You’ve probably heard by now that Amazon purchased the online shoe-seller Zappos for $800 million, mostly in stock. My first thought when I heard this yesterday was – does that mean prices will come down?
It’s not that I dislike Zappos, but their prices are ridiculous. Case in point: on their clearance page the cheapest shoe featured is $94. I know, I know, they have free shippping both ways and great selection. But seriously, folks. Burn a little shoe leather and get a deal.
Now that Zappos is owned by Amazon, which is primarily known for uber-competitive prices, I wonder if prices will come down. Unless Amazon is getting into the high-end market, how could they not?
On second thought, the pairing of shoes and competitive prices could be the downfall of shoe-obsessed women everywhere.
What do you think?
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
I don’t like this buyout. There’s a long post at slickdeals where people are posting about their amazon accounts being deleted. One lady said her account was deleted because she bought a lot of shoes from amazon, and when they didn’t fit she used their return policy to (duh) return them. When they closed her account the reason was: too many returns.
If that happens to zappos, I may cry.
I’ll let you in on a little secret about Zappos.com – their clearance website is 6pm.com. I have purchase soooo many pairs of namebrand shoes there. They have new specials on their homepage daily – they even sell clothes and sunglasses 🙂
Great tip! I’ll have to check out 6pm.com. Thanks HappieME!
fyi: After researching 6PM.com, I found it has a multitude of bad reviews. Buyer beware…
A few years back, Zappos had great reductions on expensive shoes. Not anymore.
I figure the Amazon buyout will make the shoe prices more user friendly—the way they used to be.
They have a brick and mortar location in Las Vegas. But the prices are the same as the website. Makes no sense.
Might I ask where you read all of these bad reviews, Zookeeper? My friends and I have purchased so many items from 6pm.com with nothing but successful experiences all around. Don’t believe everything you read on websites like Yelp.com and others… 🙂
I love to browse the Zappos site because of the huge selection but I’ve never made a purchase because of the high prices. If I see something I like on Zappos I click over to DSW.com and try to find it there or at least something similar for way less. And DSW has a frequent shopper program where you build up points and earn gift checks. Check them out next time you shoe shop.