Navigating the Amazon

July 6, 2007 7:22 PM

How do I make my Amazon.com shopping cart fit in the aisle?

So here's the problem: I put lots of purchasing possibilities in my Amazon.com shopping cart, and inevitably put most in "save for later." This becomes unwieldy when you get over 100 items; what's worse is that it auto-updates after every attempt to prune, so that deleting one item (save, #75) returns you to the top of the cart, from when you return to #76, then back to #1, and so forth. I have Googled, search Greasemonkey for possibilities, and struck out. Does anyone have a trick as to how to (a) prevent auto-updating, so I don't always refresh after hitting delete, or (b) show all the cart contents at once, or (c) something else that will allow me to clean my cart, then fill it to the brim again? Many thanks.

posted by Clyde Mnestra to Shopping (13 answers total)

I'll confess that I dont use Amazon that much... so this might be missing the point, but Wish Lists? I keep several wish lists of things I want to get, or just things I like in general (mainly for showing friends a list of books I want to read, or have read, or favorite movies). You can keep different lists and specify whether you want them public or private.
It's an idea anyway, don't know if it serves your purposes or not.
posted by chrisbucks at 7:27 PM on July 6, 2007

Yeah, this sounds like a Wish List thing. Personally I'd just bookmark things in my browser, though.
posted by mendel at 7:40 PM on July 6, 2007

Yeah, I use the shopping list (not the cart) for this kind of thing. But I think it's plagued by the things you mention. Although I think you can delete everything in it in one fell swoop.
posted by bluefly at 7:40 PM on July 6, 2007

Use Wish List(s). When updating them (deleting or moving an item to another list) it does not refresh back to #1. Also, you can sort via price, priority, or date added, and in Compact View you can see 100 items at once, delete, move, or rank multiple items at one time.
posted by papakwanz at 7:48 PM on July 6, 2007

You can also create multiple wishlists, and make them public (to potentially receive gifts from) or private if it's stuff you don't want to share.

Adding items to wishlists is just as easy as adding them to your cart, and multiple wishlists are accessible from the same button. You can easily mass-migrate items between wishlists as well.

I have had at times 150+ items in my wishlists, this is what they were designed for ;)
posted by jpeacock at 7:54 PM on July 6, 2007

Forget wishlists - if you keep everything in your cart, it lets you know when prices have changed. Checking my cart once or twice a week lets me see when things I want have gone on sale.
posted by FreezBoy at 8:19 PM on July 6, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions. I had considered wishlists, but perceived the problem that FreezBoy indicated -- perhaps no longer the case? It's also requires artificially dividing a list that, were it easy to display and manage, I would be happier keeping together.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 8:42 PM on July 6, 2007

Are you actually deleting? Or are you saving for later? If you're deleting, just set the quantity to 0 instead of using the delete button, then click the update button.
posted by aneel at 8:44 PM on July 6, 2007

Response by poster: aneel,

The problem is in the "saved for later" portion, which doesn't have quantities set (at least not in the view I've encountered, when quantities are one).
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 8:49 PM on July 6, 2007

I don't exactly understand FreezBoy's complaint... prices *are* displayed in the Wish List. Maybe you mean that the cart somehow gives you a special display when something is on sale? I don't know. And you don't have to divide items into different wish lists. You can have hundreds of all different types of things in your list.
posted by papakwanz at 9:37 PM on July 6, 2007

papakwanz - at the top of your cart listing, Amazon automatically gives you a list of any prices that have changed since you put the item in your cart - both increases and decreases to price.
posted by FreezBoy at 10:35 PM on July 6, 2007

while the cart does give you the updated prices (which i admit i find insanely helpful), if you're saving a large amount of items in your saved for later section, you honestly might want to look into a wish list. occasionally, amazon will update its servers or something techy like that and some people's carts will erased.

i used to work customer service for amazon, and i heard many a customer complaint about their cart suddenly beng erased due to one of these upgrades. standard amazon response is basically "sorry we deleted all 400 items in your saved for later section. hey, get yourself a wish list."

i know there's an amazon price checker somewhere on the internet. you put the asin in and it will monitor the price for you for 30 days and send you emails when it goes lower. it's a little bit of a hassle, sure, but is it any more of a hassle than the auto-update?
posted by kerning at 10:41 PM on July 6, 2007

Regarding finding out when items have gone on sale, try Wishlist Buddy. It imports your wishlist(s). Say an item is currently $19.99, and you want to buy it when it goes on sale for $14.99. Set your price in WB, and it will e-mail you when the price drops.
posted by IndigoRain at 1:26 PM on July 7, 2007