Or you go to their site and they just direct you to Amazon -- and not because they're lazy, to sell on Amazon you need to agree that you won't offer the product cheaper than Amazon anywhere else, including on your own site.
And, that's even assuming you can go to the manufacturer's site. Often instead you'll just get a facebook page, or maybe not even that.
I hate when I go to a manufacturers site and navigate to "products," filter the list and find what I want, and on the product page it gives a description, no "add to cart" button but a "buy on amazon" button.
Like. FFUUUUCCCKKKKKKK.
[image of a computer leaving a broken window of a high-rise building]
Yeah. Especially if it's a very specific version of a product you want, and they just link to their "amazon store", which has terrible search filters, or doesn't have that model available.
It's not just that they give a big cut of their sales to Amazon, it's that often the manufacturer puts a lot of effort into having different versions of their product with different features. But, then it's dumped on Amazon. Amazon's search is "helpful" and gives you similar products and then uses their "recommended" ranking to put products they make more money from at the top.
Yall don’t even try. Make up all the excuses you want. I see how little the majority give a fuck about giving money to bezos or whoever if a product of consumption is right there within your grasp.
What the hell you talking about? The person you're responding to is correctly pointing out that Amazon has some awfully anti-competition rules and a lot of their sellers can not legally sell for less than they do on Amazon, even though Amazon gets a cut. No one is "making excuses," and no one is happy about it, it's just a reality.
Or that even if you order directly from their site, the order is still fulfilled by Amazon. My partner actually don't try any more because we've recently given up after trying for too long, paying more, and still ending up giving money to Amazon.
Don't fucking blame us for billionaires rigging the system.
This is the worst. Return it and email them that you like supporting small businesses and avoid Amazon. They may tell you to pound sand, but if they hear it from more of us it may (probably not) change things.
Some places don’t. 3M, for example, in spite of how big it is. I needed P100 filters. I go to 3M which links me to Amazon. I could go to Home Depot, or buy from the Amazon 3M store and pay 2/3 to half.
WEN. A tool company that actually sells their own from their site. For whatever reason, their stuff is 10% more expensive on their own site, plus shipping.
And let’s not forget returns, which are free, easy and require no packaging most of the time with Amazon. I hate to say it, but they’ve got keeping people hooked figured out.
Walmart does well. The shipping is faster with no membership. And the returns are easier than Amazon. Provided you make sure the “fulfilled by Walmart” box is checked. But it’s Walmart, run by shitheads and associated with Heritage.
Michaels does alright on the crafting materials side. As does Blick, on art supplies. Fabric Warehouse is fairly solid for fabric though their selection is a bit random.
People I’ve talked to actually like shopping in just one place. So you’re combatting the “one stop shopping” thing as well.
I'm happy with slightly slower and non-free shipping if it buys me the knowledge that I get a genuine product. That's not a given with Amazon.
I think they finally stopped commingling items between different sellers but there still enough dodgy shit floating around that I'd rather go to the manufacturer or a dedicated retailer for anything expensive or commonly faked.
Especially for expensive stuff. Lenient return policy or not, I'd rather not wait for my new phone twice because the first time some fulfillment center worker "accidentally" put something else in the box. And yes, that has happened to me.
You've described how I feel. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do, not like there are any mom and pop stores by me. I'm not sure how much better supporting another big box is over another
Still shop around, sometimes you find different shopping venues. Decide how much you actually care about $5.99 added onto whatever.
The other piece is, not guaranteed, but many places have label prints for free returns now because of Amazon, but you’ll still have to package it yourself, which, whatever.
As many packages as order I order in as many things as I get from as many different sellers. That $5.99 would add up to way way more than I'm willing to pay. If I maybe ordered things once a year hell even every few months then 599 is not a big deal but considering just in the last 5 days I've received 20 packages for various things I'm pretty sure that 599 would order a very quickly. And especially considering that that $5.99 wouldn't just be on 20 packages it would be on more than 20 packages because of the amount of things that I have within those packages.
Looks of traditional manufacturers never operated any type of direct retail for customers. If you have a business and a account that's more likely but that's not the same.
I think online stores that can provide a better experience can still compete.
I really like swimoutlet.com for swim equipment at good prices. They are very easy to search for exactly what you need, and everything is decent quality, with all the big brands, but also their own house brand and some lesser known brands too. They really know aquatics.
I would try to put a referal link here to try and get $20, but I can't figure out how it works.
Honestly I've mostly been finding items cheaper on Amazon either because you'd have to pay for shipping on it, or because they just entirely neglect their website since nobody uses it.
Also that only really applies to "real" brands, not the gibberish named brands. Those companies only exist to use Amazons brand registry for better SEO and probably don't even have a website. AINOPE is not a "real" company, they just slap their name on whitelabel products. Of course the first random one I picked does have one, but it is more expensive than amazon.
Yeah but you're almost definitely not getting that within the 2-8 days the OP quotes, compare that to being able to get shit within hours in some cases through Amazon and it's curtains
I tried Aliexpress before, and they blocked my account for no reason and their support wanted a ton of my banking information then never resolved the problem
Plus, the product wasn't any cheaper, and the company was so unresponsive over a defective item that I had to literally sic the BBB on them just to get a reply. It was a terrible experience leaving Amazon and some of these stores literally only sell on Amazon and nowhere else. It's just really idealistic, though I continue to check anyway.
This is why Amazon was under investigation for antitrust by (then) FTC Chair Lina Khan. That she wasn’t able to see her case all the way through the courts will continue to annoy me for a very long time.
happened to me a few times too 😅 I guess it's not worth for a company to have multiple different shipping procedures if most of their orders are via Amazon anyway
2b. Company thinks their online store is a boutique and sell the stuff for 50% more than Amazon
Somehow it happens even more often with small businesses. My city is small and irrelevant, so when I saw a book with the history of it, I wanted to buy it. On Amazon it was sold for 15% off, on marketplace directly by the publisher + free shipping. So I went to buy it on the publisher website and... MSRP + need to pay shipping
This publisher was doing a war price against itself. A small niche book where you're the only one to sell it. Why would you need to discount this heavily on Amazon?
Numbers:
On Amazon: 13€ + shipping paid by the seller (+customer has free returns in one month). They can't have more than 50 cents of profit for each copy sold
On their own website: 15€+5€ shipping (+customer needs to pay 7€ to return it within 2 weeks). Healthy profit for each copy sold.
You need to be an anti-bezos activist to choose the second option, though.
This is why you see SKU numbers like 301710-A and 301710-B and the products appear identical.
They "give" Amazon the best price for 301710-A but they sell B on their website for the price they want. The physical retailers also like them because if they match prices - no they don't - it's not identical.
Kind of like the old black friday scam that pretty much every retailer uses to prevent pricing matching, just have a slightly different store only specific SKU.
If Amazon's algorithms detect that a seller is offering the same item cheaper elsewhere (including on the seller's own e-commerce site, then Amazon will immediately strip the listing of the "Add to Cart" or "Buy Now" buttons. The algorithm will also hide or suppress the listing from search results. And for repeated or severe violations (especially related to price-gouging), Amazon may suspend or terminate selling privileges completely for sellers selling cheaper off site. And they call this "Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy". F- Amazon.
the FTC claims Amazon punishes third-party sellers for offering lower prices on other websites.[2]
Select Competitor – Featured Offer Disqualification (SC-FOD).[6] SC-FOD is an algorithm that prevents a seller from “winning the Buy Box” if it finds that the seller sells that product for less on a Select Competitor’s website.[7]
References for 2, 6, 7:
[2] Complaint at 85, FTC v. Amazon, W.D. Wash. Case No. 2:23-cv-01495-JHC (Nov. 2, 2023).
This is one of the main reasons why many indie shops are doing so many coupons these days. Price obfuscation is not only a marketing strategy but also a genuine safety one.
While I support the intent, I've personally found that:
Half the time the company either doesn't exist off Amazon or uses Amazon for their order fulfillment.
See #1
Price frequently ends up being mostly the same. I'm not sure if this is due to something that Amazon forces on companies, so they may have no choice.
Shipping ends up being expensive and is definitely not in 2 days, more like 6-10.
Spot on and perhaps still worth it for this reason alone.
I just try to buy what I can locally and avoid the larger companies that are all pretty disgusting. While Bezos is definitely the richest and most evil, make no mistake that the other companies would be in his place in a heartbeat if they could.
Yeah, I was going to say the advice in the meme in kind of dumb. I can order the same product on Amazon or the website of the product, but on Amazon returns are super easy, shipping is overnight, and I am not dealing with some weird 3rd party payment system.
Now if the product is made locally at a small business, and is similarly priced, then absolutely, that's my preferred way to do things.
I do this a lot because often the company website has more product selection than what is soleld on Amazon. So, it is a net win for shoppers. Bonus! Sometimes the company's prices are slightly lower than Amazon (even without the code).
As an owner of a small business, the better selection and discount code is all you can do if you want to remain on Amazon. If you offer your product for cheaper off Amazon, they will flag your product and either take it down, or just completely bury your product in the search results.
…after they copy your product, make it out of cheaper materials and sell it under the price of the original. Rinse and repeat (at least that’s how I read Amazon has done this, not sure if it’s still doing it)
Pretty much my experience too, however I have bought directly from brand or reseller sites that either use Shopify checkout or Amazon Logistics for shipping anyway. Sellers need to choose to boycott certain companies at P.O.S., or at least offer an option.
Yeah, I was gonna say "how many of those companies are actual full on companies and not just dropshippers using Amazon regardless of where you buy?" Cuz that's a lot.
I try not to shop at Amazon if I can help it (especially since they make it suck for non-prime members. It's honestly amazing...it's like they intentionally sabotage their platform to drive you to want to buy Prime, and even more amazingly, it actually works).
More than once I'd ordered something with "fast and free" shipping from eBay, though, and it was delivered by an Amazon truck and wrapped in Prime package tape.
That's great, in the opposite direction years I had a neighbor order a 5 gallon bucket of driveway sealer on Amazon. It shipped from a Home Depot using the Home Depot delivery service with free shipping. That one still confuses me.
I was getting something I wanted and their website just referred me back to buying from Amazon. I emailed them because I was curious as to why. It was a pretty niche thing to buy. The guy emailed me back saying that the sales through Amazon keeping his listing towards the top of their algorithm made him more than if he sold direct and his Amazon listing would drop down lower in the search because so many people just go to Amazon.
In other words, Amazon is a cancer trap, and as long as most people go straight there to buy shit, sellers have to sell as much as they can on there.
One big antitrust issue with Amazon is that they require vendors to use their fulfillment services in order to get the best terms on being listed on Amazon: prime shipping, etc.
That deal for shipping/fulfillment itself isn't too bad, even if they charge a pretty high price to sellers for the service, because the seller is actually getting something valuable in return, and it's hard for Amazon to promise fast shipping not in their control.
But the FTC lawsuit a while back alleged that Amazon does more than that. They downgrade the search results of anyone who isn't a paying advertiser, so they're squeezing sellers in more ways than one. And worse, part of the contract for fulfillment is a prohibition on competing with Amazon's listed price.
So if you're selling something that you need $30 to earn a profit, and it costs you 40% to list on Amazon, you'll need to list it at $50 on Amazon in order to make your profit, and you've hamstrung yourself from selling that same thing for $30 on your own site and turning the same profit by cutting Amazon out. That's what's anticompetitive and harms the consumer, even when that consumer intentionally avoids Amazon and goes straight to the seller's own site.
