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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.

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.

D61 ,

Not sure what “a lot” means but there’s some animal veterinary stuff that we buy every 6 weeks or so because… well… shit’s expensive and not always easy to find locally. It winds up being either Amazon or Chewie that has the stuff in stock and at prices (even with shipping) that are manageable with our budget.

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

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.

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.

JimmyBigSausage ,

I like to buy local but when the people in the local stores don’t care or even say hello to me and I have driven there to specifically shop local with them, then I think about saving gas and shopping Amazon with no sales clerk smart attitude.

Blizzard ,

Foreign shopping websites have a hard time settling in Poland as we have a very strong local competition - Allegro.

eBay tried some years ago and failed miserably. It exists but I never thought of shopping there.

When Amazon entered Poland with a dedicated regional store, they had to introduce a very attractive offer to bring customers. Hence I pay an equivalent of about $13 per year and for that I get Prime Video, Prime Delivery and Prime Gaming. However I find Amazon store itself pretty lame. The app UI feels inconsistent and unintuitive, like someone took a different app and decided to build something else on top of it. Offers don’t have regular titles but instead there’s a waterfall of search keywords. Both titles and descriptions seem auto-translated from other languages. Prices are often higher or much higher than in other web stores. Basically a lot of them look scammy.

So to answer the question, I made a few purchases on Amazon but it’s not my go-to place. There’s a lot of online stores and there are websites that compare prices between them so in the end I will buy at a store that gives me the best bargain (good price, fast free delivery to a parcel locker, seller credibility).

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.

user224 ,
@user224@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Just a bit. I live in Slovakia and we don’t have Amazon. However, I sometimes use UK Amazon to import DVDs. But BluRays are usually cheap too. Especially if you get them used.

aviation_hydrated ,

Local. It builds community and helps keep everyone fed and housed

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.

devtoi , (edited )

I have never ordered something from Amazon. It was introduced in my country a few years back, but it isn’t really that good of a site (at least the few times I have visited it).

Like many here, I do not want to support a monopolistic company like Amazon. Luckily I live in a country where I have better options. I tend to buy things from plenty of well rated sites. Environmentally conscious sites if I can.

I could see myself buying from them if there genuinely isn’t another option and it is something I really need, but that has yet to happen.

flamingo_pinyata ,

Despite trying to avoid it I end up using Amazon occasionally, for maybe 10% of my non-recurring purchases. Small electronics, accessories, and dietary supplements mostly. The convenience of pick-up lockers is hard to beat, and not all delivery companies offer it.

HootinNHollerin ,

B&H photo is good for electronics

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.

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