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this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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Mildly Infuriating
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I find it mildly infuriating that people still buy on Amazon 😅
Convenience and cost, means amazon isn't going anywhere. You can spend more time, and more money avoiding them if you want, but don't be upset others aren't willing.
Plus, even when you do find what you're looking for elsewhere, are Walmart, Target, and Home Depot really so benevolent? The odds of me finding what I need from a small locally owned business (at least in my area) are pretty slim.
I know that feeling all too well. The small local grocery store is, at minimum, 2 to 3 times more expensive than Walmart, or even the Dollar General a block away. The local hardware stores aren't much better.
This is also my experience. Recent example, I can buy a 1.9L container of mayonnaise for $8.99 at Costco to make homemade potato salad for my grandmother's 95th birthday party. But I forgot to prepare until the last minute and realized I had no mayo, and so I went to the local place who charged $7.99 for 443mL of mayonnaise from the same brand.
Amazon sells 3.78L of mayonnaise (dear God who needs that much mayo?) for $18.70, making them not quite as competitive as Costco in terms of price per mL, but pretty damn close, and moreover still way better than the local place.
the big boxes can operate at a loss until they choke out the local guys. after that they have a monopoly and can do whatever they want.
Increasingly I can't be confident what the quality level of products will be at those places. Amazon has huge counterfeit item and poor quality item problems that they don't care to fix. I know Target will have reasonable quality, I know if I buy a brand name product l, I'm getting that product. I know if I buy Walmart brand, the quality is lower, but not pure garbage. I currently get none of those guarantees on Amazon, even Amazon basics aren't safe from these problems.
Then I decide I want to try and support a small business. So, I find a website for one that looks legit enough. So far so good. Find the product. Yep! Go to check out... $10+ delivery fee. I know that's not their fault. I do. But I'm not spending $20 on a $10 item that's just not reasonable. Sometimes it's fine to eat that cost if it's like a cart full of stuff with just the one fee but for a bunch of individual things that I can't get locally it doesn't work.
Fine, then I’ll be upset at people continuing to support a company that systematically abuses its workforce.
I'd love to see the list of companies that produced all the various products in your house.
Nothing's perfect. But that doesn't mean we should accept the worse.
But of course, and I'm not saying that. But I do think it's perhaps a little bold to actively criticize a stranger for having the audacity to do business with Amazon as if they aren't, for instance, using AWS-backed websites literally every day.
I'm not saying Amazon is good, but rather that hypocritically trying to call out people for failing purity tests that you yourself almost certainly don't pass isn't a particularly productive or positive use of one's time.
Are you referring to the concept of capitalism?
That's exactly why climate change is going to kill us all.
Edit : you can downvote me, but if you systematically go for the easiest and cheapest solution, and can do otherwise (and generally, you do), you're a big part of the problem.
It shouldn't be on the individual consumers to avoid monopolies; we need antitrust enforcement; we need to break up Amazon.
It shouldn't be indeed, but unfortunately it is. We can't just hide our personal responsibility behind the State when the State is deficient.
Unfortunately, organizing on the scale necessary to defeat Amazon is damn near impossible. I think doing so politically is our best bet.
Our personal responsibility is to make the State not deficient though, not a boycott of amazon.com or whatever you're suggesting. A boycott of even their digital and physical storefronts probably wouldn't even change much, since Amazon makes most of their profit via AWS. Something like 33% of all internet traffic goes through AWS in some fashion, so boycotting that is even harder. The only real option I can see is to make the State regulate them in some manner because all the people in the world can't fight a trillion dollar company themselves.
There are certain things I can't get anywhere near me from anyone other than Amazon, and I live in a city of 6 million people. Sadly I need to use Amazon about once a month. Getting groceries from them is ridiculous though.
It's not just about the monopoly though. Their site is rife with counterfeits and is basically Wish now. Want a GE lightbulb? There's a 50/50 chance you're getting a counterfeit that isn't UL tested so you don't know it's safe, and that's if you can even find the product at all hidden between the random name generator company listings for random garbage that's slightly similar to the search term you entered.
