This isn’t exactly where this belongs so feel free to delete this. I’m mildly infuriated there is no usable alternative to Amazon.com. I’m more than willing to buy products elsewhere, but it’s so easy to default to Amazon. Please help.
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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.
Temu is such a sketchy company. Do not buy from them unless you like Chinese malware
I would never buy anything electronic from them for that reason.
I won’t buy anything period
They literally had there app pulled from the Play store because it was malware
Good for you.
You like malware?
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.
Came to say the same. I’m not sure how much my location plays a role, but B&H is my go-to for many electronics, Best Buy is a backup, and Target is up there too. I can pre-order BB and Tgt as well, giving me a few stores to choose from locally. The physical stores need to compete with Amazon to survive, so they are
It isn’t really a good alternative, but Walmart.com has nearly as wide of a selection and the same delivery times.
Not that Walmart is a better company.
When I want a cheap plastic thingy, or cheap hardware and electronics to play around with, I get it off aliexpress. It’s virtually the same stuff as amazon just for the patient. Most of that stuff is made in China already even if I get it from an online or local brick and mortar retailer, so it seems more direct to me, avoiding needless retransportation, warehousing and waste.
When I want a quality thing I buy it from a local shop, especially when I need to see it or compare before buying. I can often find a Canadian online retailer too with just a bit of sleuthing.
For cheap plastic “thingies” if you know a friend with a 3D printer they can be of massive help. Even if you don’t have such a friend, there are domestic businesses that will print and ship things for you. Granted they aren’t always as cheap, but easily better for the environment due to being more local.
Also, check your local library for “creator” services. Our local libraries have 3d printers you can either use, or have them print stuff for you for dirt cheap. Really, really cool service.
This right here! If you are looking at something on amazon go to Ali or Temu.
Quitting Amazon to use AliExpress or Temu is like quitting drinking alcohol by switching to heroin instead.
Environmental issues aside, cheap disposable shit that you have to replace constantly actually costs you way more in the long run.
I agree, but sometimes you just need some cheap shit. I’d rather pay 2$ for stickers for my kids than the same ones for 9$ on amazon.
I think the point behind made is that the stuff on Amazon is literally the same items. People buy off Alibaba / express and resell on Amazon… With a pretty good markup.
I see way more dropshipping on Amazon than before. It’s gonna end up just being a front for the chineese stores.
I can often find a Canadian online retailer too with just a bit of sleuthing I’ve tried this a few times and most of them end up just being drop shippers with their own website dedicated to a type of product (and are questionably Canadian), sometimes shipping from whatever country warehouse to me. Any ideas how to tell vs an actual located in Canada shop?
Look at their address and their warehouse, look at the website of the brands of products they sell and find their address. Are they Canadian or are they just a reseller of the same stuff coming from overseas?
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.
I just wish there was an aggregator that isn’t Walmart or Amazon or Temu. I try really hard to spread my shopping around and actually buy local when I can. It just sucks Amazon is so easy.
No.
Amazon is what it is because it creates an easier path for America to buy cheap, as Walmart and McDonald’s has done before to great microscopic economic success, due to the failures of our economic paradigm that shrinks wages and pushes manufacturing offshore for corporate profit.
We need higher wages, which create higher prices, which corrects for the misdeeds of our economic exploitation of foreign economies.
We have offloaded our economic burden onto other poorer nations, and that needs to stop. Pay a living wage and accept the higher cost at lower profits. Doing otherwise is an economic ouroboros that only swallows the easy part at the sake of the whole in the name of kicking an inflationary can down the road so that yachts can grow larger as the foundation of this country in undermined for icarian profits.
Fuck your CEO, pay us so they can pay us something and they can have less than everything, so they can keep from having nothing less than more than we can achieve through reluctant violence.
Climb down off of your soapbox. Amazon is what it is because of early strategic decision making and long term shittiness. I’m talking about aggregation and exposure to semi-local partners.
Isn’t this what Etsy has tried to do? Miserably failed at it recently I think.
Wtf.
I wish it’d had stayed in the USA, Amazon has upset economies in other countries too.
They’re also shit to work for.
The one I worked at I heard a spoiled rich manager laughing about how “Amazon wont pay a living wage due to its great relationship with the local community”.
Edit; i worded the first sentence badly. I dont want Amazon inflicted upon anyone.
Also Amazon EU I think is based in Ireland which is kind of a tax haven. We can’t even cooperate within the EU to prevent tax havens…
“Amazon wont pay a living wage due to its great relationship with the local community”.
So, taken by a normal person, not aquainted with corpo speak… that is some astounding anti-logic.
But if you know a bit of corpo, what that actually means is something like:
We have the local city government by the balls, greatly overexagerated the economic benefit our warehouse would bring to the city, got them to subsidize our construction costs, relax zoning laws or fees, change tax laws or give us a special carve out so that we pay less than if anyone else tried to build a warehouse here…
… and now if the city gov goes for policies/laws we don’t like, we’ll just shut down this location, I’ll go work the same job somewhere else, everyone else is unemployed, and then we’ll tell the media that’s because of the city government, and they’ll likely lose their elected positions.
Thank you for explaining, i knew enough to know that this was some clever wording to avoid paying people properly, but not enough to know the depth or implications. This should really be put about more, cause as it stands people say “isnt it great that Amazon invest in the local road network” or provide computers for schools, or whatever the latest one is…soon theyll be saying “isnt it great that Amazon provide housing”.
The even shorter, more direct version is:
‘Local community’ actually means ‘Official representatives of the local community.’
EDIT: And ‘great relationship’ means ‘we do business with whatever entity regularly, and that business we do is more advantageous to us than it is to them’.
