "sales associate" which really just means associates making 8-10 dollars per hour and are there to look helpful and run the cash register occassionally. Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, those types of stores do not train their employees on the products at all (except a tiny bit on whatever item they are pushing for the season).

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