This used to be a thing but hasn't been for quite a while now to the best of my knowledge. It's hard to outcompete Amazon's logistics as a small seller, their whole store business operates at less than a 3% profit margin and they have scale to drive costs down which small sellers don't. They effectively subsidize the logistics with AWS, there's a reason Amazon became a monopoly after all.
I don't have Prime as well but shipping for orders over $35 is free. Since Amazon does the delivery themselves for anyone living in a city, I don't think it impacts the speed of arrival significantly either. Don't get me wrong, I don't order much and avoid Amazon when I can but it's not uncommon to find things which are 30%-40% cheaper there than anywhere else.
Stop using Google as a verb.
"Search" company name.
If you stay in/get into the habit of searching for products using google, inflation will just keep happening and amazon will give them a kickback. (Google charge for the higher search results).
They save and use your data, you are effectively an unpaid employee of google (it is how google 'work' - they also are the reason you are often paying more.
The best way to do it is
Find a cool product (if it happens to be on amazon, so be it).
Search the name of that company on Duckduckgo, or qwant or many other non data collecting engines that don't have a kickback agreement with seller, or just a lower rate.
10% (or any) code is the reason they are selling product higher. Some people buy at the higher price (presumably most) so why would they care if people find the 10% discount code (advertisement on search engines) to get the product for the normal price?
Company avoids paying both amazon and google, - it's not really "losing a 25% margin" unless you believe that they don't pass the fees on to the customer (YOU).
You avoid giving money to all the c**ts but more importantly, you pay the proper item value, or you help competition grow.
Amazon has a Most Favored Nation policy which means sellers can't sell for cheaper elsewhere than they can on Amazon. This includes most coupons/discounts.
A good example would be Anker. You can Buy this power bank for $180 on Amazon, or $230 on their website, but with a discount code that only goes down to the exact same $180 price on Amazon, and is just there to make you hopefully choose to buy from their site in the future thinking you're getting a better deal. You will not find a discount on their site that goes lower than the Amazon price for that same item and colorway.
If brands add coupons that drop prices lower than they sell for on Amazon, Amazon will delist them from Amazon entirely and they'll lose most of their customers.
Now, consider that most people will either already have Prime, or will probably get at least the same minimum order value for free shipping on Amazon, but will be able to add items from ANY brand to get to that minimum, compared to other seller sites that obviously only sell their own products, and most people will end up paying more for shipping too.
It's reasonable to do if you're willing to spend a few extra bucks in order to give a company a substantially larger share of your money because you want to support them and not Amazon, but it's just not tenable for most people when they have to pay an additional $6 per brand they buy from with every order for shipping, not to mention that a lot of brands just don't even bother to price-match Amazon discounts on their own sites, meaning they can sometimes be more pricey than just buying from Amazon.
If I'd purchased everything I bought on Amazon in the past year from other brands, I'd have paid over two to three hundred dollars in shipping alone given the variety of brands that I get things from that I would not be meeting the order minimums for, not to mention the prices often not being as low as Amazon's since they don't bother updating their site as much. I wish I didn't have to buy from Amazon, but I also can't afford spending hundreds of dollars in exchange for nothing every single year to do so.
Oh, yes, that person is totally objecting to trading money for goods, and not that fact that Temu is owned by Colin Huang, the richest person in China.
Nah, I've boycotted scamazon since December 2020. I'm buying more things from physical shops. Second hand things like books or dvds I still get from ebay.
I want something like amazon as a public utility. But much better, Amazon is such shit as a website today. And with 0% take from producer. And make online banking and free instant wire transfer as easy as using paypal, but without paying a rent to plutocrats. Two factor authentication using phone is a plague.
I dont think people realize how easy this would be if we actually made our politicians do their jobs. If we did this 5 years ago, think of the infrastructure we could have funded with the proceeds. Screw a giant worthless penis space ship, we could have funded schools to a crazy degree or made health care work.
Just make it non-profit, all proceeds are to be used only to pay the workers well and make the service better. Otherwise you get political wrangling what it's used for or pressure to make more profit. Just print more money lol.
Nah, its been good lately. Some stuff I ordered shows up before the Amazon stuff...like Amazon said a week but then shipping delays and nonsense and seller excuses. And Ali has been 1 to 1.5 weeks for things I ordered.
Step 6: Company is a US only company, and Im not in the US so it'd be a lot more money due to increased shipping fees, later shipping times, and import fees.
This isn't always an option, unfortunately. Some books for example are only available on Amazon. When I go to the author's website, they just link to Amazon.
My family mostly boycotted Amazon after their pullback from diversity initiatives, amongst other things (anti-union behavior). We spend 80% less than we used to. The drop is probably even bigger than that because we had a kid just before we started boycotting and so our spending increased significantly. We will buy from Amazon if we have no other options, but 80% of the time there are plenty of other options and often they are cheaper.
Amazon has Toddleroo products, but you can also buy them direct from the manufacturer at northstatesind.com and with the WELCOME10 coupon code it’s actually cheaper than Amazon, and you can use it more than once.
We also switched to shopping a ton more from Costco. Some products automatically get free shipping, like diaper genie refills. Costco didn’t back down from diversity initiatives so I basically said Take My Money (we already were avid Costco Warehouse shoppers).
The biggest challenge is shipping costs. I either have to order enough to meet the manufacturer’s minimum to get free shipping, or eat the shipping cost. That being said, Prime is like $180 a year? Even if I pay for shipping I think I am still saving money.
you guys actually use the diaper genie? Nearly every parent ive met abandoned that thing after a short time. Maybe theyve gotten better in the last ten years, but its a glorified and baby taxed trash can
good for you all though. thanks for taking a stand for something!
Yep. We had one break (the plastic tab that locks it is so thin and brittle), and used a normal trash cash after that for a while and the diaper smell was much more noticeable. Both were “buy nothing” finds. The second one is still going strong (I wrapped duct tape around the plastic tab which may have helped).
I like to joke that they make the most disgusting sausages in the world.
Maybe that can work but you can't get rid of Amazon just by shopping elsewhere. It's important to also push for anti-monopoly legislation and enforcement, and of course that labor law be properly enforced so that Amazon has to pay people better wages.
Well IDK, I tried Bing directly a few times and it would just grab one of the keywords in the query and then completely ignore the others. Unless it's a conspiracy of the big DuckDuckGo with Macroslop...
I know how to buy stuff in real life. I'm in the middle of nowhere and there is very little here to buy in real life. If I really need the mouse skids I just ordered yesterday, Amazon it is!
Sadly, I can spend hours searching for a company that sells mouse skids only to find they are available through Ali and requires a 4 to 6 week shipping and will cost $2 for 60 plus an extra $15US vs $5 per 60 with free shipping on Amazon in 5 days.
I can hate Amazon all you want me to, but the reality of cost and shipping times sets in pretty quickly.
Any suggestions on buying lots of cheap random electronic parts for projects and avoiding racking up shipping costs from ordering from multiple sites? E.g. I had to order ~20 different cheap parts (boost converter, charge controller, micro switches, a cheap devboard, USB breakouts, etc) for a personal hobby project recently. I used Amazon unfortunately. Curious about good alternatives for this kind of stuff.
Same boat, somewhat. I keep a digikey cart and when it gets big enough, I'll order there. There's also digikey marketplace but the shipping costs aren't great. I need to start comparing prices on Newegg and Mouser to Amazon.
The Amazon shit is sketchy but it's cheap and fast for things like interconnects, boost modules, i2c boarded sensors, etc.
Just aliexpress has all the same stuff cheaper but when you need a widget by the weekend, it doesn't work.
Been doing this for a couple of years now. Sometimes I end up paying a bit more or have to pay for shipping but that’s better than using Amazon for me. If I can’t find it I do without.
If you can find a unique product or part number for the product, searching that will often bring up a short list of sites that sell that exact product.
I haven't bought a single thing off Amazon in over ten years, since they pissed me off. I don't even comparison shop Amazon to see whether I'm paying more, that's how much I hate them. I'll pay more to not use Amazon. Also, nothing I'm buying online is something I can't do without, and sometimes I just don't buy it--shocking, I know.
I'm not sure where many people in this thread are from, but I have a question in case some of you who are complaining about, "I don't really have a choice," are from the US. Do you guys not have other online retailers? I thought the US would have Walmart, Target, Costco, etc. so that you could avoid using Amazon.
In Japan we don't have brick and mortar retail stores like the ones I mentioned above that carry all sorts of random products, but we do have Rakuten, which is an online shop/marketplace similar to Amazon. Does Amazon really have a grip on all online retail there?
There are a plethora of options, but many will not tolerate even a millisecond of inconvenience to find a new website. Honestly, many of the alternative websites even ship faster at this point. Amazon is a marketplace of crap riding on former glory days of quick shipping.
Walmart and Target are just as bad as Amazon. Bad examples. I'm from the US and haven't used Amazon in 2 years. I just search for other online retailers and I've always been able to find what I'm looking for at a price less or equal to what I'd pay Amazon. I don't get the pro-Amazon arguments.
Amazon will do same-day delivery on a bunch of stuff if you're in an area where it's available.
You can order shit while you're at work and have it dropped off at your house by the time you're home without having to stop at a store.
I don't live where same-day is available, but even ordering for pickup at brick and mortar adds 20+ minutes to my commute. A few minutes out of the way, waiting at the store, and hitting multiple traffic lights both ways isn't a negligible amount of time.
How many things actually need to be delivered on the same day though?
A few years ago, my radiator decided to break in the middle of a cold snap. I could deal with it, but I had an elderly budgie, but since I don't have a car and I'm a weedy old lady, I had to order from Curry's (in the past I would have gone straight to Amazon). Luckily it arrived the same day, no delivery charge. Even then, I would have just used a hot water bottle next to my budgie's cage if the radiator hadn't come that day.
I'm not sure why I told that story. But in any case, it was definitely a better outcome than ordering some no name brand that Amazon is filled with.
I hear the "same day delivery" to justify Amazon a lot, but I do wonder how many things actually need next day delivery and how did such people survive before that? Are people not keeping track of what's running out? How many times would you need an emergency radiator replacement during a cold snap?
Of course I live in London and most things I need are walking distance or easily reachable by bus. So I have that on my side.
But yeah for me, the way they treat their staff, the way they protect bad faith sellers (see Louis rossman's videos on how they respond to reports of unsafe items), racketeering (stealing marketplace supplier info and undercutting, see pirate trading's tripods) means that as long as I have alternatives, even if they are also corpos, I will never willingly buy from scamazon again.
This was actually going to be my follow up question as well. It seems like some people are really into their same-day delivery but I've never felt the need for that. Probably because I've never experienced the convenience since I live in Okinawa which is a tiny island in Japan that didn't have an Amazon warehouse until last year.
Well just one, instead of two. When you order the obvious Chinese stuff from Amazon Its just an aliexpress item shipped over and the delivered with amazons 5-10x markup.
Buy cheap shit on Amazon, that is refundable.
6a. Select fastest delivery free to you.
6b. Return item for full refund.
6c. ???
6d. Amazon doesn't profit.
A lot of times you don’t need to return the item. Just leave a bad review and they will ask if you want a refund. I’ve gotten like 4-5 items for free this way.
