Amazon announced a brand new storefront, “HAUL,” a mobile-exclusive shopping experience seemingly designed to take on Temu and other such internationally-fulfilled online marketplaces.
Amazon Haul wants to be your new destination for “”- and I quote “unbelievable finds” and “crazy low prices.”
The landing page has old marquee-style emoji-emphasized sideways-scrolling text that informs customers of all the different coupon codes available.
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On top of “crazy low prices,” you save 5% on $50+, or 10% on $75+ orders. You get free shipping with $25+ orders.
I did a quick search for tools, and it’s all junk – similar no-name generic stuff that’s already cluttering Amazon’s product catalog.
Even though Amazon says that Haul offers “a broad selection of products $20 or less, with most under $10,” I cannot find any brand-name tools.
Amazon’s regular site has Craftsman long nose pliers for $9.98. You’d think that these would show up in a search for “pliers” or “Craftsman” via Amazon Haul, but they don’t.
For whatever reasons, Amazon Haul seems to have been curated to the exclusion of reputable brand names.
I get that Amazon Haul, Temu, and other such cheap goods online marketplaces look to capture the fun and savings of the 99 cent stores that my parents used to like visiting. Maybe I’m too old to appreciate Haul, but it looks like another schlock store to me.
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If you want cheap “crazy low prices” on tools, shop retailers’ holiday season deals and gift items, or maybe even Harbor Freight.
Amazon Haul doesn’t look to offer anything of value. I’m open to being wrong – take a look and change my mind if you find anything good.
Reminder: “Haul is a mobile-only experience.”
Updates
Amazon Haul orders are fulfilled differently than from the main store: shipping takes 1-2 weeks, and Amazon says they offer free returns on “eligible items over $3 within 15 days of delivery.”
According to news reports, Amazon Haul items are fulfilled directly from China, which is why they take longer to ship, and presumably why brand names seem to be excluded from the product catalog.
Scott F
I hope they move all the no name BS out of the main Amazon catalog with the advent of HAUL. Maybe I will go back to shopping more at (regular) Amazon if they do…
Or maybe not since you still cannot trust the authenticity of what you receive from Amazon.
fred
Another example of the creeping mediocrity that is plaguing the nation. I don’t blame Amazon – we have to collectively look in the mirror to see who’s to blame. It once was said that “if the only tool you have is a hammer – then everything looks like a nail”. Well, if the only thing you are interested in is the absolute lowest price – then everything will soon look like junk.
Jim
Well said sir!
Matt F
Perfectly articulated, Fred.
CMF
100% agreed. I have often said when people complain about not enough MITUSA, versus cheap imports.
They exist…only, because we want them. For everyone on TG and similar websites wanting good quality, well made tools, there are 99 that will by the cheapest hammer, screwdriver and whatever else they need.
Saulac
Same. I hope this is the silver linings.
Robert
The predominance of emoji with the tongues hanging out, which I take to mean disgust, seems to show that even Amazon realizes what this ‘haul” is.
Stuart
A smiley face with tongue sticking out is not disgust. It’s “zany.”
AP
But they have emojis 😐
Stuart
That’s just marketing towards the TikTok crowd that’s been fueling Temu and Shein sales.
Looking past that, it’s the lack of value and substance that’s an issue.
avi
Frankly, if I’m looking for no name garbage, (sometimes I am) and can wait a month or two for delivery, I go straight to ali express. Where you really can get stuff for less than the postage of a regular envelope.
Bonnie
Same. I’ve never seen the appeal of these resellers, though i guess shipping is sometimes faster it’s better to just go to the source if I’m looking for raw components or white-label stuff.
I mostly use AliExpress for electrical components, like induction loops and plugs and such.
SEBTECHDIY
Most of things i received from aliexpress is under two weeks now since the last year, they upped their shipping game pretty much.
David
This is true. I just put in an order for some little woodworking tools and phone cases, and AliExpress should have them to me in WA State by the 24th.
