In a weird kind of Amazon way, that makes sense!

That's the "O" face - the resident face of the Other forum :)

:0)

I think the whole point is that these Gold Boxes are supposed to be something we are interested in given our ordering history. I don't really check it anymore. There is no incentive because they keep offering rice cookers and silverware sets that I have no interest in. I believe that the intent of the original poster was along these lines --- if you don't give me an incentive to check the Gold Box, it is pretty much useless.

Excellent point, and it makes perfect sense in light of what everyone seems to be saying about the items they're getting in their box.

Let's see, i've never bought any appliences or kitchen utensils from them but that's what my gold box has everytime i check.

What's with Amazon pushing so many things like kitchen appliances, tools/hardware, toys, and lawn furniture?

Isn't this the kind of stuff people are just going to buy at Target or Wal-Mart? And they're bigger and heavier than books/CDs/DVDs, so it has increased warehousing/shipping costs added in, too.

There's a certain novelty in buying books, music and movies from someplace like Amazon, where there are reviews and bestseller lists, and the listmania stuff and wishlists features are kind of neat, too, but if I'm shopping for a blender or patio furniture, I'm going to shop at a brick and mortar store where I can actually see what I'm getting, rather than just seeing a little JPG or GIF of it. I'm assuming returns are easier, too.

It seems like Amazon is wasting their time expanding into areas where there probably isn't a lot of interest, or a need to be filled. It looks to me like they're just blowing a lot of money to expand into areas that aren't going to be profitable.

It sounds like the "Gold Box" is just a way to promote these Amazon "stores" that nobody is interested in.

Well, there is nothing wrong with that. It's been known that Amazon.com has been losing money on those stores. So they came up with the "gold box" as a marketing plan. Yeah, they say it's based on your purchase history and blah blah blah, but we all know good and well that's PR. I never believe anything I hear in advertising, so why should amazon.com be any different? I can't believe people are still complaining about this, personally. And as for who might be interested in things like this...well, maybe people who don't have the means to go out shopping, either due to physical problems or what have you. I am not defending amazon.com, as I would also rather them cut these dead weight stores and focus on offering better prices on the stuff we are attracted to their site for, but I would not waste my time complaining about the gold box either.

And I am sure there must be customers out there who would order from these stores. Maybe single people or people with money or people with physical limitations that would make it hard for them to get these kinds of products from b&m's.

Maybe if we ignore the gold box, it will just go away. I think ignoring it has more of an effect anyway, since they will see not many people are clicking on it and buying things from there. But til then you can't blame them for trying.

just as a note for future reference, don't ever expect a personal response from amazon. its company policy to not send a personal response. anyone doing so can be fired on spot.

Why would they not be able to send a personal responce? I understand sending out mostly pre-written standard responces, as with getting hundreds to thousands of e-mails a day, if they were to answer each one personally they would never get through the mails and e-mail responces would take forever. But every once in a while a question warrants a personal responce. Can they really be fired? what gives? that doesn't make any sense.

Uh, that was sarcasm... :)

The only time I've written Jeff Bezos I got a personal reply from the head of the DVD store along with a $20 promotional coupon, since my letter was about pricing problems.

Did you write or e-mail? If e-mail, please post it as I have a problem I'd like to get taken care of.