And if there was a competitor that sold only legit products without having to compete with AmazonBasics (who just steals designs and sells them for a cheaper price) or from JSOIY (who also steals designs, and yes, I made up that name), people would use them instead of Amazon.
A monopoly enables this behavior, since there are no other options.
What's a better alternative? All I know of is eBay, but I used Amazon to buy DVDs and Blu-Rays to support films, and eBay sales don't count as disc sales the same way that Amazon sales do.
An actual shop?
So drive around from store to store in 104°F (40°C) heat looking for the thing that I want, but everyone seems to be out of, just to go home and order it online anyway (for less money, too) because no one had it?
With Fry's and Radio Shack gone, I can't even find electronics anymore. Best Buy is fucking useless, and they just closed the one nearest to me (not surprised. They were always out of stock of everything).
If I need electronics, I'm honestly not sure what my choice is.
Sure, but the OP is talking about groceries...
B&h photo is a good alternative for electronics. Non electronics I'm not sure there is anything close to the selection and prices of Amazon.
So do you just assume everyone lives within convenient travel distance of a wide variety of shops that would supply everything that they could possibly want, or are you claiming moral superiority because you shop at Walmart instead of online at Amazon?
LOL the state of buying discs in brick and mortar store is abysmal now. I used to like buying discs from Walmart but the one near me has relegated everything to a bargain bin of kids' movies, basically. Practically the only way to buy discs now is to do so online, or at a Best Buy or Barnes & Noble if you have one near you
Why tho. Their shipping is amazing. And they have pretty much anything you could want.
Yeah, and warehouse workers piss into bottles and cannot unionize.
As an ex-warehouse employee, I will go out of my way of I have to get something just to not buy something online. The conditions of most warehouses I've seen, especially in this heat, should be illegal.
And you will have no recourse wheb the product you buy is (a) not what you thought you were getting, (b) going to break in a month or two or (c) set your house on fire if you leave it plugged in.
Really cuz I have returned tons of stuff without even being questioned. Amazon doesn't make most the products they sell?
My house isn't on fire.
If you know exactly what you're looking for and you know the seller, Amazon can be alright. I just bought an album CD there from MusicMagpie who's set up shop on Amazon.
But if what you want is vague, be prepared to be bombarded with a bunch of Chinese sellers with weird brand names going through shittier couriers than Amazon themselves. It's getting worse than AliExpress at this point.
Tyranny of convenience 😬
It's also so much more expensive to buy from small, local businesses. Not everyone can afford to do that, no matter how much they hate buying from Amazon or Walmart.
Genuine question, what better alternative is there? I put a lot of effort into buying from small businesses with good morals, but I have no idea how to do this for the things I would buy online. If I don't buy from amazon, i'm buying from target, Walmart, or some other supermarket. I don't see how those are better.
I can order from amazon, or spend an hour in the car to go to a store and pay a higher price.
I'm buying from amazon.
It is faster to have 20 slaves in 20 different parts of the warehouse stuff 20 different envelopes than it is to have 1 single slave go to 20 different locations in a warehouse and stuff a box.
Their obligation is just to get the product from their facilities to your door. They don't give a shit HOW it gets there.
I mean, if it were 20 different items I could probably put it down to that but there were six packets of each of the flavours and types. You'd think all the Alfredo's could go in one package, for example, not each in their own padded envelope. Does pasta even need padding? It was just ridiculous, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were a disgruntled worker engaged in a bit of malicious compliance!
It's been a last resort shop for me for the last year or so
If a place can't get me something in time, isn't available, or ultra expensive, I'll get it at Amazon
While I will exhaust all local alternatives first, Amazon is my pinch hitter when I can't find The Thing anyplace else.
We've shifted the grocery past of our shopping to Thrive Market.