One of the things coming is the 2 pack of these mini DeWalt cases that fit inside their bit/organization cases like the DWAN2190.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807545705368.html
Found this yesterday and am tempted to try it:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806444834846.html
eddiesky
Thats going to all change next year. The new regime will remove the postal discount loophole that China shipping has been exploiting. Sure, they might freight it to their leased warehousing state-side to show, Ships from US for cheap but like all good things…
Eric
An investing (Public.com) email I saw had a few interesting notes for perspective.
1. Amazon Haul is basically leveraging the same duties on the individual goods loophole for goods <$800 imported to the U.S. Which is why the shipping times are what they are compared to regular Amazon.
2. In less than a year it looks like Temu grew to 75% of Target.com's business scale.
3. This could tie into Stuart's recent post about Tariffs changing with the incoming administration.
4. The email noted that of the overall U.S. E-commerce market, Amazon accounted for over 40%, Walmart.com was around 8%, Target.com was at 3%, for reference.
PB
Yes, this is directly related to the import duty exemptions that have been in place for years.
There’s been a few news articles talking about how local importers are getting completely bypassed. The acceleration in shipping speed and the low cost benefits are proving to be a larger market.
Why pay the middleman when I can bypass him completely.
However, high end items and large order quantity orders cannot be sold this way. So the majority of products will likely be junk.
Amazon is just trying to keep up with Ali.
Lookup some recent articles about how Temu is screwing over their manufacturers with returns.
Perhaps Wild is a better term
Kyle
In the context of tool buying, apparently this exists in a vacuum where Harbor Freight doesn’t already exist. Some of Harbor Freight’s lowest cost products are already stupidly cheap. The difference is I don’t need to wait two weeks to get the product, or wait two weeks to get my money back.
I think things like this exist as a confirmation of a sort of retail-horseshoe theory. You can factually buy better products from discount stores or second hand, but those outlets aren’t “fun, interesting” or whatever nouns TEMU and other garbage vendors use to describe their shopping experiences. On top of having worse offerings, the prices some of these items are sold for is absolutely shocking when compared against the competition. Paying as much or more, for a significantly worse product from a store just because the shopping experience is some noun.
Bonnie
Harbor Freight is becoming less and less the place to get cheap tools and supplies (I used to buy nitrile gloves there but they’re now more expensive and worse than Costco or Amazon). They still have some holdouts, but I expect those to keep dropping as they shift up-market.
Josh
If I want brand name I buy from a brick and mortar store or there website. If I want cheap off brand I go to Amazon or even temu. To much fake stuff camouflaged as brand name stuff. For instance I needed a set of special timing tools for a gm 3.6 so I got the off brand from Amazon because it’s very unlikely I need it more than the one job. Maybe a handful of times in my life time but I’m doubtful if I ever will
Jared
It sounds like HAUL is a different concept, perhaps more like TEMU than what’s already going on with Amazon. E.g. I understand TEMU to operate as a kind of group-buy endeavor where the manufacturer gets a bunch of orders to merit a production run. I don’t think it always works like that, but I think that was the impetus for its creation.
Amazon already sells lots of cheap Chinese junk – but most of it is housed in domestic warehouses to speed up delivery. Not all of it of course, but you’d have to have a reason to buy something that shipped directly from China (maybe to save a few more bucks).
Since all of Haul will ship from China, I assume Amazon is adopting a TEMU-inspired model, not just a TEMO-style storefront.
I don’t expect this to appeal to most of us as tool shoppers with… refined tastes, yet I could see it having some success. E.g. Amazon is the default online shopping place. You can online shop from many sites, but how often do you bother for items that are already on Amazon for a competitive price? If Amazon now has your TEMU goods too, then TEMU’s importance may fade.
Stuart
You mentioned thinking of Temu as being based on a group buy concept before, but I’ve never heard of that. I thought you were confusing Temu with Massdrop/Drop, but apparently “group buying” was a new feature recently added, and group buying culture was a part of the parent company’s other marketplace ventures, or something like that.
Temu exploded into the scene a few years ago, starting with the “shop like a billionaire” Superbowl commercial.
