Your range is pretty broad. For digital media I have found myself using the Library more and more
Libby- ebooks, audiobooks, magazines
Hoopla- music, ebooks, audiobooks, and TV
Kanopy- films and documentaries
For real I cannot overstate how amazing a library card is with these apps.
@ALostInquirer@lemm.ee might want to add an edit to your post to get people asking for recomendatation and people giving recommendations to state what country and what locality in that country they are from without acronyms or nicknames
Might also want to state the country you’re from as well
Because I’m seeing a lot of what looks like US Defaultism in the comment and lemmy is a global platform
To anyone else reading this comment STATE WHERE YOU’RE FROM IF YOU’RE ASKING FOR RECOMENDATIONS OR GIVING RECOMENDATIONS!
Also this big text is just to get peoples attention so the comment doesn’t get buried
wheres that’s peep with the info on the upcoming ActivityPub version of etsy
Flohmarkt?
mercadolibre.com is like Amazon, but in the amazon…
Mercado libre is literally the Spanish eBay.
Google shopping or duckduckgo shopping are an easy first step. You can also search the name of the Amazon seller and see if they have their own store.
Lots of mid-sized local stores opened web stores during the pandemic, at least here in Europe. I’ll often shop at those, even if they’re not truly local to where I live.
Ebay.
Is that platform avalible globally or is it just limited to the country you’re from ?
State where you’re from because lemmy is a global platform
Who are they?
Baen
From: https://www.baen.com/faq
Founded by Jim Baen, Baen Books has been bringing readers pulse-pounding, thought-provoking adventures straight from the heart of science fiction and fantasy for decades. We publish books in hardcover, paperback, and electronic form, and are one of the few traditional publishers that maintains its own ebooks webstore (with at least four new titles added every month). We are also perhaps the only book publisher to make our electronic advanced readers copies (eARCs) available for sale to devoted fans before a book’s official release date. In addition, we also sell ebooks from other publishers. We sell more than 2000 books from over 500 authors published by 24 different companies. Good reading to all!
One of the first and longer lasting ebook publishers for a LONG time. You get DRM free books at reasonable prices.
Well at first glance it definitely seems a lot better than supporting Amazon!
Posted most of this in another thread but I’m glad to spread the word. I usually find things by searching what I want to buy and then adding “-amazon”, “-etsy”, or “-wayfair”.
Some general recs:
B&H Photo or Microcenter for anything electronic or computer related
Sweetwater for music stuff, there’s a lot of great small music stores, or marketplaces like Reverb
For clothes, if you have any clothes you already enjoy, go directly to their brand website. If you don’t, go to local secondhand shops and touch, handle and try on some clothes to see them in person. I’ve discovered some brands I like by finding something in a thrift store that was well made but not my size or preferred color.
For house DIY stuff, we order from a local building supply store, but there’s also hardwareandtools.com, 1stoplighting, Waysource, Lightbulbs.com, Timothy’s Toolbox etc.
For food items, local grocery stores often offer online shopping and delivery. If it’s a specialty item or imported the import companies sometimes have their own websites.
For super fast, need it now shipping, Target has a lot of the same things Amazon does and even does same day delivery for an extra fee for certain items.
For something hard to find you can’t find another site for, try Ebay.
I do business with all sorts of independent retailers and have only had good experiences with them. These are sites that I’ve personally bought from but there are a lot of smaller sites just trying to make a place for themselves on the internet
I know you’re talking about american stores because I’m aware of those stores being from america from my time on the Internet but not everyone knows those stores are from america
So this is your reminder not to use US Defaultism on lemmy
Bandcamp or 7Digital for music
Ebay. Been buying most things through there and it’s been nice. As always, check to see if the seller has a good rating and usually it’s fine.
eBay and Etsy are my go-to alternatives to Amazon. My wife uses Shien for clothes.
All 3 are like Harbor Freight for tools; maybe good, maybe bad, takes some experience and discernment, which can be costly.
The manufacturer’s site.
Go local.
I need a local searchable storefront
Aren’t pretty much all storefronts searchable, or is it a Europe thing?
I shop primarily local and find stores with ddg/Google/Google maps. I live in a country where Amazon doesn’t exist, and shipping takes at least 3-7 days, so I’ve always bought stuff from local stores. Of course not everything is sold in a physical store, for which you’ll probably have to use ebay.
For large chain stores that happen to be local, Google is fine. But I can’t get an inventory from the local mom&pop grocery. Or even the local game stores that have a website with an inventory, Google doesn’t search among them, so I’m stuck going to multiple websites to search by hand.
It’s just a pain, and if it’s a pain, I’ll only do it half as much as I could.
Idk what a local store is here. Everything is a chain.
Food? Publix or Winn-Dixie. Thats about it, save for the Asian market on the corner and a once a week farmers market that I never seem to be able to attend.
Meds? CVS or Walgreen’s. We have a local pharmacy, insurance doesn’t cover them.
Electronics? Best buy. There’s no mom and pop computer store
Furniture / clothing / household items? Thrift stores maybe?
Big Box stores didn’t just reduce mom and pops in my area, it killed them.
The only non-chain stores are for niche products like a smoke shop, the aforementioned Asian market, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
For electronics try Swappa or Jawa
Thanks I’ll check them out!
Reminder to mention the country they are in
Don’t resort to US Defaultism
I know these are american stores because you mentioned cvs, best buy and walgreens but I dont know about those other stores being from america and some people won’t be aware that these stores are located in america
Please don’t resort to US Defaultism on lemmy
Does it actually matter what the names of the stores are? From context, I know you know they’re chain stores, as opposed to “mom and pops” regardless of location, and more or less what they sell.
Do you expect me to know what country you’re from and tell you the stores near me are actually the stores near you?
I don’t live near a Tesco, or a Tim Horton’s, yet if I didn’t know what those were and you put them in a post about places you’re forced to buy food, as opposed to the small shops you wish you had, I could safely assume they were grocery stores.
Stop making “US Defaultism” an issue where it isn’t. It is real, and this isn’t it. I am a person describing my experiences and I happen to live in the United States. Why on earth would I write about how inconvenienced I am by a brick-and-mortar chain electronics store in Germany?
I use Geizhals and see wheres the cheapest.
Else it dpends on physical vs speed vs convenience.
