Elon's comment to spin up Amazon competitor isn't a fluke... Amazon has major problems...Amazon has become a Chinese flea market operating inside an American distribution empire... 55.9% of its top 10,000 sellers are now China based...

x.com ^ | October 15, 2026 | Observing Consciousness @holonabove

[ransomnote]

Brian Cates - Political Columnist & Pundit reposted
Observing Consciousness
@holonabove
·
2h
Elon's comment to spin up Amazon competitor isn't a fluke... Amazon has major problems...

Amazon has become a Chinese flea market operating inside an American distribution empire... 55.9% of its top 10,000 sellers are now China based, while American entrepreneurs invest in developing products, building brands, proving demand and creating the very markets that overseas competitors move in to capture...

The pattern is well documented... an American inventor develops something successful, Chinese knockoffs flood the marketplace, prices collapse, original listings get hijacked, and fraudulent intellectual property complaints can even force legitimate sellers offline...

Forearm Forklift watched revenue and American jobs disappear, Drop Stop fought Chinese made patent infringement, PopSockets took its counterfeit problems to Congress, and federal investigations have exposed fraudulent takedowns and insiders manipulating seller accounts...

All inside a marketplace where Amazon controls visibility, advertising, enforcement and access to the customer, collecting $172 billion in seller services and another $68 billion in advertising revenue annually...

Now Elon Musk suggests building an Amazon competitor after reports of Amazon blocking Grok purchasing bots... and suddenly this connects directly into the larger architecture I've been mapping around American manufacturing, tariffs, the elimination of de minimis exemptions, autonomous logistics, alternative financial rails and Super Intelligence (SI)...

Imagine verified American manufacturers connected directly to consumers through intelligent purchasing agents that authenticate product origins, protect intellectual property, compare actual value and bypass the machinery that allows innovators to be displaced inside their own marketplace...

With X potentially providing discovery, Grok providing intelligence and an entirely new commerce network connecting production, payments and delivery...

The implications reach far beyond Amazon... China has leveraged America's retail infrastructure to reach American consumers at extraordinary scale, while American innovators have become increasingly dependent on the same platform that exposes them to imitation and marketplace abuse...

I've been mapping the rebuilding of America's sovereign industrial stack from production through distribution... Musk's comment opens another potential front, connecting that machinery directly to the American household...

America creates the product... the next battle is over who controls the marketplace, the purchasing decision and ultimately the economic value of American innovation...

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[catnipman]

almost all tools and hardware sold in hardware stores, big box or otherwise, name brand or otherwise, are made in china ... everything sold in harbor freight is made in China, Taiwan or India ... almost nothing mechanical is made in the USA these days ...

even respected brands mean little these days ...

and while amazon has indeed become a chinese flea market, with massive amounts of chinese garbage to sort though, there is still some fine quality merchandise to be had from amazon made in china ...

i buy a lot of parts and hardware on amazon, and, for example, the stainless metric hardware usually is excellent and sells for a tiny fraction of the rob-you-blind prices the local hardware will sell you metric hardware for ...

the key is to read reviews, esp. negative reviews, and look at the volume of reviews ... and if all your best efforts result in buying something that turns out to be crap, do not hesitate to return it and leave a detailed negative review, even if its for just a few dollars ... if everyone would return crap, amazon would be forced to nuke sellers selling crap ... [OTOH, i also make an effort to leave good reviews when warranted.]

[MeanWestTexan]

It’s like Harbor Freight and their crappy Chinese tools.

I do go there for a tool I know I’ll need once, because that’s about how long they last.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I remember in the mid and late 50s when toys from Japan were pure junk and had a deserved reputation as such. Poorly designed, poorly made, poor materials. Everything broke. Getting a “Made in Japan” present was bad form. And NOTHING, absolutely nothing, came out of China just 10 years after their communist revolution.

How things changed. It is astonishing.

[Buttons12]

Never, ever, ever purchase a product from Amazon that is sourced from China. Sometimes, it says it in the reviews/questions. Always check.

A good rule of thumb, but I often see no country of origin listed. Sometimes an item has a manual you can download, and there you can find a clue to origin.

Fortunately I live in PA, the unofficial state motto is "Old Stuff That Still Works." You can usually find things made in USA, pre-loved and still useful.

At this rate, pretty soon our coins might be electroplated in China. :(

[CatOwner]

The main reason China has 56% of the top 10,000 sellers on Amazons is because of the idiot Americans who keep buying their stuff. It is sometimes hard to avoid, but we’ve gotten a vast majority of our purchases away from Chinese companies or made in China.

[enumerated]

They’ll mostly allow returns and give full refunds - but if you do have a case where none of the simplistic choices on the return questionnaire fits your situation, you’re screwed.

There’s absolutely no way of conversing with a human being.

[CatOwner]

Chewy is good. So are our local pet stores and grocery stores willing to carry the better pet food products. I don't trust Amazon's storage and sourcing for pet food. We've received canned pet food from Amazon in the past that turned out spoiled inside the cans.

Don't ask me how that happened. They are the only retailer we've purchased canned pet food from where some of the cans had expanded internally. I am willing to a pay a bit more for peace of mind for our pet's food.

[Windcatcher]

Especially Chinese furniture using cheap “manufactured wood” that outgasses formaldehyde. When I needed 3 tables for my retrogaming room I searched and searched and found Peaceful Valley Furniture: solid wood and Amish-made in Lancaster, PA :^)

[Flaming Conservative]

Only 55%? I’m surprised. And selling knockoffs as originals! Didn’t that used to be illegal?

[tballard56]

Amazon = Temu on steroids. It’s definitely a problem.

[SPDSHDW]

Issue is presently, people are struggling to pay for the current chinese junk, let alone anything mor expensive.

[packrat35]

Chinese 6X may fit you if you are 3X or it might not.

[Flaming Conservative]

I’m not sure about that; I am a long time customer, and have purchased many items with coupon offers, plus being allowed to make payments with no interest, without having to enroll in their credit card. I purchased a full size refrigerator and was allowed to pay for it over 2 years with no interest, and for a very fair price. I’ve done that with TVs as well.

[Flaming Conservative]

What is wrong with your local supermarket? Are they not cheaper than online retail?

---

Our local supermarket is Homeland; they price gouge nearly everything, so no.

[Flaming Conservative]

Harbor Freight now has a lifetime guarantee line of tools.

[George from New England]

Amazon reviews mostly from freebee recipients
95% crap

[ansel12]

It isn’t all coupons, just some, and many of those, it is getting to be a common anecdotal complaint but it won’t be confirmed that it is happening until someone looks at it formally, but there is no denying that some of us are not seeing all the coupons that we see when we look at the page with incognito or a browser without our Amazon cookie.

[tballard56]

I just checked Amazon, and there is no way to to filter for “American-made.” Even putting American-made in the description is not enough to filter out Chinese-made products.

[Dead Corpse]

Plus... the search engine in Amazon SUCKS.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon and most of it is pretty good. I’m getting ready to buy one of those boneless couches to replace the sofa in our RV. I don’t know if its from China or not.