The disappearnce of brick-and-mortar stores is one the biggest catastrophes caused by Big Tech. The 'free to return if dissatisfied' option creates higher prices for everything you'd have avoided purchasing at the store, along with the added environmental costs of two wasted trips, and the product possibly being disposed-of.
The brick-and-mortar loss also means that consumers of necessities have far fewer options to buy locally.
Would you let your fellow man suffer and the earth be trashed, just for the convience of a return policy?
Not saying you are one of these people at all, but there are folks out there who for example, will buy 3 pairs of the same shoes, try them on at home, and then return the other two. For those I say, just go to the store. This is over consumption. The energy needed to move all this product has consquences.. from labor and energy resources ,human health, and planet health.
I find it quite selfish and lame to use the excuse, "but its convienent!"
I understand its difficult for certain electronics, but, for most things, if you can look physically at the item before buying it, the chance youll need to return it go down because you can judge the quality before buying it.
I don't know about you, but stores have realized this and simply don't stock a lot of things any longer. I had it recently with a shirt brand I enjoyed, wanted to go to the store to buy it and check the size, and they indicated they only ship online now. So you buy through them, have to get various sizes and if you return you pay a restocking fee. Or you go through Amazon, buy the same shirt, overnight delivery and free returns.
Maybe it's selfish, but it's not any more efficient to drive to somewhere, to get told to buy it online, to buy online and have to ship or physically return to somewhere.
To be fair, I have found some really cool products on Amazon, but then there is no website for the company and it's all through Amazon exclusively. I tend to avoid those "shops" no matter how cool it is. Thankfully there aren't many like that. I think I ran across only 3 so far.
the only other sites AWOOZY or HIDUWN or CHASIL or whatever random-ass string of characters claiming to be an individual company but are just proxies for manufacturer are on is alibaba or temu. same shit.
I've tried that a few times, most of the time they don't have their own store or charge significantly more or have significantly reduced choices on their own site.
Yes and no. Some are actually not reachable outside Amazon. Some tell you they only work over Amazon. Some offer only Paypal as payment method, which I don't use. Some only offer some Chinese payment methods that I'm not going to use, either. Or their non-Amazon shop is only available in Chinese. And some have suspicious online presences where i think it is good to have Amazon in between, in case they do something fishy.
I've done shipping for a company that sold direct and through partners, and a lot of times they actually make a better margin with Amazon just because of shipping costs. Amazon makes it so much cheaper to ship that even though they take a bigger margin it still saves the company money. Free shipping is a lie, it just means the company eats it and averages it into the price.
I'm the opposite. If they don't offer PayPal or another common payment option I'll usually not use it. So many sites have terrible security and I don't feel like having my cc info stolen because it wasn't properly handled.
Especially for a one time purchase not something I'd get monthly
Got that backwards. These sites killed local businesses and even local specialty chains. No amount of "consumer choice" is going to fix this because like 80% of the business is driven by other businesses.
Yelling at like your local mid size companies for buying things off amazon would do a lot more good than just yelling at random people on the digital street.
Hot day, in the middle of summer? Go to the mall. soak up the air conditioning, wander through the stores checking out the cool shit, grab lunch in the food court, maybe grab a movie after wards, hit up a few more stores, maybe grab a show if one was happening somewhere, then go home for dinner.
Usually its the enormous parking lots outside malls that depress me. Its weird because the majority of malls I've been to are essentially like five strip malls backed into each other with a really nice indoor hallway connecting them so you get that taste of what its like to have things within walkable distance and without cars everywhere until you head back outside.
Nah. Amazon is quicker, no shipping fees, solid return policy and I don't need to break out the credit card and play challenge puzzles with my bank to use it online. I'll do my best to support local retailers on foot, but if I'm ordering online, I want quick and reliable. Sadly, that's Amazon for now.
Oh you are paying the shipping fee.
It's only factored into the item price.
That's why sometime you can't simply buy one item but at least two or five. They won't send you just one.
Yes but the manufacturer's website has the higher Amazon price and then charges shipping. So they keep the Amazon cut, they keep the "free" included shipping, and then they have worse everything else. Like charging for return labels, and 15% restocking fees.
That's not how it works for me. I don't have to buy multiple items to qualify for free shipping and often times the prices are comparable,if not cheaper, than the actual retailer offers on their site.
Sorry, I was not clear. I have prime and almost everything has free shipping no matter how many items you buy.
What I mean is that, for smaller/cheapier items, they won't sell you just one, because you will immediately see you ARE paying the shipment. So they sell you "sets" of something and factor the shipping cost in, so that if you calculate how much is for each item, the shipment fee is spread out and become acceptable for you.
Many websites offer you free shipping above some order value, but you wouldn't shop on those sites so often and you wouldn't consider to buy something small because you are paying and shown the shipping fee. Amazon doesn't want you to wait too much between orders and doesn't want you to go somewhere else for smaller items but also doesn't want to pay for your shipment.
So in the end, we are paying for the shipment and also locking ourselves behind a monopoly just because it is convenient (at least I am, and I hate it)
Other day I went to Rossmann, which is Germany's CVS/Walgreens, minus the actual drugs. I wanted an eye flush kit. Nope, no idea what I'm taking about. While I'm in the shop, I ordered an eye flush kit from Amazon, one single bottle, for 8€. They delivered it by 10pm. I was not forced to buy multiple. This is consistent with everything I end up ordering on Amazon after getting frustrated while trying to do basic shopping in Germany. I have Prime. Perhaps this is distant in your location.
I've tried to go without Amazon before capitulating and accepting that the convenience is more important to me than going to multiple stores and being frustrated with the results.
I'm a pick my own poison kind of person. For awhile my poison was Amazon, but they fucked up so bad that I steer clear of it almost entirely.
When I stopped using Amazon, this was like a decade or more ago, the information in this meme was pretty spot on. However, I'm not convinced it's as relevant here and now in 2026 as it was in 2020 or even 2015. And the number of contrarian comments in this thread seem to back that up, anecdotally of course.
I gave up my favorite tea entirely because the stuff was like $15 on Amazon (so 3 bags for $45 and then free shipping), it was $25 a bag on the brand's website and no free shipping option, and it was even more expensive on Walmart. I'd be willing to pay a little more just to avoid Amazon, but there comes a point where I just go without.
Several years ago there was a niche docking station that was kind of a fad for the Steam Deck and much cheaper than the official dock. It was cheaper to buy on Amazon, but for the sake of avoiding that shit hole, I decided to order directly through the manufacturer's website. Not only was the dock more expensive that way, there was no free shipping, AND THE BALLS ON THOSE BITCHES -- they asked for a tip on my online order. So needless to say, that made my decision to skip on that dock a whole lot easier.
As far as I know, Amazon doesn't ask for tips on their online orders (yet), so as much as I despise their site, they're still a better experience than the typical first-party brand sites I've visited. Still, I encourage folks to use alternative stores and sites as much as they safely can (and as much as they can afford to).
I'm with you. I try to avoid Amazon as much as possible. But it's usually not very cheap or affordable. And like you say, there's a breaking point.
Most of the time when I go directly to the company's website either their e-commerce section is at had it's basically not functional, or they charge a fortune for shipping. And any discount codes funny make that big of a difference.
Now, when I find I've that doesn't fall into those categories I will bookmark them and they will become my default site for that product. But unfortunately that's usually not the case.
And I've had a few bad experiences on eBay (about 5-10% of my purchases there), which makes me wary of them.
I havent touched amazon in 10 years and I cringe at how much friends and family still use it. Fueling our fascist billionaire fire ever more because they're too ignorant to use their brains and not buy from a psychopath. Other people are the downfall of the world 🙃
Haven't used Amazon for the last three years. There are plenty of other online shops in my country. Unlike Amazon, they are not flooded with cheap noname trash, but have a well curated inventory.
I mainly use Amazon because returning a product is usually pretty straightforward and I don't know if that would be the case when ordering from the manufacturer.
Good advice. I will treat the amazon site as nothing more than a catalogue I can peruse. Any purchase decisions will make me find the source of the product. Thanks!
If shipping is handled by the seller instead of Amazon, it doesn't make a difference price-wise, and I always avoided buying products on Amazon that aren't shipped by Amazon. But that's not always true and my budget is a bit too tight for randomly paying 5€ extra for shipping when it's avoidable. Luckily, Amazon doesn't actually have a monopoly in the online shop realm (at least where I'm at), even if the competition doesn't quite have the same diversity of products.
I buy local now wherever possible even if it costs a bit more, so Amazon orders have dropped right off. Weirdly the only thing I seem to struggle with is protective cases (for the brands I want) both for a phone and a switch. Their own store was more expensive than Amazon, so just had to take the hit on that one.
You can order those directly from china via the big resalers like AliExpress or temu.
You're still giving a cut to a big Amazon like company, but even when you buy things like phone cases locally, the local shops probably just brought it from one of the big resalers anyway.
I would be a bit shifty about getting from alliexpress in case they were fakes. I mostly buy from bricks and mortar stores now, but yeah I’m sure behind the scenes money is going to people I wouldn’t want it too. I use to have weekly orders with Amazon. I think I’ve bought like 5 items since Trumps term. I have noticed that since doing this you find that often things are cheaper outside of Amazon, so its win win.
Kind of a side note but it always seems like the "free shipping" banners always are arbitrarily ~+10% of whatever product they sell on their website. $35 minimum for free shipping sometimes or $250 sometimes. Always trying to get you to spend slightly more so you get incentives for free shipping
In my case I'm trying to entice you to buy enough stuff that I have the margin to afford eating the shipping cost, rather than getting raked over the coals again by the USPS and common carriers.
I got my Bluefire (a gadget that plugs into the data port of a big diesel truck and lets you create a digital dashboard on a tablet or phone) this way. Amusingly, their 20% off code was "AMAZON".
Found a cool product? Look it up on Temu, there is a high chance that the company that exists off amazon is buying product on Temu and selling it on Amazon and it's own store with higher price.
If not, and they actually make the thing locally - you lucky bastard, share the name of this company with us!
Is it how it works in USA? Not to defend Temu specifically, but honestly their service works in my country about as well as Facebook, Google and Amazon.
Amazon is like a marketplace. People and companies should be allowed to sell their products on the marketplace, but any one company or person shouldn´t be allowed to own the marketplace itself, and abuse that position for their own benefit, because it would be to the detriment of all. The marketplace should belong to the people, should be open to everyone.
It would seem that such a model would be able to compete easily, so I reckon in time it will come to be, if people put the work in. Sellers and buyers alike all have an incentive to cut amazon out of the deal. The only problem is buyers are lazy, so although can they can bypass Amazon now, most of them won´t. So we need the fair open-access marketplace so people can one-stop-shop in a way that's just.
Your are basically just making the case for nationalisation (which I agree with). Amazon, bol.com, Uber, all these things could be (inter)national services managed by and for the public.
I tried that specifically because I wanted to avoid Amazon. Ordered some rolling papers, they were $10 on Amazon $15 on eBay. Said to myself fuck it I'll pay the $5 extra dollars. Two days later an Amazon driver drops off a package with my name on it. I open it confused what it could be, it was my papers.
I highly recommend https://shop.app/ which is Shopify's aggregator for all shopify powered e-commerce sites and in some areas like Europe shopify is the dominant platform for small companies. Obviously it's no ideal to replace one corporation with another but it's pretty good for supporting small businesses a bit more with zero effort.
