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Do you folks use Amazon a lot, and if yes, then why? If no, then what alternatives do you prefer?

I’ll start - I don’t shop a lot, but if I had to buy stuff like hardware parts, I do use Amazon sometimes, but if I can, then I try to use Flipkart. Realizing how it has turned into a monopoly, I try to look for alternative websites, and check if they’re trustworthy.

If I remember correctly, the last three items I’ve bought online were hardware parts from some local websites. The chi-fi IEMs were bought through headphonezone.in, and they were super-fast in delivery - I had to wait for only four days.

DJDarren ,

We ditched Prime a few months back after they pulled the adverts fuckery with Video. It wasn’t a terribly difficult decision, what with buying less and less from Amazon over the past couple of years.

What it has highlighted though, is how effectively Amazon has fucked our high streets. You want boot laces? Then your options are one chain store or online somewhere and that’s it. Which I guess has made me more mindful of what I’m buying.

foo ,

I’ve been boycotting Amazon (UK) for a few years now. It’s not easy! Sometimes it doesn’t take much longer to source items, but other times it takes way longer. I have limits though, and occasionally I end up caving-in and just using Amazon, but it’s getting rarer all the time. Now I use them once or twice per year. I tried using onbuy for a while, but we got a couple of faulty items from them and their support completely ignored me, so I stopped using them. Generally, here are some of my most common alternatives:

general stuff and gifts: Argos, ebay, etsy
tech: overclockers, ebuyer, scan.co.uk
electronics: John Lewis, AO, Richer Sounds
books/dvds: hive.co.uk, Waterstones, WH Smith
pharma: boots, simpleonlinepharmacy, well
household: Robert Dyas, Dunelm, John Lewis
pets: zooplus
spare parts: buyspares.co.uk

And for a wishlist alternative I use wishlist.com. (edited to fix formatting)

cRazi_man ,

I have successfully almost completely cut Amazon shopping out. We would spend hundred of £s every month and would buy everything off Amazon. But the company is terrible (mistreating workers, avoiding tax, etc etc). They’ve allowed their site to get flooded with (low quality) trash. Reviews are unreliable. Prices are comparable or more expensive to elsewhere. I do still buy from there once in a while for quick delivery and easy returns.

Alternatives:

eBay - sucks for product reviews, but is good if you know what you’re getting (e.g. something branded). Delivery is through the post rather than mistreated delivery drivers needing to piss in bottles. I managed to help a hospice by buying excess stock it had via eBay.

HotUKDeals - a sales sharing website that links through to other small retailers with good bargains. I find stuff here frequently and always search this site first when I want something.

Overall I’m buying a lot less stuff and I’m really happy with that.

wuphysics87 ,

Yes. It’s the only big tech that I use by choice. It’s too damn convinient, and it makese feel guilty that I’m so reliant on it.

frickineh ,

I haven’t used it for personal stuff in years. My employer uses it for office supplies, so I’ve occasionally ordered work stuff, but even that is as little as possible, and only things where it won’t matter if the quality is just so so, because you can’t trust that you’ll get the real thing anymore. Plus, I don’t want to sift through 10k listings of sweatshop garbage to find the thing I’m looking for.

Chozo ,

Amazon is always the first place I check whenever I want to buy anything. I order frequently enough that Prime more than pays for itself every year, and I hate making new accounts on new websites to order anything elsewhere unless it's just not available on Amazon.

I don't like that it's this way, but it's the most cost-effective way of shopping for me.

saigot ,

These days most sites that do direct sales use a service like Shopify that let’s you 1 click enter your info. I’m quite wary of them consolidating power, but they are definitely still better than Amazon today and very convenient.

SeaJ ,

I do a decent amount but it has been less and less. I avoid buying no name stuff that is loaded with fake reviews. If there is something I specifically want and it is cheaper on Amazon, I’ll get it there. Oftentimes it is not cheaper for brand named stuff.

saigot ,

I try my best to avoid it, Although I still end up getting stuff once a month or so. There isn’t just 1 alternative, the fact amazon is a 1 stop shop is kind of the big problem with them. my priorities are: Shop local > shop direct from manufacturer > shop from a specialty store > google the amazon product name > buy amazon.

I actively use audible, there isn’t really any alternatives (spotify’s model for audiobooks is awful, I’m open to other suggestions), it hasn’t enshittified yet, it’s pretty cheap and I don’t feel right pirating something as niche and valuable to me as audible.

