Asklemmy

If you keep picking a single replacement for the big corporation that conveniently carries everything, you're just following Southpark's wal-mart pattern. Take two extra seconds and see if you can buy the product directly from the manufacturer's website, some other niche/specialty retail site, or from a brick & mortar store down the street.

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

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

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

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

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

I used to use eBay instead but due to a recent incident I feel uncomfortable using it. I bought an item and after there was still no tracking number for a week or two, I contacted the seller. More time passed and they told me to wait again. The next time I just ask for a refund.

They ghost me and I decide to escalate to eBay, they have great protections right? Money back guarantee right? Turns out, if you do not report the item within 30 days of purchasing, you can't do shit. Ok, I'll just make a fuss to customer service. EBAY HAS NONE. There is a contact page but it is all automated and won't apply to my item. Other than that there is no way to contact them. Abosolutely zero. There are no emails, they sometimes have a phone number but it changes and doesn't even work most of the time. People are even saying yo DM their twitter!

I had a case where an item never arrived from Amazon. I simply contacted their customer service, answered their questions and got a refund within 10 mins.

It feels so shitty that just by trusting the seller for 2 months, I got robbed and there's nothing I can do. Amazon, you are at least guaranteed to speak to a human and get some help.

And also eBay reviews suck, the seller that scammed me had over 90% positive feedback, tens of thousands sold items, so I assumed they were legit. All of their negative reviews were the same issue I had and they are still on the platform.

I use bookshop.org for books, some of the profits go to Indy bookshops.

Otherwise I use Amazon like a search provider, find the item I like then go straight to retailer or manufacturers website.

I do, because the combination of speed and cost matter to me. We don't have a lot of other options in Australia, certainly none that can come close to Amazon's performance in this space.

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

Alternatives:

eBay - sucks for product reviews, but is good if you know what you're getting (e.g. something branded). Delivery is through the post rather than mistreated delivery drivers needing to piss in bottles. I managed to help a hospice by buying excess stock it had via eBay. Also I'm starting to get everything I can secondhand. Makes shopping cheaper and it's better for the environment.

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

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

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

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

B&H photo is good for electronics

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

B&H if you're buying tech gear

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

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

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

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

I really hate to admit it, but I do use amazon quite a bit. It's not "like me" to use a company or service I despise, despite the truth of "no ethical consumption under capitalism," some businesses are just so evil that I feel it is wrong to support them in any way, even at the cost of convenience.

Here's the situation though. I rely on foodstamp benefits to be able to afford food. Amazon allows me to buy food in bulk online with my ebt card. I also have a disability that makes it prohibitively difficult to go to the grocery store as often as I would need to, and bulk buying online also stretches the benefits I get much further than regular grocery visits. Walmart and Target also now allow ebt cards for online food shopping, but they didn't used to, and they are evil as well!

I rationalize using amazon by telling myself that since mostly the only thing I get from them is food via ebt card, then it's really just money going straight from my state government to amazon, and my state government (just like most others) gives amazon free money anyway, so I may as well get something out of their capitalist sweetheart deal too.

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

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

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

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