I have tried this a few times recently, and pretty much only find their stuff on Amazon. Keeping a storefront is a cost some companies don't want to do.
I had a very annoying interaction with this once. I won't make the company because I'm willing to chalk it up to a one off and I don't want the message to be "Amazon good" lol. They were able to ship something faster than Amazon, but it never arrived. I reached out about it and theor excuse was basically that they forgot. It sounded like it was a case of someone was supposed to physically move something and it got missed somehow. They gave me a refund for the shipping cost in the end, which was nice, because I told them the entire reason I used them was that they could get it there faster than Amazon but they didn't.
Amazon is so big. It's just become this system that we interact with that's difficult to avoid. It's frustrating because while that little mishap with a smaller retailer was annoying to me (a gift showed up late for a gift exchange), if it means that the workers don't need to fucking piss in bottles then it's worth it.
I usually do this, but like one third of the time is just cheaper on Amazon.
Once I was going to buy a pretty nice kitchen knife for 80 euros on the maker's web, just before seeing it was 33 on Amazon. I'm not skipping that offer to support the maker.
Yeah, but having to do that for a dozen stores and than having to cancel a dozen mailing lists is a pain in the ass. Entering in card information each time so it’s not stored…
You understand that those dozen companies are going to be far less efficient and cause more harm to the environment… yeah…? They are also probably using amazons servers for the service, and adding onto it.
So… you’re barking up the completely wrong tree here mate. Using those dozen companies would actually cause more harm than a singular more efficient identity.
A dozen payment transactions is far worse than one as well. So yeah, I’m actually thinking about the potential harm, are you?
I'm in a condo of over 100 units. Amazon truck comes and delivers everyone's stuff at once. So one truck ( maybe two ) rather than every homeowner going out in their car to pick up a random item. Ideally it would be a government shopping service instead of Amazon.
Unfortunately, there's no ethical consumption under capitalism. And it becomes even more difficult after we are stuck with a few mega monopolies that own everything. No matter where you buy from, your money is supporting the exploitation of workers.
you have issues with the product but can not reach the company or get your money back etc.
the company has a massive data leak and your data is now openly available.
This is not to defend Amazon, but I - we - sadly are dependant on big companies. That's what made Amazon big, service. I'd gladly pay more somewhere else but have been burned too much.
It's a bad vs bad situation and we ants won't solve it in a legal way.
255 Comments
Hawke@lemmy.world · 202 pts · 47d
3a it shows up in an Amazon box delivered by an Amazon truck.
merc@sh.itjust.works · 135 pts · 47d
Or you go to their site and they just direct you to Amazon -- and not because they're lazy, to sell on Amazon you need to agree that you won't offer the product cheaper than Amazon anywhere else, including on your own site.
And, that's even assuming you can go to the manufacturer's site. Often instead you'll just get a facebook page, or maybe not even that.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 47 pts · 47d
I hate when I go to a manufacturers site and navigate to "products," filter the list and find what I want, and on the product page it gives a description, no "add to cart" button but a "buy on amazon" button.
Like. FFUUUUCCCKKKKKKK.
[image of a computer leaving a broken window of a high-rise building]
merc@sh.itjust.works · 21 pts · 47d
Yeah. Especially if it's a very specific version of a product you want, and they just link to their "amazon store", which has terrible search filters, or doesn't have that model available.
It's not just that they give a big cut of their sales to Amazon, it's that often the manufacturer puts a lot of effort into having different versions of their product with different features. But, then it's dumped on Amazon. Amazon's search is "helpful" and gives you similar products and then uses their "recommended" ranking to put products they make more money from at the top.
takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 46d
That one can be easily fixed by writing to them and complaining.
I mean not selling via Amazon theoretically too, but the company might not want to play with logistics, so it might be much harder.
Venator@lemmy.nz · 10 pts · 47d
Pro tip for manufacturers: sell a slightly different model number with more features on your own site if possible...
Or bundle one of them with something extra, so it's not technically the same product and not subject to the price restrictions...
merc@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 47d
Yes, I'm sure you've outsmarted the multi-billion dollar Amazon with these hacks.
Venator@lemmy.nz · 4 pts · 46d
Not so much outsmarting as avoiding their wrath: like avoiding the eye of saurons gaze
merc@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 46d
What makes you believe these tricks, which took you 2-3 seconds to come up with, aren't well known and already not permitted by Amazon?
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 45d
Why wouldnt they be?
merc@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 45d
Because Amazon is known for not allowing that kind of thing, and has probably invested more than 2-3 seconds thinking of possible work-arounds.
architect@thelemmy.club · -32 pts · 47d
Yall don’t even try. Make up all the excuses you want. I see how little the majority give a fuck about giving money to bezos or whoever if a product of consumption is right there within your grasp.
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca · 47 pts · 47d
What the hell you talking about? The person you're responding to is correctly pointing out that Amazon has some awfully anti-competition rules and a lot of their sellers can not legally sell for less than they do on Amazon, even though Amazon gets a cut. No one is "making excuses," and no one is happy about it, it's just a reality.
merc@sh.itjust.works · 24 pts · 47d
If I didn't try, how would I know that many manufacturers only have Amazon stores?
moodoovoodoo@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d
Or that even if you order directly from their site, the order is still fulfilled by Amazon. My partner actually don't try any more because we've recently given up after trying for too long, paying more, and still ending up giving money to Amazon.
Don't fucking blame us for billionaires rigging the system.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 47d
Same thing happens on ebay
sandwich@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 47d
This is the worst. Return it and email them that you like supporting small businesses and avoid Amazon. They may tell you to pound sand, but if they hear it from more of us it may (probably not) change things.
moodoovoodoo@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d
The only way we change things is fewer billionaires - which can be done. The power imbalance is too shot at this point.
Zephorah@discuss.online · 80 pts · 47d
Some places don’t. 3M, for example, in spite of how big it is. I needed P100 filters. I go to 3M which links me to Amazon. I could go to Home Depot, or buy from the Amazon 3M store and pay 2/3 to half.
WEN. A tool company that actually sells their own from their site. For whatever reason, their stuff is 10% more expensive on their own site, plus shipping.
And let’s not forget returns, which are free, easy and require no packaging most of the time with Amazon. I hate to say it, but they’ve got keeping people hooked figured out.
Walmart does well. The shipping is faster with no membership. And the returns are easier than Amazon. Provided you make sure the “fulfilled by Walmart” box is checked. But it’s Walmart, run by shitheads and associated with Heritage.
Michaels does alright on the crafting materials side. As does Blick, on art supplies. Fabric Warehouse is fairly solid for fabric though their selection is a bit random.
People I’ve talked to actually like shopping in just one place. So you’re combatting the “one stop shopping” thing as well.
Jesus_666@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 47d
I'm happy with slightly slower and non-free shipping if it buys me the knowledge that I get a genuine product. That's not a given with Amazon.
I think they finally stopped commingling items between different sellers but there still enough dodgy shit floating around that I'd rather go to the manufacturer or a dedicated retailer for anything expensive or commonly faked.
Especially for expensive stuff. Lenient return policy or not, I'd rather not wait for my new phone twice because the first time some fulfillment center worker "accidentally" put something else in the box. And yes, that has happened to me.
luxadazy@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 47d
GoTeamBoobies@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 47d
You've described how I feel. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do, not like there are any mom and pop stores by me. I'm not sure how much better supporting another big box is over another
Zephorah@discuss.online · 6 pts · 47d
Still shop around, sometimes you find different shopping venues. Decide how much you actually care about $5.99 added onto whatever.
The other piece is, not guaranteed, but many places have label prints for free returns now because of Amazon, but you’ll still have to package it yourself, which, whatever.
titanicx@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 47d
As many packages as order I order in as many things as I get from as many different sellers. That $5.99 would add up to way way more than I'm willing to pay. If I maybe ordered things once a year hell even every few months then 599 is not a big deal but considering just in the last 5 days I've received 20 packages for various things I'm pretty sure that 599 would order a very quickly. And especially considering that that $5.99 wouldn't just be on 20 packages it would be on more than 20 packages because of the amount of things that I have within those packages.
alternategait@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 47d
Einskjaldi@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d
Looks of traditional manufacturers never operated any type of direct retail for customers. If you have a business and a account that's more likely but that's not the same.
VAK@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
It might be a distributor selling on Amazon, and hence it's cheaper than the brands own website
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 45d
I think online stores that can provide a better experience can still compete.
I really like swimoutlet.com for swim equipment at good prices. They are very easy to search for exactly what you need, and everything is decent quality, with all the big brands, but also their own house brand and some lesser known brands too. They really know aquatics.
I would try to put a referal link here to try and get $20, but I can't figure out how it works.
Zephorah@discuss.online · 2 pts · 45d
We need an Amazon Alternatives list. Some have low bars for free shipping too.
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 60 pts · 47d
Honestly I've mostly been finding items cheaper on Amazon either because you'd have to pay for shipping on it, or because they just entirely neglect their website since nobody uses it.
Also that only really applies to "real" brands, not the gibberish named brands. Those companies only exist to use Amazons brand registry for better SEO and probably don't even have a website. AINOPE is not a "real" company, they just slap their name on whitelabel products. Of course the first random one I picked does have one, but it is more expensive than amazon.
merc@sh.itjust.works · 30 pts · 47d
At least with AINOPE or GJHUIRAJ or MBHJOILJRE you can go to Ali Express and get it more directly from China, often for half the price.
papalonian@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 47d
Yeah but you're almost definitely not getting that within the 2-8 days the OP quotes, compare that to being able to get shit within hours in some cases through Amazon and it's curtains
merc@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 47d
Unless you don't need your curtains right away and wouldn't mind waiting a few extra days/weeks to get them much cheaper.
sudoer777@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 47d
I tried Aliexpress before, and they blocked my account for no reason and their support wanted a ton of my banking information then never resolved the problem
merc@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 47d
That sucks. I've never had any issues. Are you sure you weren't scammed? Being asked for banking information seems very odd.
sudoer777@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 46d
Yes, you can also see on Reddit that it's a common occurrence
halcyoncmdr@piefed.social · 46 pts · 47d
Literally just had this happen.
rumba@lemmy.zip · 24 pts · 47d
Increasing cases of ebay and individual vendors dropshipping from amazon.
Ohh i'll just spend an extra 5 to keep bezos out of it...
Bezos still gets his cut and some asshole just ordered it to my address for a fiver.
db_null@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 47d
You can give a negative rating and open a return, makes it difficult for that dropshipper.
I stopped using ebay because this kept happening, and they're just another publicly traded company anyway.
rumba@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 47d
True, but of all the options we have it's the lesser of the two evils.
Unless the govt claws back from the grave and finds some form of non-corporate ownership, it's the best we can do
Flagstaff@programming.dev · 9 pts · 47d
Plus, the product wasn't any cheaper, and the company was so unresponsive over a defective item that I had to literally sic the BBB on them just to get a reply. It was a terrible experience leaving Amazon and some of these stores literally only sell on Amazon and nowhere else. It's just really idealistic, though I continue to check anyway.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 47d
This is why Amazon was under investigation for antitrust by (then) FTC Chair Lina Khan. That she wasn’t able to see her case all the way through the courts will continue to annoy me for a very long time.
bignate31@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 46d
Step 6: Product comes shipped in an Amazon box using Amazon couriers :facepalm:
grrgyle@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 46d
At least you tried
kazerniel@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d
happened to me a few times too 😅 I guess it's not worth for a company to have multiple different shipping procedures if most of their orders are via Amazon anyway
Wispy2891@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 47d
2b. Company thinks their online store is a boutique and sell the stuff for 50% more than Amazon
Somehow it happens even more often with small businesses. My city is small and irrelevant, so when I saw a book with the history of it, I wanted to buy it. On Amazon it was sold for 15% off, on marketplace directly by the publisher + free shipping. So I went to buy it on the publisher website and... MSRP + need to pay shipping
This publisher was doing a war price against itself. A small niche book where you're the only one to sell it. Why would you need to discount this heavily on Amazon?
