This week I’ve got Dell handing out “free” money, Walmart loosening yet tightening its grip on MCF, and Shopify testing what looks like AI-powered magic on the checkout page — while somehow no one’s talking about the fine print.

Did you know ChatGPT runs out of gas? Me neither.

There I was, coming up with my LinkedIn post based on this newsletter and Chat gave me this. I never saw this message before, and I guess you guys should know that it's a possibility.

I guess I should've taken the hint though. A few weeks ago whenever I'd prompt it in this conversation, I'd need to refresh the page to get the answer. Welp ... there's a lesson.

Guess Who Gets to Be the Bad Guy Again? (Hint: Me)

My whole value proposition for this newsletter is that I'm the only guy who still touches my inventory and tells you about it without trying to sell you on a discovery call, right?

Well true to that mission is the stupidity of messages like these.

Amazon is admirably a customer centric company. This customer in need called in to Amazon and the associate said god knows what to this customer, maybe promising him all these unrealistic things. Meanwhile any seller knows we cannot accommodate this. Especially when the order value is $16.99.

Being customer centric, can't Amazon's SOP's be a little more practical and pragmatic? Now I, the seller, is stuck breaking the bad news to this customer that he'll be disappointed that we don't provide free concierge pickups.

The return reason you ask? Guess. Item arrived too late while tracking indicates early delivery, of course.

🖊️ Dell Credits, Plaud AI, and My Loyalty to Pen and Paper

With the close of Q2, AMEX Platinum for Business holders know what that means, Dell credits!

In case you don't have the card, you can get one at my referral here (150,000 Welcome points).​

• 150,000 points can be converted into cashback ($900 total) or transferred out to give you a much better yield.
• You can transfer the points out to another hotel/airline network for a MUCH better yield on the points.
• You get over $1,300 of cash benefits built into the card.
• Of course, this more than covers the $695 annual fee.

While redeeming my $150 Cash on Dell.com, I discovered that Dell sells Plaud AI!

I was at Sellers Summit this year sitting next to Kevin King and he flipped this on to the table and asked if I ever heard of it. I didn't until then. But hey, if I can get this virtually free? I'll let you know how this goes.

I adopted a pen and paper only strategy since high school. I tried everything else. There's something about writing with your hand that makes you learn more. I'm convinced of it.

But if you let this AI notetaker run, and enable the feature where you can "ask it" (think ChatGPT) whether certain topics were discussed, or what the tactic exhibited was, well, it won't hurt to have this running while I ink away at that pen and paper.

📉 Tax Trick or Freight Treat?

You guys know full well that I keep close tabs on the news. Something I didn't think about is how closely the 100% bonus depreciation provisions would affect our business.

Trucks, immediately and entirely deductible. Non commercial real estate improvements, minus the Uncle Sam tab (this is so not tax advice people). Forklifts, pallet jacks, conveyer belts, must I continue?

Freight companies just got dealt a huge tax break. Will we be seeing more of them pop up? Will rates come down since their operating expenses came down? (Great article on this here)

Will 3PLs follow suit? Their capital improvements for this month just all became deductible lowering their operating costs.

Us business owners know we were paying the costs of 5-20 year amortized depreciation as an increased cost of business. Now lets see if the 100% depreciation savings translate tour P&Ls and bottom lines.

Got a 5-star review for a perishable product I don’t even sell. Welcome to the FBA lottery. We all get these. Sometimes, they’re hilarious.

Speaking of customer feedback. How science says to respond to customers.

Whether it's a pissed off customer, or a very understanding customer who is asking you for tracking information, we all have to deal with customers.

Much respected Thomas McKinlay over at "Science Says" (which is a phenomenal newsletter, and obviously on my reading list ... welcome email #6/10) uncovered a study that tested "Complaints: when to use empathy vs explanations."

Think responses to negative product reviews, seller feedbacks, disgruntled phone calls to your company line (and you wonder how ambitious this customer was to find your number and call you). THIS is how Science says how to respond. Read the full newsletter at the bottom of this section.

For my fellow warehouse operators actually paying payroll

Every tax/payroll company out there are now siphoning through the Big Beautiful Bill Act. What affects us is how payroll will be affected.

Usually overtime means 1.5x pay for the employee, and that's bonus enough. This bill just sweetened the deal. apparently tips and overtime are without tax withholdings now.

Check out some insights from Viventium that came my way.

📦 Walmart + MCF = 🤯

How are you handling the Walmart allowance to use Amazon MCF?

I covered previously that we have people in our space saying this new permission granted by Walmart Marketplace is like the second coming, and others claiming that Walmart is a waste of space in our crowded minds.

As usual I fall in the middle on these things. Now I need a software to list all my stuff on Amazon, on Walmart, and if I get an order, place a MCF. That's step one.

Step zero is finding a way to calculate the pricing I need to list things at on Walmart to cover the MCF Fees in case a conversion happens on Walmart.

Amazon launched this calculator (which I must say ... I had something to do with 🙂) to go through the margins one by one.

But now here's something I think no one said yet. What's Walmart going to do when they see all these new listings appear on their platform, and sellers like me price in the MCF fees? Our total prices will be higher on Walmart than Amazon. We know what comes next, listing suppression (at best), of course.

So what's the thinking behind this new allowance on Walmart's end? Open to thoughts and theories. Reply, let me know.

🛍️ OpenAI + Shopify = Shopping Assistant on Steroids

The second best newsletter in our space.

The time and perfection Paul dedicates to his Shopifreaks newsletter comes through in each and every edition.

Last week he covered last week how:

He wasn't lying. It's so cool. With a little bit of ambition and curiosity, you can turn OpenAI into your Shopify customers' agent.

Shopify Developers @ShopifyDevs Building your storefront AI agent just got easier. Connect the Storefront MCP server directly to the @OpenAI Responses API to search products, add items to cart, and create checkout links. No auth required. 12:5 PM • Jul 2, 2025 96 Retweets 769 Likes Read 44 replies

​

🏷️ Prime Day: Prepared or Perished

Here's the biggest news in the world (sarcasm), this week was Prime days (Week?). I never thought Prime Deals were really worth it, but thought we should ALWAYS prepare for increased traffic.

That means positioning our PPC, Inventory and MAYBE EVEN Prime day imagery if it makes sense.

To my defense comes the MDS Newsletter from a week or so ago. Check out what Prime Day deals do to your margins:

Thanks for reading — and if this hit your inbox for free, forward it to someone who's still buying their Dell gear full price.

✍️ Charles

​

Want this kind of real-talk eCom insight each week?

​👉 Subscribe to the full newsletter​