I don’t use prime video, even when I have access from getting prime (sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a month of prime than pay for shipping once). The ads on launch are simply unacceptable and I largely would prefer if their studios close so I surf the high seas.

tyrant ,

For audiobooks, Libby is free with a library card. Sometimes you need to wait for a book but its worth the wait.

fart_pickle ,

I used to buy almost everything on Amazon - electronics, books, kitchen/office/cleaning supplies, etc. Back then I was a Prime subscriber so I did not pay for the delivery. As for the delivery, it was blazing fast and the item was always in a mint condition. In case of any issues I was able to sort it out within a day or two. And the price was better than the other online or brick and mortar stores.

However, at some point the quality of the products went downhill. Support became unhelpful and the prices got higher than the competition. One time I had some issues with the order. It never got delivered and the process to get my money back was way too long and too complex. Eventually I have contacted my bank and reported the fraud. Eventually I got my money back. Turned out that such issues were not an anomaly and a lot of people reported shady sellers.

Since then I have unsubscribed from Prime and every time I found something I wanted to buy I’ve checked the seller and if there was a website I bought directly from them.

For past few years I didn’t buy a thing on Amazon.

As for the alternatives, I don’t have a single one. I have several websites I usually buy from but in general I always do some research and buy the product from the seller that has the best price and is trusted enough.

memfree ,
@memfree@lemmy.ml avatar

Cory Doctorow has been calling out this enshittification for years. The whole read is good, but here is a sample chunk:

Amazon’s monopoly (control over buyers) gives it a monopsony (control over sellers), which lets it raise prices everywhere, at Amazon and at every other retailer, even as it drives the companies that supply it into bankruptcy.

Amazon is no longer a place where a scrappy independent seller can find an audience for its products. In order to navigate the minefield Amazon lays for its sellers (who have no choice but to sell there), these indie companies are forced to sell out to gators (aggregators), which are now multi-billion-dollar businesses in their own right:

See also his piece Amazon is a ripoff.

A combination of self-preferencing (upranking Amazon’s own knock-offs), pay-for-placement (Amazon ads), other forms of payola (whether a merchant is paying for Prime), and “junk ads” (that don’t match your search) turn Amazon’s search-ordering into a rigged casino game.

newerAccountWhoDis ,

Don’t use it at all. If I need something I get it from the store

cRazi_man , (edited )

I have successfully almost completely cut Amazon shopping out. We would spend hundred of £s every month and would buy everything off Amazon. But the company is terrible (mistreating workers, avoiding tax, etc etc). They’ve allowed their site to get flooded with removed trash. Reviews are unreliable. Prices are comparable or more expensive to elsewhere. I do still buy from there once in a while for quick delivery and easy returns.

Alternatives:

eBay - sucks for product reviews, but is good if you know what you’re getting (e.g. something branded). Delivery is through the post rather than mistreated delivery drivers needing to piss in bottles. I managed to help a hospice by buying excess stock it had via eBay.

HotUKDeals - a sales sharing website that links through to other small retailers with good bargains. I find stuff here frequently and always search this site first when I want something.

Overall I’m buying a lot less stuff and I’m really happy with that.

Yor ,
@Yor@hexbear.net avatar

They’ve allowed their site to get flooded with Chinese trash

right, so you checked the country of origin of every product then? smuglord

hushable ,

I actively avoid Amazon, however there’s a brand I really like that only sells through Amazon in my country, so I’ve used it a couple of times when I have no other choice.

I also have an audible account from before it was acquired by Amazon, idk if that counts, but I stopped paying for it over a decade ago

MajorHavoc ,

I do my best not to feed money unnecessarily into Amazon, because they’re well on their way into abusing their near-monopoly advantage.

I can’t change how the world treats a company that shrugs off news of their employees peeing in bottles, and doesn’t seem to care about heat exhaustion in their own staff. But I can control how I react to that news.

I use separate dedicated online retailers for groceries, hardware, and toys. I generally get free or very low cost delivery, directly to my door, within a week. My delivery timing is actually more reliable than it was with Amazon, back when I still ordered a few things from them, after they started enshitifying.

I’m generally always using a retailer who has a presence in my city, so if I need to return something, I just return it at the store.

The quality of the return desk experience is usually what determines which specific retailer I buy from, for each category.

(Which is ironic because I almost never need to return anything. I’m shockingly good at fixing stuff, so if I get something mildly broken, I just fix it and use it. But I really hate it if it’s a hassle on the rare day that I do.)

dependencyinjection ,

Not for about 3 years now.

I took a stand against their horrible practices and frequently pay more for goods I could find there cheaper, plus arrive faster.

sunbrrnslapper ,

I use it all the time for convenience. I have 2 autistic little kids and work 10-12 hours a day and it isn’t always practical to get to the store. Plus I’m lazy. Amazon is local to my area - friends and family work there (both tech and warehouse).

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