Numbers:
On Amazon: 13€ + shipping paid by the seller (+customer has free returns in one month). They can't have more than 50 cents of profit for each copy sold
On their own website: 15€+5€ shipping (+customer needs to pay 7€ to return it within 2 weeks). Healthy profit for each copy sold.
You need to be an anti-bezos activist to choose the second option, though.
Jhex@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 47d
"Somehow"… amazon forcing all sellers on their platform to give them the best price or risk being delisted
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/16/amazon-price-fixing-california-lawsuit
Rooster326@programming.dev · 4 pts · 47d
This is why you see SKU numbers like 301710-A and 301710-B and the products appear identical.
They "give" Amazon the best price for 301710-A but they sell B on their website for the price they want. The physical retailers also like them because if they match prices - no they don't - it's not identical.
GalacticRobot@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 47d
Kind of like the old black friday scam that pretty much every retailer uses to prevent pricing matching, just have a slightly different store only specific SKU.
SethDove@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 47d
If Amazon's algorithms detect that a seller is offering the same item cheaper elsewhere (including on the seller's own e-commerce site, then Amazon will immediately strip the listing of the "Add to Cart" or "Buy Now" buttons. The algorithm will also hide or suppress the listing from search results. And for repeated or severe violations (especially related to price-gouging), Amazon may suspend or terminate selling privileges completely for sellers selling cheaper off site. And they call this "Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy". F- Amazon.
garbage_world@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 46d
thenetnetofthenet@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 46d
A few sources around, here's one from https://news.law.fordham.edu/jcfl/2024/03/13/understanding-amazons-alleged-anticompetitive-practice:
References for 2, 6, 7:
garbage_world@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 46d
drmoose@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d
This is one of the main reasons why many indie shops are doing so many coupons these days. Price obfuscation is not only a marketing strategy but also a genuine safety one.
osanna@lemmy.vg · 3 pts · 46d
Ugh. Fuck Amazon
turdburglar@piefed.social · 33 pts · 47d
ah yes, i do love buying from GAAMALASORF LLC. the family photos on their website are so charming.
deegeese@sopuli.xyz · 32 pts · 47d
What if 2a is slightly more than amazon and no free shipping?
Or free shipping on orders $40+, but everything is $39.95.
moncharleskey@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 47d
Then I pay more money because fuck Amazon.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 47d
2.a.i.) find out they don't have an actual shop, they just send you to Amazon
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 27 pts · 47d
While I support the intent, I've personally found that:
I just try to buy what I can locally and avoid the larger companies that are all pretty disgusting. While Bezos is definitely the richest and most evil, make no mistake that the other companies would be in his place in a heartbeat if they could.
GalacticRobot@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 47d
Yeah, I was going to say the advice in the meme in kind of dumb. I can order the same product on Amazon or the website of the product, but on Amazon returns are super easy, shipping is overnight, and I am not dealing with some weird 3rd party payment system.
Now if the product is made locally at a small business, and is similarly priced, then absolutely, that's my preferred way to do things.
grrgyle@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 46d
Yes, I don't ever shop with Amazon, but they use their massive anti-competitive scale to be the most convenient option.
I simply reject that convenience, because fuck Amazon. Fuck billionaires. Fuck executives. And fuck shills.
I'll just pay $10 more and wait an extra week for my toaster. This is nothing compared to shopping in the 90s.
phx@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d
Or - as a Canadian - they DO have an online store but it doesn't ship here :-(
sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 47d
I do this a lot because often the company website has more product selection than what is soleld on Amazon. So, it is a net win for shoppers. Bonus! Sometimes the company's prices are slightly lower than Amazon (even without the code).
Jeffdude@piefed.social · 24 pts · 47d
As an owner of a small business, the better selection and discount code is all you can do if you want to remain on Amazon. If you offer your product for cheaper off Amazon, they will flag your product and either take it down, or just completely bury your product in the search results.
ultrafastsloth@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 47d
…after they copy your product, make it out of cheaper materials and sell it under the price of the original. Rinse and repeat (at least that’s how I read Amazon has done this, not sure if it’s still doing it)
sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
Good to know!
lyralycan@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 47d
Pretty much my experience too, however I have bought directly from brand or reseller sites that either use Shopify checkout or Amazon Logistics for shipping anyway. Sellers need to choose to boycott certain companies at P.O.S., or at least offer an option.
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 47d
Maddeningly I’ve run into brands whose ‘online store’ is just a link to their Amazon page. But most of the time this is a good strategy.
Hikermick@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 47d
I thought i was ordering a product directly from a company and avoiding Amazon. The thing was delivered in an Amazon package
perishthethought@piefed.social · 13 pts · 47d
Yep. That's "FBA", Fulfillment by Amazon.
There's no way for a consumer to avoid that if the seller opts in. But do tell the seller why you won't buy from them again when this happens!
architect@thelemmy.club · 6 pts · 47d
Here in a week fba will be much much much much much much much much much cheaper for small sellers.
I’m at the point I wish yall would understand how bad shipping has gotten. Like, it’s bad and it’s about to double in how bad it is.
ceenote@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 47d
Is there a browser extension that does this automatically? There should be.
Seimhe@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 47d
Came here to say this. Let Amazon provide the search and reviews. We can use that but spend our money elsewhere.
At the most basic level could get the store name via the current Amazon page and then open a new tab with a search.
But ideally it would actually provide a like to their own web store. Not sure how that part would work technically.
Murse@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 47d
Not really any more. Unless you mean 3 reviews and totally-for-realsies-trustworthy AI slop summary.
Bonje@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 47d
Think this is as close as we got so far. Usual precautions of new random companies on the internet and installing their addons applies.
https://getvinegar.com/
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 47d
Apparently you attract more flies with vinegar than than honey
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 47d
That's epic actually
Fizz@lemmy.nz · 17 pts · 47d
I do not get the appeal of Amazon. Every time I go there to buy something its filled with knock of junk at regular prices.
evidences@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 47d
Last time I did this I ordered from the companies website actually paid a couple dollars more and it shipped from an Amazon warehouse.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 10 pts · 47d
Yeah, I was gonna say "how many of those companies are actual full on companies and not just dropshippers using Amazon regardless of where you buy?" Cuz that's a lot.
DakRalter@thelemmy.club · 3 pts · 47d
I bought a tamagotchi from ebay and it came in an amazon bag 😭😭
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 47d
I try not to shop at Amazon if I can help it (especially since they make it suck for non-prime members. It's honestly amazing...it's like they intentionally sabotage their platform to drive you to want to buy Prime, and even more amazingly, it actually works).
More than once I'd ordered something with "fast and free" shipping from eBay, though, and it was delivered by an Amazon truck and wrapped in Prime package tape.
evidences@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
That's great, in the opposite direction years I had a neighbor order a 5 gallon bucket of driveway sealer on Amazon. It shipped from a Home Depot using the Home Depot delivery service with free shipping. That one still confuses me.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 17 pts · 47d
Sometimes.
I was getting something I wanted and their website just referred me back to buying from Amazon. I emailed them because I was curious as to why. It was a pretty niche thing to buy. The guy emailed me back saying that the sales through Amazon keeping his listing towards the top of their algorithm made him more than if he sold direct and his Amazon listing would drop down lower in the search because so many people just go to Amazon.
In other words, Amazon is a cancer trap, and as long as most people go straight there to buy shit, sellers have to sell as much as they can on there.
exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 47d
One big antitrust issue with Amazon is that they require vendors to use their fulfillment services in order to get the best terms on being listed on Amazon: prime shipping, etc.
That deal for shipping/fulfillment itself isn't too bad, even if they charge a pretty high price to sellers for the service, because the seller is actually getting something valuable in return, and it's hard for Amazon to promise fast shipping not in their control.
But the FTC lawsuit a while back alleged that Amazon does more than that. They downgrade the search results of anyone who isn't a paying advertiser, so they're squeezing sellers in more ways than one. And worse, part of the contract for fulfillment is a prohibition on competing with Amazon's listed price.
So if you're selling something that you need $30 to earn a profit, and it costs you 40% to list on Amazon, you'll need to list it at $50 on Amazon in order to make your profit, and you've hamstrung yourself from selling that same thing for $30 on your own site and turning the same profit by cutting Amazon out. That's what's anticompetitive and harms the consumer, even when that consumer intentionally avoids Amazon and goes straight to the seller's own site.
COASTER1921@lemmy.ml · 14 pts · 47d
This used to be a thing but hasn't been for quite a while now to the best of my knowledge. It's hard to outcompete Amazon's logistics as a small seller, their whole store business operates at less than a 3% profit margin and they have scale to drive costs down which small sellers don't. They effectively subsidize the logistics with AWS, there's a reason Amazon became a monopoly after all.
ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 9 pts · 47d
I cancelled Prime when dickface got elected and have not had a single issue since.
COASTER1921@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 46d
I don't have Prime as well but shipping for orders over $35 is free. Since Amazon does the delivery themselves for anyone living in a city, I don't think it impacts the speed of arrival significantly either. Don't get me wrong, I don't order much and avoid Amazon when I can but it's not uncommon to find things which are 30%-40% cheaper there than anywhere else.
ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 45d
It's only cheaper until it puts other brands out of business. Then the price goes up.
SGforce@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 47d
Not here at least. Most small companies spin up a Shopify front and offer much better prices. Amazon has the worst prices for literally everything.
Babalugats@feddit.uk · 12 pts · 46d
Stop using Google as a verb. "Search" company name.
The old way (2007ish - 2026) is the shit way.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 46d
Genericize the word google so their trademark becomes useless. Google everything on duckduckgo
drmoose@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d
not going to work sadly
AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social · 12 pts · 47d
Sounds a lot simpler than it actually is.
Amazon has a Most Favored Nation policy which means sellers can't sell for cheaper elsewhere than they can on Amazon. This includes most coupons/discounts.
A good example would be Anker. You can Buy this power bank for $180 on Amazon, or $230 on their website, but with a discount code that only goes down to the exact same $180 price on Amazon, and is just there to make you hopefully choose to buy from their site in the future thinking you're getting a better deal. You will not find a discount on their site that goes lower than the Amazon price for that same item and colorway.
If brands add coupons that drop prices lower than they sell for on Amazon, Amazon will delist them from Amazon entirely and they'll lose most of their customers.
Now, consider that most people will either already have Prime, or will probably get at least the same minimum order value for free shipping on Amazon, but will be able to add items from ANY brand to get to that minimum, compared to other seller sites that obviously only sell their own products, and most people will end up paying more for shipping too.
