There are really nice brands that are being developed in Ukraine. I’ll post some pictures and explain the meaning in a while. But for now, I want to mention that the ordering process is really cute. It’s not automatic. People very pointedly choose to not make it automatic. As a result, each time you want to order something, you end up engaged in a long dialogue where you end up exchanging your life stories and explaining what you are all about.
Yes, it’s not remotely as efficient as Amazon. And it’s never going to make that much money. But it’s kind of really homey and nice. There’s also zero upselling. Upselling is outdated and should be buried once and for all everywhere but in North America not everybody has gotten the message.
Clarissa's Blog 
I would say that “having a story to tell” is literally the only way you can compete with Amazon. You can’t beat Amazon on efficiency; it has its own hyper-optimized supply chain. But how you distinguish yourself from them is to personalize your product, give it a story. That’s still beyond Amazon’s capabilities.
For example, I’ve purchased these wooden spatulas for myself and friends. They’re a joy to cook with and extremely functional. Made by a rugged mountain man out of his garage space in Montana. I highly recommend their stuff.
https://www.earlywooddesigns.com/
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It seems like an attempt to reach back and bring the mercado into the online space.
Like, the difference between the mercado, and the supermercado, is that shopping at the former is social, humane, and the online version, even more than the super, is isolating, sterile.
I’m not sure it can really be done, but kudos to people for trying.
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I hate flying British Airways.
They don’t merely upsell on merch and seats, but also on various social causes they believe everyone should give a shit about.
And the smarmy way of doing it where they command everyone’s attention on the flight as if they’re making a safety announcement?
Yeah, BA can rightly go get fucked.
I’m often willing to try anything else just as long as it’s not BA or Air France.
With Air France, they upsell you your own luggage on certain routes.
They take despicable upselling in a captive environment to its inevitable conclusion.
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Ever flown KAL? That was the longest most grueling flight I’ve ever been on, and also the nicest.
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No …
I’m old enough to remember vividly a certain incident that has always led me to avoid KAL.
Some memories just stick like that, especially since I was flying a lot back then and could easily picture myself on a flight via Seoul back to the US.
Clarissa may know what event this was, and what it involved probably will be no surprise …
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“Clarissa may know what event this was”
Flight 007, oddly enough…..
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Yikes! I was but a wee tot reciting squeaky poetry when that happened.
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…so, untainted by gruesome news stories, I deeply appreciated the very nice KAL service. Only flight I’ve ever been on where the food was actually good, and after, I had to go find where to buy those tiny sardines– I had never encountered those before, but now they are a favorite!
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