… Also… I’m in America so… maybe this is somehow different in various Euro countries, but I seriously doubt it…
There’s no way Amazon invests in local roads.
I’m from Seattle.
Our roads are absolute ass, I’m talking worse than the average road in a small town in South Dakota or Montana.
They certainly don’t directly fund any roadwork around Seattle, despite having many logistics hubs in and near the city.
They’re more likely to strong arm a city, even literally sue them, into upgrading their roads than they are to… like directly contribute some share of their revenue or profit directly into the city’s road maintenance or construction budget.
0 chance Amazon directly funds building of any roads beyond the roads on their property.
Provide computers to schools? Sure, I believe that.
But I am highly doubtful that Amazon directly contributes to building local roads.
Only way I can even see that kind of making sense in a roundabout way is if the city has some kind of specific tax on heavier vehicles or vehicles used in delivery/logistics…
In which case … this would apply to any delivery/logistics vehicle of any kind that either transits through or is based out of the city.
By that logic anyone that pays a sales tax or property tax in the city pays for new roads, likely significantly more, as a group.
I don’t have source, they’ve claimed to invest in roads and provide computers, but I strongly suspect you’re right, just can’t confirm it cause I can’t provide an example…so let’s just say you’re right.
Ebay and Aliexpress seem to work just fine. I’ve only once ever ordered something from Amazon.
I’m trying to use Ebay more often but the source is hard to verify.
Amazon sources are equally hard to verify. The only difference is Amazon has a little more customer satisfaction power (by returns to a main warehouse) than ebay (now warehouses but still favors the customer). There’s continuously new ways to get counterfeit product sold on Amazon.
On the subject of returns (Amazon and others) Climate Town just did a video on it, and holy shit. Even knowing the problem the scale is hard to take in.
Does it matter really? If it is not what you ordered send it back
Not sure what you are looking for but I can easily buy the same stuff on eBay or Walmart or directly from the retailer. I do a search of Amazon and then google the same product to look at different website options.
One problem I’ve been having with ebay lately is that I’ve ordered items and they’re coming drop shipped from Amazon or Walmart.
They’re always sellers with ratings in the upper 90s and with like 1000ish or less reviews. A lot of times they list is as only having 1 or 2 left in stock. I’ve been having some luck going into the reviews and seeing people say “came in an Amazon box” to avoid them.
It’s one thing to wholesale stuff and resell it, it’s another to just drop ship it from Amazon and Walmart. Been ordering on ebay for many years and I’ve never seen this before.
That happened to me a few times before. I got the shipment in 2 days through Amazon even though I ordered through eBay.
Outside of NA there are.
Find what you want on Amazon, look at reviews, and then go to the actual website of the producer and buy it directly from them. It’s not hard, it just takes an extra step.
You’ll probably buy less junk, too.
I do this, but be warned some companies use Amazon for fulfillment. I have ordered directly from manufacturer websites and still ended up with an Amazon package at my door. I just make a note to find a different brand if I ever need that thing again.
It’s not hard, it just takes an extra step.
Is there some version of “hard” that’s not related to extra steps?
Yes… Something that’s actually difficult? I’m not sure what you’re asking.
Yeah but sometimes the only producers are QAMEQHEJAK and you can’t even find what real brand sells your thing. Or sometimes they don’t do direct sales.
That means you’re buying mass produced shit from China, the brand means nothing, and you’ll have better luck on aliexpress.
I do this all the time. If it’s going to be cheap chinesium grade stuff I’d rather buy it from AliExpress for cheaper and wait a couple days
Amazon is one issue, but I think the larger enshittification is the proliferation of “marketplace” websites that allow any random imported junk to appeat right alongside quality products with actual manufacturer support.
Idk, Amazon doesn’t even exist in my country
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
They shipped malware in there mobile app
Hard pass for me
I’m honestly not sure why you’re being down voted. At this point temu is basically Amazon with longer shipping times.
It sort of is the next logical progression.
Because Temu is even worse for the environment and somehow has even worse labor practices than Amazon
You got a source for that claim? Specifically being worse than Amazon
I mean, Chinese companies are well documented as being incredibly shitty. I don’t have a specific source to reference but any amount of casual research backs up my claim.
But the cheap no name brand stuff from Amazon still come from the same factory in China. Only difference is you’ll get it in 2 days, pay more even though Amazon workers are underpaid and overworked and just make Bezos richer.
All the cheap no name brands are just the same Chinese products. One good example I have is, last year I got a knockoff Apple Watch band from Amazon as a gift for Christmas which was $10. Since it was the wrong size I bought one myself from AliExpress. When it arrived it had the same packaging and product number on it. Only difference is that it was $1 and took 2 weeks.
If you don’t buy cheap no name brand stuff from Amazon then this doesn’t apply to you but from my experience people buy the cheapest product and hence temu became popular.
I hate Temu because the one time I tried to use it (was doing an ali order and wanted to compare), it told me I could get the item free if I downloaded the app and ordered it there.
That turned out to be a total lie, and instead some slot machine popped up and I was being pressured to like buy like 10 totally unrelated random things of literal junk quality (like cat toys and glitter markers and shit) within the next 2 minutes and I just gave up and went back to ali. I just wanted one thing, not do a TikTok haul video jeez
You’re on a federated website, but think what we need is more centralized marketplaces?
One thing I’ve realized about Amazon, at least lately, is that they don’t always have the lowest prices. For many items, I can go directly to the manufacturer’s site and get the same product for a lower or equal price with free shipping. If I have to wait a couple extra days, so be it. At least I’m not lining Bezos’ pockets.