It's reasonable to do if you're willing to spend a few extra bucks in order to give a company a substantially larger share of your money because you want to support them and not Amazon, but it's just not tenable for most people when they have to pay an additional $6 per brand they buy from with every order for shipping, not to mention that a lot of brands just don't even bother to price-match Amazon discounts on their own sites, meaning they can sometimes be more pricey than just buying from Amazon.
If I'd purchased everything I bought on Amazon in the past year from other brands, I'd have paid over two to three hundred dollars in shipping alone given the variety of brands that I get things from that I would not be meeting the order minimums for, not to mention the prices often not being as low as Amazon's since they don't bother updating their site as much. I wish I didn't have to buy from Amazon, but I also can't afford spending hundreds of dollars in exchange for nothing every single year to do so.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 47d
Most of it is just Temu slop...
So just buy it off Temu for half the price.
WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 47d
Then you're just giving money to temu brand bezos
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · -5 pts · 47d
...
Did you just realize how goods and services are exchanged?
Literally anytime you buy something, that person gets money...
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 47d
Oh, yes, that person is totally objecting to trading money for goods, and not that fact that Temu is owned by Colin Huang, the richest person in China.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
Well, that's not true...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2026/03/10/the-10-richest-chinese-billionaires-2026/
But yes, any large corporation is owned by an oligarch.
Again...
Obviously
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 47d
Apparently dated - there were headlines last year that he became the richest, bow he's #5.
But the point is that saying you're not going to buy from Amazon to avoid giving money to Bezos, and then buying instead from Temu is pretty dumb.
sen@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 47d
Tried that, the company fulfills web orders with Amazon.
Now I just buy local.
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de · 11 pts · 47d
I tried that last year with a power supply, but the little German company that made it sold it only on Amazon :-(
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 47d
Yeah, this is frustrating. Especially when they don't tell you they use Amazon for fulfillment, and Amazon shows up at your door unexpectedly.
87Six@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 47d
I've no issue with amazon offering an actual service but if we CAN find the product somewhere else, we should.
Crescent@fedinsfw.app · 11 pts · 47d
That company is more often than not Aliexpress.
DakRalter@thelemmy.club · 2 pts · 47d
Nah, I've boycotted scamazon since December 2020. I'm buying more things from physical shops. Second hand things like books or dvds I still get from ebay.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 47d
I recently realized how cheap old books are on ebay. I always sort from closest distace first.
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml · 11 pts · 46d
I want something like amazon as a public utility. But much better, Amazon is such shit as a website today. And with 0% take from producer. And make online banking and free instant wire transfer as easy as using paypal, but without paying a rent to plutocrats. Two factor authentication using phone is a plague.
Shindo66@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 46d
I dont think people realize how easy this would be if we actually made our politicians do their jobs. If we did this 5 years ago, think of the infrastructure we could have funded with the proceeds. Screw a giant worthless penis space ship, we could have funded schools to a crazy degree or made health care work.
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 46d
Just make it non-profit, all proceeds are to be used only to pay the workers well and make the service better. Otherwise you get political wrangling what it's used for or pressure to make more profit. Just print more money lol.
IzzyJ@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d
We could do this with most major websites tbh, i was thinking "nationalize social media" like a decade ago
Mniot@programming.dev · 11 pts · 47d
It's a disservice to pitch this as "easy-peasy, win-win, 10 seconds of work and you save in the end!"
More realistic to say:
For that cost, you get some benefits:
And most of all
Zwiebel@feddit.org · 11 pts · 47d
Or you find it on aliexpress for 90% off!
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 47d
Allow four to six weeks to forget about delivery
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 47d
Nah, its been good lately. Some stuff I ordered shows up before the Amazon stuff...like Amazon said a week but then shipping delays and nonsense and seller excuses. And Ali has been 1 to 1.5 weeks for things I ordered.
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
Great!
Xatolos@reddthat.com · 10 pts · 46d
Step 6: Company is a US only company, and Im not in the US so it'd be a lot more money due to increased shipping fees, later shipping times, and import fees.
kazerniel@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d
yea, I bought a mouse a few months ago, and the company only sells to EU countries via their website, for us in the UK they only sell via Amazon
Ravenheart@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 47d
This isn't always an option, unfortunately. Some books for example are only available on Amazon. When I go to the author's website, they just link to Amazon.
strawberry_enjoyer42@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 47d
Have you considered the humble library? /nm
DebraBucket@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 47d
My family mostly boycotted Amazon after their pullback from diversity initiatives, amongst other things (anti-union behavior). We spend 80% less than we used to. The drop is probably even bigger than that because we had a kid just before we started boycotting and so our spending increased significantly. We will buy from Amazon if we have no other options, but 80% of the time there are plenty of other options and often they are cheaper.
Amazon has Toddleroo products, but you can also buy them direct from the manufacturer at northstatesind.com and with the WELCOME10 coupon code it’s actually cheaper than Amazon, and you can use it more than once.
We also switched to shopping a ton more from Costco. Some products automatically get free shipping, like diaper genie refills. Costco didn’t back down from diversity initiatives so I basically said Take My Money (we already were avid Costco Warehouse shoppers).
The biggest challenge is shipping costs. I either have to order enough to meet the manufacturer’s minimum to get free shipping, or eat the shipping cost. That being said, Prime is like $180 a year? Even if I pay for shipping I think I am still saving money.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 47d
you guys actually use the diaper genie? Nearly every parent ive met abandoned that thing after a short time. Maybe theyve gotten better in the last ten years, but its a glorified and baby taxed trash can
good for you all though. thanks for taking a stand for something!
DebraBucket@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d
Yep. We had one break (the plastic tab that locks it is so thin and brittle), and used a normal trash cash after that for a while and the diaper smell was much more noticeable. Both were “buy nothing” finds. The second one is still going strong (I wrapped duct tape around the plastic tab which may have helped).
I like to joke that they make the most disgusting sausages in the world.
fodor@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 47d
Maybe that can work but you can't get rid of Amazon just by shopping elsewhere. It's important to also push for anti-monopoly legislation and enforcement, and of course that labor law be properly enforced so that Amazon has to pay people better wages.
liking625@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 47d
Try to not use google in the process too.
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
Hang on now. I'm shopping on the Internet because I don't know how to buy stuff in real life.
How am I supposed to not use Google?
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 47d
Go into your browser settings and pick a search engine thats not google
Im currently using DuckDuckGo No ai
I used Ecosia for years up until recently. everyone has a preference, but there are plenty of other options.
Nalivai@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
Duck uses Bing, so not really that much better.
InFerNo@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 46d
Largely Bing, but not solely
https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/sources
GalacticRobot@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
Doesn't DDG literally just feed it through Bing instead?
And Google is able to harvest your information in a million other ways, literally from you simply going to a website.
diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 46d
Well IDK, I tried Bing directly a few times and it would just grab one of the keywords in the query and then completely ignore the others. Unless it's a conspiracy of the big DuckDuckGo with Macroslop...
GalacticRobot@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d
So far my experience with DDG is it's not exactly great at searching either.
Bluewing@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d
I know how to buy stuff in real life. I'm in the middle of nowhere and there is very little here to buy in real life. If I really need the mouse skids I just ordered yesterday, Amazon it is!
Sadly, I can spend hours searching for a company that sells mouse skids only to find they are available through Ali and requires a 4 to 6 week shipping and will cost $2 for 60 plus an extra $15US vs $5 per 60 with free shipping on Amazon in 5 days.
I can hate Amazon all you want me to, but the reality of cost and shipping times sets in pretty quickly.
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
I may not be good at googling, but I'm not sure how you're paying more on ali express than Amazon.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 47d
I didnt know what a mouse skid was, but I searched it and found this right away, at the top https://www.newegg.com/p/173-00GN-00042
I dont know if newegg is reputable or not, but this seems cheap, and has free shipping.
In my life, Im okay spending $1-$5 more for a product if it avoids the monopolized markets.
cy888@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d
Newegg used to be a good deal
I stopped using the years ago when they gave their sales data to state governments to extort sales tax years after the sale.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 46d
yeah, I assumed there was some bullshit
Bluewing@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
I used the wrong term. I was looking for these
lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 46d
Sadly, I offen see stuff being more expensive on the company website...
VinegarChunks@lemmus.org · 2 pts · 45d
Me too! Why is that?
Is Amazon’s shipping/ distribution system that much better?
Does Amazon require sellers, as a condition of listing on Amazon, to always have their cheapest price listed on Amazon?
I do note that, especially lately, I find a lot of stuff significantly cheaper on Ebay that Amazon.
lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 45d
I think, that is true... and should be forbidden.
sobchak@programming.dev · 8 pts · 47d
Any suggestions on buying lots of cheap random electronic parts for projects and avoiding racking up shipping costs from ordering from multiple sites? E.g. I had to order ~20 different cheap parts (boost converter, charge controller, micro switches, a cheap devboard, USB breakouts, etc) for a personal hobby project recently. I used Amazon unfortunately. Curious about good alternatives for this kind of stuff.
Machinist@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 47d
Same boat, somewhat. I keep a digikey cart and when it gets big enough, I'll order there. There's also digikey marketplace but the shipping costs aren't great. I need to start comparing prices on Newegg and Mouser to Amazon.
The Amazon shit is sketchy but it's cheap and fast for things like interconnects, boost modules, i2c boarded sensors, etc.
Just aliexpress has all the same stuff cheaper but when you need a widget by the weekend, it doesn't work.
paladin235@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 47d
Maybe Digikey or Mouser. They have large selections of specialized electronics and good search interfaces.
jimp@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 47d
Been doing this for a couple of years now. Sometimes I end up paying a bit more or have to pay for shipping but that’s better than using Amazon for me. If I can’t find it I do without.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 47d
If you can find a unique product or part number for the product, searching that will often bring up a short list of sites that sell that exact product.
I haven't bought a single thing off Amazon in over ten years, since they pissed me off. I don't even comparison shop Amazon to see whether I'm paying more, that's how much I hate them. I'll pay more to not use Amazon. Also, nothing I'm buying online is something I can't do without, and sometimes I just don't buy it--shocking, I know.
k0e3@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 47d
I'm not sure where many people in this thread are from, but I have a question in case some of you who are complaining about, "I don't really have a choice," are from the US. Do you guys not have other online retailers? I thought the US would have Walmart, Target, Costco, etc. so that you could avoid using Amazon.
In Japan we don't have brick and mortar retail stores like the ones I mentioned above that carry all sorts of random products, but we do have Rakuten, which is an online shop/marketplace similar to Amazon. Does Amazon really have a grip on all online retail there?
NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 47d
There are a plethora of options, but many will not tolerate even a millisecond of inconvenience to find a new website. Honestly, many of the alternative websites even ship faster at this point. Amazon is a marketplace of crap riding on former glory days of quick shipping.
k0e3@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 47d
Thanks for clarifying!
WhoIsTheDrizzle@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
Walmart and Target are just as bad as Amazon. Bad examples. I'm from the US and haven't used Amazon in 2 years. I just search for other online retailers and I've always been able to find what I'm looking for at a price less or equal to what I'd pay Amazon. I don't get the pro-Amazon arguments.
CoopaLoopa@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 47d
Amazon will do same-day delivery on a bunch of stuff if you're in an area where it's available. You can order shit while you're at work and have it dropped off at your house by the time you're home without having to stop at a store.
I don't live where same-day is available, but even ordering for pickup at brick and mortar adds 20+ minutes to my commute. A few minutes out of the way, waiting at the store, and hitting multiple traffic lights both ways isn't a negligible amount of time.
