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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.

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.

atro_city ,

I avoid Amazon. Deleted my account years ago. They treat their workers like shit, don't pay their taxes, extract wealth and send it overseas, pollute like there's no tomorrow, but most importantly, Jeff Bezos is not a nice man.

My shopping happens mostly online, at farmers markets and local stores.

dwindling7373 ,

I’m avoiding Amazon for many years now. To be fair I usually just… Don’t buy things?

But when I have to, I try to go local shop first, second hand websites/markets, other websites and eventually Amazon, I guess? It never came to this.

I have spent 10/20% more than the price on Amazon though.

Last but not least, for niece stuff I have used Amazon as a sort of cathalogue to find out what exists and then look for things further by other means.

twinnie ,

I use it out of laziness. Despite all the shit they still have great customer service. About a year ago I ordered a £150 multi-tool and they accidentally sent me a £200 reciprocating saw. Due to a complicated living situation at the time it would have taken me about 6 months to send the wrong tool back so they just said I could keep it and refunded me so I could buy the other tool again.

The other thing I like is that I’ll just see a price and buy it easily. I’ve often shopped around and found something cheaper but then the whole purchasing process is terrible. They add on a bunch of extra costs, then make me create an account, then add on more costs. By the end I could’ve paid less and got it quicker from Amazon. Not always the case but it happens often enough that I will just go to Amazon half the time.

But I guess the main reason is that I hate being forced to create accounts and so many shops require that for no good reason.

breadsmasher ,
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

I prefer to have to jump through additional hoops to avoid ever using amazon. they keep their prices low by paying staff badly and treating them like shit. I refuse to participate

Today ,

I use it a lot because it’s stupidly convenient - most things arrive in 1-2 days at the same or less cost than a store and i can get jelly beans, a screwdriver, and socks in one order. I guess that’s how they get you. I have started trying to do more ‘buy online; pickup in store’ to support some local businesses.

HootinNHollerin ,

B&H photo is good for electronics

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.

Fisch ,
@Fisch@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

For people in Germany or Austria, Geizhals is great. It shows you the cheapest seller for every product and has a ton of information for each product that you can filter by.

einkorn ,
@einkorn@feddit.org avatar

Also, there is this (German) collection of online shops sorted by categories.

MudMan ,

I do for many things. It's just convenient and their logistics muscle at this point is wild.

That said, I will go to first party online stores for things like hardware most times. It's often just cheaper and delivery is about the same.

An interesting observation: Back when I lived somewhere else there was a local alternative, because it was a country far enough out of the way that Amazon didn't directly support it, and it's interesting that the local alternative wasn't meaningfully worse at the logistics or availability. Amazon's existence does, in fact, heavily suppress competition. You don't need to be as big as they are to do what they do, it's just impossible to do it if they're already there.

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).

BugleFingers ,

I’ve only made 3 purchases on it in the last year and 2 were gifts 1 was an emulator card for GBA, all three were not accessible locally.

I generally don’t order stuff online, pretty much ever. I don’t really need more stuff.

SacredHeartAttack ,
@SacredHeartAttack@lemmy.world avatar

I try to avoid it. I only buy there what I can’t find locally, or elsewhere on the internet, or anywhere at the price. At this point, I probably purchase less than an item a month from Amazon, and I’m still trying to cut that down.

grrgyle ,

Good for you for avoiding Amazon when you can.

I haven’t used Amazon in almost a decade now. The biggest tip I have is just avoid Amazon links. I block them from my search results, only go there if I think they might have a part number that I need to reference.

My next step is to reflect on whether I really need the object, and if I really can’t, then I’ll contact the manufacturer directly at their homepage. A couple of times the object has arrived in an amazon box, but I can’t control that.

Finally, I am cool with shipping taking a reasonable amount of time. I would prefer to wait a bit for my object than support the amazon monopoly.

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.

WraithGear ,
@WraithGear@lemmy.world avatar

So for me, for larger things, i use Amazon to find which products i want and i hunt down the website of the store that makes it. For small stuff, or things that may be from a smaller site, or over seas i order on Amazon. I am sure the smaller sites need the boost even more, but Amazon gives me the extra layer of guarantee of satisfaction.

restingboredface ,

Same. It’s nice to have a way to quickly look through a bunch of options (even if 95% of them are shitty Chinese counterfeits). I’ll even look through the reviews and see if anything glaring jumps out. But I haven’t been a prime member since they put ads in prime video and haven’t really missed it.

yuuunikki ,

I use Amazon pretty often, cause I get shit in 2 days to my house.

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