As far as I can tell, it’s all about cheap stuff.
Jared
I think you’re right – I conflated TEMU with one of predecessor companies with a group-buy model. I think it was actually Pinduoduo that did that.
Mr. C
“Crazy low prices”.
Sigh. Time to get on the soapbox.
Yeah, maybe it’s just me, someone who has endured working with & assisting people who are mentally unstable, suffering from dementia, alzheimer’s, etc…
…but hearing “CRAZY” and “INSANE” and all those other negative mental health afflictions (even if they’re not officially DSM named specifically) is really off-putting. It’s very demeaning and disrespectful to those who suffer from them.
It’s akin to using other poor choices of language, like calling something “oh that’s AIDS” or using the r-word for mentally challenged or “that thing was cancer to me!” For those who who suffer (or help caretake) those issues, it’s all in poor taste hearing that.
(You know how *exhausting* it is taking care of those who are bipolar? Schizophrenic? Suffering from various forms of dementia? But nah, this deal, THAT’S the crazy thing here! sigh.)
We keep hearing “Mental Health Is Important”. Yes, but is it? It’s either important….or it isn’t. When it comes to capitalistic enterprise, I guess mental health takes a backseat to a catchy tagline.
Time to get off my soapbox.
It’s Amazon, so I try to avoid giving them any of my business whenever possible. And it’s mobile, which I don’t use for anything other than satnav, so this would have never have hit my radar (pun intended). See? I do have a sense of humor!
Stuart
When certain phrases have been commonly used/misused colloquially for so long, it takes deliberate and conscious effort to refrain from them.
I have tried my best to avoid using such phrasing in posts, but every so often a term slips through in an excerpt or post.
I don’t know how Amazon’s tagline made it past marketing review; multiple people would have had to have given it a green light.
PB
I understand what you are saying. I don’t disagree. But anyone can be crazy at times. So to me it’s like self-deprecating humor.
kent_skinner
Amazon’s version of Temu or Wish.
I do as little business with Amazon as I possibly can.
Vards Uzvards
So far this year I spent $6K on Amazon.com – one-time purchases, Subscribe & Save monthly deliveries, Amazon Prime video channel subscriptions. I returned just a handful of items during this time – wrong item sent, small defects, etc. And this is quite a typical year. We use Amazon.com since year 2000 (of course, in earlier years we were spending much less, mostly on books, music records, videos, some kitchen stuff).
I’m buying about half of my tools on this site (corded and cordless – Bosch, Dremel, Fein, Hitachi then Metabo HPT, some Makita), and never ever I had a problem with these, nor a fake item sent to me. Nor I ever got a fake item from Amazon.com, of any other kind.
Jim Felt
For both business and personal purchases my experiences mirror yours.
(Plus at various times, long after I/we started buying from them they were a client).
My travel time to HD (also once a client), especially if a return, even from online ordering is needed, etc., is (almost always) more time bother than the great SA River.
I don’t judge Jeff Bezos for his present day life style/eccentricities given the abundance of product diversity and delivery speed he’s both pioneered and nearly forced the competitive mostly retail landscape to follow.
J . Newell
“Amazon Haul items are fulfilled directly from China”
Always a good sign! (not…)
S
After browsing the ‘haul’ page for a little while, it’s pretty clear to me that it isn’t currently catering to working men, that this blog tends to attract as an audience.
It’s mostly women’s clothes, women’s accessories, and household items.
Though interestingly, some sealed cartridge bearings showed up on my last search page. It’s so far looking similar to how Temu started out, who now offers many of the same products that AliExpress offers, just a different platform and cost/shipping strategy.
I think it’s interesting from an online marketplace perspective. I didn’t expect temu to take as much of a share of sales as another post reported–all of my friends and acquaintances have minimal purchases, or negative impressions of Temu, so I didn’t expect them to be doing as well as the other post even reported.
I also wouldn’t have expected Amazon to choose to work their way down market further either.
It’s also an interesting contrast that at the same time harbor freight is making moves to shift their products and image up market to a wealthier/choosy clientele.