DakRalter@thelemmy.club · 3 pts · 47d
How many things actually need to be delivered on the same day though?
A few years ago, my radiator decided to break in the middle of a cold snap. I could deal with it, but I had an elderly budgie, but since I don't have a car and I'm a weedy old lady, I had to order from Curry's (in the past I would have gone straight to Amazon). Luckily it arrived the same day, no delivery charge. Even then, I would have just used a hot water bottle next to my budgie's cage if the radiator hadn't come that day.
I'm not sure why I told that story. But in any case, it was definitely a better outcome than ordering some no name brand that Amazon is filled with.
I hear the "same day delivery" to justify Amazon a lot, but I do wonder how many things actually need next day delivery and how did such people survive before that? Are people not keeping track of what's running out? How many times would you need an emergency radiator replacement during a cold snap?
Of course I live in London and most things I need are walking distance or easily reachable by bus. So I have that on my side.
But yeah for me, the way they treat their staff, the way they protect bad faith sellers (see Louis rossman's videos on how they respond to reports of unsafe items), racketeering (stealing marketplace supplier info and undercutting, see pirate trading's tripods) means that as long as I have alternatives, even if they are also corpos, I will never willingly buy from scamazon again.
k0e3@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 47d
This was actually going to be my follow up question as well. It seems like some people are really into their same-day delivery but I've never felt the need for that. Probably because I've never experienced the convenience since I live in Okinawa which is a tiny island in Japan that didn't have an Amazon warehouse until last year.
Mac@mander.xyz · 7 pts · 47d
$4 XOOMJI sandals do not exist outside of amazon lmao
Edit: this comment is not pro-amazon.
Fizz@lemmy.nz · 5 pts · 47d
Aliexpress
Mac@mander.xyz · 5 pts · 47d
Trading one billie for another
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 47d
Well just one, instead of two. When you order the obvious Chinese stuff from Amazon Its just an aliexpress item shipped over and the delivered with amazons 5-10x markup.
Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 47d
They do, just on taobao/aliexpress and usually longer shipping
xploit@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 47d
6a. Select fastest delivery free to you.
6b. Return item for full refund.
6c. ???
6d. Amazon doesn't profit.
Of course we'd need to do this on large scale.
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d
A lot of times you don’t need to return the item. Just leave a bad review and they will ask if you want a refund. I’ve gotten like 4-5 items for free this way.
Heliumfart@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 47d
All that cardboard gets wasted...
justaman123@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
Don't threaten me with a good time
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 47d
I've read that Amazon often bans accounts that return a lot of items.
kalkulat@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 46d
The disappearnce of brick-and-mortar stores is one the biggest catastrophes caused by Big Tech. The 'free to return if dissatisfied' option creates higher prices for everything you'd have avoided purchasing at the store, along with the added environmental costs of two wasted trips, and the product possibly being disposed-of.
The brick-and-mortar loss also means that consumers of necessities have far fewer options to buy locally.
Patch69@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 47d
Have issue with product. Return process is abysmal and chargeable. End up wishing you bought from Amazon.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 47d
Would you let your fellow man suffer and the earth be trashed, just for the convience of a return policy?
Not saying you are one of these people at all, but there are folks out there who for example, will buy 3 pairs of the same shoes, try them on at home, and then return the other two. For those I say, just go to the store. This is over consumption. The energy needed to move all this product has consquences.. from labor and energy resources ,human health, and planet health.
I find it quite selfish and lame to use the excuse, "but its convienent!"
I understand its difficult for certain electronics, but, for most things, if you can look physically at the item before buying it, the chance youll need to return it go down because you can judge the quality before buying it.
GalacticRobot@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 47d
I don't know about you, but stores have realized this and simply don't stock a lot of things any longer. I had it recently with a shirt brand I enjoyed, wanted to go to the store to buy it and check the size, and they indicated they only ship online now. So you buy through them, have to get various sizes and if you return you pay a restocking fee. Or you go through Amazon, buy the same shirt, overnight delivery and free returns.
Maybe it's selfish, but it's not any more efficient to drive to somewhere, to get told to buy it online, to buy online and have to ship or physically return to somewhere.
Alatarius@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 47d
To be fair, I have found some really cool products on Amazon, but then there is no website for the company and it's all through Amazon exclusively. I tend to avoid those "shops" no matter how cool it is. Thankfully there aren't many like that. I think I ran across only 3 so far.
flandish@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 47d
you mean you dont want the same thing from the fuzzdbuadk store?
MagnyusG@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 47d
the only other sites AWOOZY or HIDUWN or CHASIL or whatever random-ass string of characters claiming to be an individual company but are just proxies for manufacturer are on is alibaba or temu. same shit.
Zorque@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 47d
I've tried that a few times, most of the time they don't have their own store or charge significantly more or have significantly reduced choices on their own site.
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 46d
Yes and no. Some are actually not reachable outside Amazon. Some tell you they only work over Amazon. Some offer only Paypal as payment method, which I don't use. Some only offer some Chinese payment methods that I'm not going to use, either. Or their non-Amazon shop is only available in Chinese. And some have suspicious online presences where i think it is good to have Amazon in between, in case they do something fishy.
absentbird@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d
I've done shipping for a company that sold direct and through partners, and a lot of times they actually make a better margin with Amazon just because of shipping costs. Amazon makes it so much cheaper to ship that even though they take a bigger margin it still saves the company money. Free shipping is a lie, it just means the company eats it and averages it into the price.
Dnb@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 46d
I'm the opposite. If they don't offer PayPal or another common payment option I'll usually not use it. So many sites have terrible security and I don't feel like having my cc info stolen because it wasn't properly handled.
Especially for a one time purchase not something I'd get monthly
FauxPseudo@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 47d
Company sign contracts with Amazon saying they will not sell it for anywhere less than the Amazon price.
Order from them and it ends up being fulfilled by Amazon anywhere.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 47d
I wanted a good coffee grinder.
Yes, it took forever, but I got a quality product that I am sure is the real thing and not a knock-off
InterestingUsername@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 47d
That's great 👍
toxicbubble@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 46d
half of you wouldn't have survived the pre-internet world, "oh no i have to shop locally??"
Fedizen@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d
Got that backwards. These sites killed local businesses and even local specialty chains. No amount of "consumer choice" is going to fix this because like 80% of the business is driven by other businesses.
Yelling at like your local mid size companies for buying things off amazon would do a lot more good than just yelling at random people on the digital street.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d
I miss shopping locally.
Specially in the mall.
Hot day, in the middle of summer? Go to the mall. soak up the air conditioning, wander through the stores checking out the cool shit, grab lunch in the food court, maybe grab a movie after wards, hit up a few more stores, maybe grab a show if one was happening somewhere, then go home for dinner.
PlaidBaron@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 46d
Malls always depressed me tbh. Everything just felt off.
TrollTrollrolllol@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d
They are monuments to consumption, and there is no ethical consumption.
Fedizen@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 45d
Usually its the enormous parking lots outside malls that depress me. Its weird because the majority of malls I've been to are essentially like five strip malls backed into each other with a really nice indoor hallway connecting them so you get that taste of what its like to have things within walkable distance and without cars everywhere until you head back outside.
unabart@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 47d
Nah. Amazon is quicker, no shipping fees, solid return policy and I don't need to break out the credit card and play challenge puzzles with my bank to use it online. I'll do my best to support local retailers on foot, but if I'm ordering online, I want quick and reliable. Sadly, that's Amazon for now.
Socket462@feddit.it · 5 pts · 47d
Oh you are paying the shipping fee. It's only factored into the item price. That's why sometime you can't simply buy one item but at least two or five. They won't send you just one.
Rooster326@programming.dev · 1 pts · 47d
Yes but the manufacturer's website has the higher Amazon price and then charges shipping. So they keep the Amazon cut, they keep the "free" included shipping, and then they have worse everything else. Like charging for return labels, and 15% restocking fees.
unabart@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 47d
That's not how it works for me. I don't have to buy multiple items to qualify for free shipping and often times the prices are comparable,if not cheaper, than the actual retailer offers on their site.
Socket462@feddit.it · 1 pts · 47d
Sorry, I was not clear. I have prime and almost everything has free shipping no matter how many items you buy.
What I mean is that, for smaller/cheapier items, they won't sell you just one, because you will immediately see you ARE paying the shipment. So they sell you "sets" of something and factor the shipping cost in, so that if you calculate how much is for each item, the shipment fee is spread out and become acceptable for you.
Many websites offer you free shipping above some order value, but you wouldn't shop on those sites so often and you wouldn't consider to buy something small because you are paying and shown the shipping fee. Amazon doesn't want you to wait too much between orders and doesn't want you to go somewhere else for smaller items but also doesn't want to pay for your shipment.
So in the end, we are paying for the shipment and also locking ourselves behind a monopoly just because it is convenient (at least I am, and I hate it)
unabart@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 47d
Other day I went to Rossmann, which is Germany's CVS/Walgreens, minus the actual drugs. I wanted an eye flush kit. Nope, no idea what I'm taking about. While I'm in the shop, I ordered an eye flush kit from Amazon, one single bottle, for 8€. They delivered it by 10pm. I was not forced to buy multiple. This is consistent with everything I end up ordering on Amazon after getting frustrated while trying to do basic shopping in Germany. I have Prime. Perhaps this is distant in your location.
I've tried to go without Amazon before capitulating and accepting that the convenience is more important to me than going to multiple stores and being frustrated with the results.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 47d
It kinda amazes me, some households can avoid using amazon forever, and other household have to make orders there like their life depends on it.
How can it be some people dont need to use the service, while others find it essential? Lifestyle cant be the only reason?
unabart@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 47d
Convenience and variety. But mostly convenience.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 46d
Well, your comment and others ive read this morning have left me with some understanding, an understanding I already knew.
USians will never general strike or fight monopolies, their comfort under the little "free shipping" is just, too damn sacred.
The littlest bit of discomfort, it pangs yall so. everyone will bitch about bezos penis rocket, so many, wont put thier money where there mouth is.
whatever. enjoy your convenience.
unabart@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 46d
And you enjoy whatever it is you're doing. I don't give a single dimpled shit what you think, fuckface.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 46d
absolutely delightful
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 47d
I'm a pick my own poison kind of person. For awhile my poison was Amazon, but they fucked up so bad that I steer clear of it almost entirely.
When I stopped using Amazon, this was like a decade or more ago, the information in this meme was pretty spot on. However, I'm not convinced it's as relevant here and now in 2026 as it was in 2020 or even 2015. And the number of contrarian comments in this thread seem to back that up, anecdotally of course.
I gave up my favorite tea entirely because the stuff was like $15 on Amazon (so 3 bags for $45 and then free shipping), it was $25 a bag on the brand's website and no free shipping option, and it was even more expensive on Walmart. I'd be willing to pay a little more just to avoid Amazon, but there comes a point where I just go without.
Several years ago there was a niche docking station that was kind of a fad for the Steam Deck and much cheaper than the official dock. It was cheaper to buy on Amazon, but for the sake of avoiding that shit hole, I decided to order directly through the manufacturer's website. Not only was the dock more expensive that way, there was no free shipping, AND THE BALLS ON THOSE BITCHES -- they asked for a tip on my online order. So needless to say, that made my decision to skip on that dock a whole lot easier.
