WITH A FEW keystrokes you can find almost anything on Amazon ... and buy it with as little as a single click. It’s a wonderbox of capitalism. I once typed in “yak” for no good reason and Amazon’s algorithms suggested “yak cheese himalayan dog chews.” So I hit Enter and up popped pages filled with hundreds of different dog chews that I have since learned are an all-natural, satisfying, long-lasting treat for pups. Amazon had over 300 Himalayan dog chews to sift through, from hundreds of companies I’ve never heard of, sold by hundreds of different sellers.
I don’t need a bag of dog bones made of yak cheese right now. But, if I did, I would feel overwhelmed. Which brands are high quality? Which listings are legitimate? What’s a good price to pay? Are these yak cheese dog chews actually a one of the best deals on Amazon Prime Day or is it a fake deal?
These days, almost anyone can sell items on Amazon in five easy steps. The site hosts millions of sellers, making it more like eBay than Target. But Amazon does not vet everything on its virtual shelves thoroughly, if at all, and that means you have to be careful about what you’re buying. The site has known problems with fake reviews and counterfeit items, and a growing number of Chinese sellers have flooded the site with strange new off-brand products in the past few years. Amazon has a fairly good return policy on its own items, but third-party sellers don’t have to abide by those standards, and many don’t.
