Is it possible to one day replace the privacy nightmare of Amazon with a decentralized merchant network? All I really use Amazon for these day is aggregate customer reviews by query, then buy the items as direct as possible. Why can’t respectable tools to this instead? I understand the cost, but could the tech be adopted?

  • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m not entirely sure you’d want that, tbh.

    Think about how logistics work, and how fuel has to be spent. You don’t want a decentralized network for physical goods. That’s extremely inefficient and wasteful.

    Even if it’s just about the final point of sale… we kinda already have these aggregations of individual merchant stalls? We call them “malls” mostly, nowadays, or “markets”, depending on type. They exist, but keep in mind that a lot of stuff is centralized behind the scenes, be it maintenance, logistics or chains.

    • LazerDickMcCheese@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      I apologize for not being more specific, I’m not interested in a centralized delivery system. I just want vendors to have their inventories posted online (as usual), but for them to be aggregated by category and filterable in one location without depending on a dystopian tech company. MAYBE have a frontend to appear as though everything is centralized, but I would be indifferent

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Aaaah, okay. I keep thinking I heard of exactly this in the German city of Hamburg before, or even the entire area. But I can’t find anything about it right now. But I’m sure I had heard of this. There was like this meta-shopping-system, and then the orders were fulfilled by each company individually, they just pooled their catalogues basically.