As far as I know, Amazon doesn't ask for tips on their online orders (yet), so as much as I despise their site, they're still a better experience than the typical first-party brand sites I've visited. Still, I encourage folks to use alternative stores and sites as much as they safely can (and as much as they can afford to).
ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
I'm with you. I try to avoid Amazon as much as possible. But it's usually not very cheap or affordable. And like you say, there's a breaking point.
Most of the time when I go directly to the company's website either their e-commerce section is at had it's basically not functional, or they charge a fortune for shipping. And any discount codes funny make that big of a difference.
Now, when I find I've that doesn't fall into those categories I will bookmark them and they will become my default site for that product. But unfortunately that's usually not the case.
And I've had a few bad experiences on eBay (about 5-10% of my purchases there), which makes me wary of them.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 47d
I havent touched amazon in 10 years and I cringe at how much friends and family still use it. Fueling our fascist billionaire fire ever more because they're too ignorant to use their brains and not buy from a psychopath. Other people are the downfall of the world 🙃
mlg@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d
They usually offer free shipping if you buy past a certain minimum as well, with a handful offering free shipping on everything.
Amazon already exploits it at a lower floor of $35 so they can price everything at 34.99 to get you to buy more stuff.
roserose56@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 47d
If you live in USA, because lots of countries have a replica of Amazon but with local shops.
diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 46d
Same advice applies tho
fisch@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d
Haven't used Amazon for the last three years. There are plenty of other online shops in my country. Unlike Amazon, they are not flooded with cheap noname trash, but have a well curated inventory.
87Six@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 47d
Mass online marketplaces are just advertizing companies that get commissions instead of upfront payments that people mistake for an actual store.
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d
Ah yes. Amazon is basically a drop shipper with reviews and stateside warehouses and their reviews are worthless. They weren't, but they are now.
I'm not sure how you justify the cost.
87Six@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 47d
Popularity probably... It's a way for smaller companies to be found if I were to guess...
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d
I half feel they are the real product.
LogicOverFeelings@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 47d
I mainly use Amazon because returning a product is usually pretty straightforward and I don't know if that would be the case when ordering from the manufacturer.
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 47d
Sometimes when you do this, their online shop has it more expensive than amazon and then you get salty
cosmicrookie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d
I've tried this a few times, and the companies just tell me to order through amazon because it is easier and automated
melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 47d
Good advice. I will treat the amazon site as nothing more than a catalogue I can peruse. Any purchase decisions will make me find the source of the product. Thanks!
PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
I also look up an Amazon listing on eBay too and usually the shipping is free even without prime.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 3 pts · 47d
Amazon (the online shop) was still operating at a loss in 2023 btw, absolutely insane https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/04/27/Amazon-A1-2023 (most or all of its profit is from AWS and Amazon's advertising operation)
If shipping is handled by the seller instead of Amazon, it doesn't make a difference price-wise, and I always avoided buying products on Amazon that aren't shipped by Amazon. But that's not always true and my budget is a bit too tight for randomly paying 5€ extra for shipping when it's avoidable. Luckily, Amazon doesn't actually have a monopoly in the online shop realm (at least where I'm at), even if the competition doesn't quite have the same diversity of products.
Prior_Industry@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
I buy local now wherever possible even if it costs a bit more, so Amazon orders have dropped right off. Weirdly the only thing I seem to struggle with is protective cases (for the brands I want) both for a phone and a switch. Their own store was more expensive than Amazon, so just had to take the hit on that one.
OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 47d
You can order those directly from china via the big resalers like AliExpress or temu.
You're still giving a cut to a big Amazon like company, but even when you buy things like phone cases locally, the local shops probably just brought it from one of the big resalers anyway.
Prior_Industry@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d
I would be a bit shifty about getting from alliexpress in case they were fakes. I mostly buy from bricks and mortar stores now, but yeah I’m sure behind the scenes money is going to people I wouldn’t want it too. I use to have weekly orders with Amazon. I think I’ve bought like 5 items since Trumps term. I have noticed that since doing this you find that often things are cheaper outside of Amazon, so its win win.
ItsMeForRealNow@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
I need a browser extension that does this for me.
87Six@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 47d
I will put that on my ideas notes folder and forget about it for 15 years, then implement it
ItsMeForRealNow@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 37d
I'm getting started on it. This is what LLMs will be useful for. To fight the power as fast as they shittify things.
Rooster326@programming.dev · 1 pts · 47d
Are you really still repping Honey?
ItsMeForRealNow@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d
Lol no, I just want to try not giving Amazon money
rainbowbunny@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 47d
Kind of a side note but it always seems like the "free shipping" banners always are arbitrarily ~+10% of whatever product they sell on their website. $35 minimum for free shipping sometimes or $250 sometimes. Always trying to get you to spend slightly more so you get incentives for free shipping
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
In my case I'm trying to entice you to buy enough stuff that I have the margin to afford eating the shipping cost, rather than getting raked over the coals again by the USPS and common carriers.
CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 45d
Nationalize Amazon.
Mark the employees government employees with appropriate benefits. Use the unreasonable profits to fund UBI
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
I got my Bluefire (a gadget that plugs into the data port of a big diesel truck and lets you create a digital dashboard on a tablet or phone) this way. Amusingly, their 20% off code was "AMAZON".
HrabiaVulpes@europe.pub · 2 pts · 47d
Found a cool product? Look it up on Temu, there is a high chance that the company that exists off amazon is buying product on Temu and selling it on Amazon and it's own store with higher price.
If not, and they actually make the thing locally - you lucky bastard, share the name of this company with us!
cdf12345@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 47d
Use AliExpress not Temu, temu is just there to harvest as much personal data as possible
HrabiaVulpes@europe.pub · 2 pts · 47d
So... it's like Google or Meta except it sells me stuff cheaply?
Nalivai@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 47d
And sometimes they rip you off and then you're fucked. And by sometimes I mean most of the times
HrabiaVulpes@europe.pub · 2 pts · 47d
Is it how it works in USA? Not to defend Temu specifically, but honestly their service works in my country about as well as Facebook, Google and Amazon.
diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 46d
So, shit?
HrabiaVulpes@europe.pub · 1 pts · 46d
Shit, but sadly with nary an alternative
Jankatarch@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d
Yeah they will often just USPS that.
Njos2SQEZtPVRhH@piefed.social · 2 pts · 47d
Amazon is like a marketplace. People and companies should be allowed to sell their products on the marketplace, but any one company or person shouldn´t be allowed to own the marketplace itself, and abuse that position for their own benefit, because it would be to the detriment of all. The marketplace should belong to the people, should be open to everyone.
It would seem that such a model would be able to compete easily, so I reckon in time it will come to be, if people put the work in. Sellers and buyers alike all have an incentive to cut amazon out of the deal. The only problem is buyers are lazy, so although can they can bypass Amazon now, most of them won´t. So we need the fair open-access marketplace so people can one-stop-shop in a way that's just.
Obi@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 47d
Your are basically just making the case for nationalisation (which I agree with). Amazon, bol.com, Uber, all these things could be (inter)national services managed by and for the public.
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 47d
I use eBay instead. Amazon is still great for reviews, though.
johnyreeferseed@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 47d
I tried that specifically because I wanted to avoid Amazon. Ordered some rolling papers, they were $10 on Amazon $15 on eBay. Said to myself fuck it I'll pay the $5 extra dollars. Two days later an Amazon driver drops off a package with my name on it. I open it confused what it could be, it was my papers.
drmoose@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 46d
I highly recommend https://shop.app/ which is Shopify's aggregator for all shopify powered e-commerce sites and in some areas like Europe shopify is the dominant platform for small companies. Obviously it's no ideal to replace one corporation with another but it's pretty good for supporting small businesses a bit more with zero effort.
NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 47d
I have tried this a few times recently, and pretty much only find their stuff on Amazon. Keeping a storefront is a cost some companies don't want to do.
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 1 pts · 45d
I had a very annoying interaction with this once. I won't make the company because I'm willing to chalk it up to a one off and I don't want the message to be "Amazon good" lol. They were able to ship something faster than Amazon, but it never arrived. I reached out about it and theor excuse was basically that they forgot. It sounded like it was a case of someone was supposed to physically move something and it got missed somehow. They gave me a refund for the shipping cost in the end, which was nice, because I told them the entire reason I used them was that they could get it there faster than Amazon but they didn't.
Amazon is so big. It's just become this system that we interact with that's difficult to avoid. It's frustrating because while that little mishap with a smaller retailer was annoying to me (a gift showed up late for a gift exchange), if it means that the workers don't need to fucking piss in bottles then it's worth it.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
For latinos : this also works with Mercado libre. sometimes
OrganicMustard@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d
I usually do this, but like one third of the time is just cheaper on Amazon.
Once I was going to buy a pretty nice kitchen knife for 80 euros on the maker's web, just before seeing it was 33 on Amazon. I'm not skipping that offer to support the maker.
dgriffith@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 47d
Googles "PLENOPTY"
Only finds references to their store on Amazon.
Reverse image search shows what looks like the manufacturer in China.
Their website is in Chinese.
You can only order in quantities of 500 and up.
Your country implemented 50 percent tariffs that the company refuses to eat which is baffling as your President said they would.
It will cost you 750 for your microwave poached egg maker, but at least you will have 499 spare ones. Delivery is in 12 weeks.
You return to Amazon and buy it for 3.99.
You get free overnight shipping because you are an Amazon Prime member.
Sweeeeet.
plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 47d
Yeah, but having to do that for a dozen stores and than having to cancel a dozen mailing lists is a pain in the ass. Entering in card information each time so it’s not stored…
Convenience is worth the cost sometimes.
WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 47d
When the planet is on fire and you're starving to death just remember the convenience you once had
plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 47d
You understand that those dozen companies are going to be far less efficient and cause more harm to the environment… yeah…? They are also probably using amazons servers for the service, and adding onto it.
So… you’re barking up the completely wrong tree here mate. Using those dozen companies would actually cause more harm than a singular more efficient identity.
A dozen payment transactions is far worse than one as well. So yeah, I’m actually thinking about the potential harm, are you?
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 47d
I'm in a condo of over 100 units. Amazon truck comes and delivers everyone's stuff at once. So one truck ( maybe two ) rather than every homeowner going out in their car to pick up a random item. Ideally it would be a government shopping service instead of Amazon.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 47d
Isn't Amazon basically a web services company that has an online shopping side gig, at this point?
Bieren@lemmy.today · 0 pts · 47d
For real brands this is the way. If you want to get the one made by hhsjneaq or something, then use Amazon.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 47d
Simply not true. You can find those on other sites, too. Often straight from Alibaba Express.
Rooster326@programming.dev · 1 pts · 47d
Hhsjneaq isn't a real company.
It's a drop ship.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 47d
ITT, people show how little effort they're willing to make to avoid supporting evil.
Ravenheart@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 47d
Unfortunately, there's no ethical consumption under capitalism. And it becomes even more difficult after we are stuck with a few mega monopolies that own everything. No matter where you buy from, your money is supporting the exploitation of workers.
Strider@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 47d
This is not to defend Amazon, but I - we - sadly are dependant on big companies. That's what made Amazon big, service. I'd gladly pay more somewhere else but have been burned too much.
It's a bad vs bad situation and we ants won't solve it in a legal way.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · -3 pts · 47d
2-8 days? Is it being delivered by sloth?