I personally use temu and I've had the same experience as amazon but for a far better price, my 60 dollar temu headphones had an almost studio quality microphone and metal frame

Also learn to solder and fix your own stuff to buy less, shave with a straight razor and razorblades and you'll save hundreds over the year in razors

Outside of NA there are.

Honestly I've been enjoying going to stores in person again. It definitely takes some getting used to after the convenience of online shopping has been a part of my life pretty much since I was in highschool, but I think the change is worth it. I'll just make a list of things that I need and when the list gets big enough I just make a day of it and just go to a bunch of different stores.

I kinda forgot how satisfying it can be to actually go shopping. I got a couple new pillows and some new bed sheet sets last month and it was so nice being able to feel what I was buying before I actually got it. If I'd gotten the pillows from Amazon I guarantee I'd get something cheap and not find out until they show up that they are awful. And I probably wouldn't return them and just justify it and convince myself they were better than my old pillows because they are "new."

Ebay and Aliexpress seem to work just fine. I've only once ever ordered something from Amazon.

If I'm being honest, the only thing stopping me from shopping at other sites is having to put my personal and payment details in yet another site for it to go stale, or fall out of my memory, or get leaked in the next big hack.

Some sites have "pay with Amazon" (more likely PayPal, but... ugh. I don't remember why, but I hate it), but I'd love to see some universal adoption of some sort of payment and shipping details lockbox. Like SSO where you can revoke access to subscribers or something.

If you cannot afford to shop elsewhere, then I don't see how it's reasonable to fault you for that. But if you can justify spending a little less and want to avoid it, then I'm sure you know what I would suggest. Do or do not, a wise man once said.

Are you frustrated that you can't muster the willpower to avoid shopping there? The website was literally designed to get you addicted to it. The man himself has said as such. There are browser extensions that will block specific url families. I wouldn't be surprised if entire extensions were designed for that website specifically.

What kind of stuff have you been buying that you couldn't find elsewhere (at a competitive price)?

I buy a moderate amount of my stuff online and was able to almost entirely avoid Amazon this year. The only exception was a phone display where Amazon had a LCD-variant for ~30€ while all others only had an OLED for ~90€.

I've been going to Walmart more because of all the Chinese sellers. I fine with it if it's not on Temu for cheaper and if they disclose it's going to take three weeks to ship. It pisses me off to no end when they indicate it's going to take 3 or 4 days to get to me and then I check the tracking a couple days later to see a Chinese mail tracking number.

So try Walmart, if you want stateside stuff then use the retailer filter and select "Walmart."

Another alternative, if it's likely made in China or cheap, then check Temu. I've found things all over Etsy which is just crap bought from Temu and posted on there for double the price. And I mean they get the package, repackage it, and send it to you. No alterations or anything.

You can also look at ordering directly from manufacturers. Sometimes you'll get deals.

Google shopping or duckduckgo shopping can usually find it. Or go to amazon and then search the sellers name.

Not perfect but a lot of big box stores offer free shipping. I usually will check Walmart, Best Buy, Target B&H and Google shopping. I'm pretty sure they all offer free shipping after $35. Chewy for animal stuff is really good too. Also check the manufacturer, I recently bought a gift that way and it was cheaper and had more selection options than dumb Amazon.