Amazon's one click, customer service, shipping infrastructure, and return policy simply embarrass all their competition. Decades of investing in these things is paying off. No wonder it's physically painful to visit a new site: forms, typing, janky shipping, janky returns...

These things seem so easy once you see them all working, but companies don't have the resources or the interest in catching up.

I disagree. Their return policy average at best. Returns are only free if the item is damaged, defective, or incorrect. At Costco or Best Buy, I can return an item because I didn't like it. Even when returning items for "incorrect description", for example, it's super obnoxious when you have to return things over half the time because everything is shit.

I can go to Walmart and get a higher-quality product. I can buy tons of things at Walmart that I can't from Amazon due to their self-sabotoged supply chain. Food, kitchen products, personal care products, batteries, electronics, clothing, tools, etc etc. (How pitiful a time we live in when I am writing praises about Walmart. Sigh.)

The only reason Amazon charges you to return is to cover shipping. A brick and mortar does not accept returns via mail so you have to stand in line at the customer service counter forever. If you’re comparing apples to apples, Amazon returns are accepted in person at several retailers which eliminates the return shipping fee.