Personally, when I order something these days, it’s been on eBay. It kind of sucks though, and half of the packages still arrive in Amazon boxes anyway…?
Where do you liked to order stuff from, that’s not Amazon?
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For me it’s either aliexpress or mercadolibre. Amazon is not even cheap nor fast lately due to stuff coming from the US has import fees.
AliExpress
If you or anyone else is interested in buying books, try bookfinder.com
It combs online stores looking for the book, then shows you a list of prices. I tend to end up buying from abebooks at the end of my "shopping trip’ but it’s nice to compare pricing.
I’ve used bookshop.org which sells ebooks and has a reader, but you can nominate a local bookstore to get part of the profit.
I think one of the bigger problems with amazon is that it replaces so many different sectors all at once. I don’t think any one single replacement is really solving the problem, furthermore I don’t think an internationally relevant replacement for any one sector is that great either.
I guess the most recent amazon temptation was a utility cabinet, I found a nice one on amazon, but then searched and found an equivalent one from Canadian tire.
The hardest thing for me to break is audio books. I use the library but I find it rarely has what I want in stock, I have tried piracy but I can’t find a good tracker for audio books and I like supporting authors when I can. Audible is really cheap compared to every store front, especially when buying credits in bulk.
For audiobooks, I personally use Libro FM, though audiobooks.com is also an alternate source. Unfortunately if you’re looking only at price, you won’t be able to move past Audible because they employ so many shady and bad-for-authors practices that their prices are artificially low. If you’re only interested in getting DRM-free Cory Doctorow books, Craphound.
I never understood audible. You pay $15 a month to be able to listen to 1 book per month?
Shout out to librivox, if you haven’t heard of it. It’s audiobooks recorded by volunteers reading public domain books. Obviously hit or miss on the quality of the reader, but it’s free, so you can’t complain.
Also, obviously, the humble local library and libby. (P.s., if you can get a few cards to different library systems, it’s really easy to get books).
Audible costs me about 12CAD/book
Libro seems to only cost 20CAD/book which is a significant hike but it’s not as bad as buying the books outright which costs 30-40$ which is simply too much for me to afford. I’ll probably switch when I run out of ausible credits thanks for the rec!
I’m not paying for any subscription media services right now, but I did try both Audible and Everand after having the same bad luck finding audiobook piracy options, one time. I found Audible confusing and frustrating, but Everand was pretty great. When I’m in the market for audiobooks again, I’ll probably subscribe to them again.
I don’t love that they stop working when your sub expires (unlike audible) but that price does have me really tempted.
Blick is the place for art supplies.
*expensive art supplies. It’s always worth looking to see if you have a creative reuse center nearby.
I’ve not heard of a “creative reuse center”, but if it’s a metro thing, Amazon and Walmart market are used more often by more rural people. As such, the option needs to be browsable and orderable from home. Estate sales, the bid wars on art supplies get crazy to the point of surpassing retail.
Blick prices are decent imo, and I’ve been buying since the 90s. Art supplies themselves, like everything DIY and “maker” zone, have skyrocketed in price, unless you’re going for trash art sets from Ross or similar. The top grade paints and brushes are always ridiculous, wherever you go. Brand matters.
Blick sells canvas by the yard for a good price, it’s my go to for it. Clearance deals are sometimes remarkable.
Other than that, what’s left? Michaels? Hobby Lobby?
Creative reuse are where people can donate their old art supplies and you can also go and buy old art supplies for cheap. Everything is used or old. The concept of this kind of store seems to be a pretty new-ish thing that has been popping up and I have seen some in rural locations. I tend to buy canvases that have already been painted on and just paint over what’s already on it. Theres also a ton of cheap fiber arts supplies you can buy for cents. I got a Canon AE-1 and like 8 rolls of expired film there for $30 too.
But it will be difficult to find high end stuff there unless you go every day and wait around for someone to donate it (with no guarantee of that actually happening). Paintbrushes and oil paints, I’d choose blick.
A local store. Or not buying anything.
ATP i feel like Amazon became a Marketplace for smaller online Shops, if i find something on Amazon i usually check if i can get it either from the Source, on a detour on my weekly shopping trip or from the seller´s website just to cut out the most middlemen.
I’ve not ordered anything from Amazon since September last year… cancelled Prime in 2025 to boycott USA. !boycottus@lemmy.ca
Small electronic components, random plastic doodads, SD cards - Aliexpress, Amazon sells the same stuff at a markup, so all I need is a tiny bit of patience to replace my biggest Amazon spend category. In Vancouver there’s no competition outside of Lee’s, but in Toronto I go to Sayal Electronics.
Computer equipment - Memory Express (your local PC parts chain).
Big purchases - from manufacturers’ website or brick and mortar retail.
Groceries - From the grocery store. Costco for local cucumbers, milk and cereal, and the local grocery store for BC grown other food
Books - Indigo, or the random roadside book shop on Vancouver Island or one of the many bookstores. Or, the public library. Digital books: the high seas. Audio books: plenty of digital storefronts online.
Are there categories I’m forgetting Amazon is used for?
cancelled Prime in 2025 to boycott USA
Costco for local cucumbers, milk and cereal,
So Amazon bad, Costco good? Both huge American based multinationals, no?
So Amazon bad, Costco good?
The two companies are super different in their corporate practices, to their customers, to their suppliers, and to their employees. There is a material difference despite them both being American multinationals. I’m also buying local Canadian foods from them. Grocery chains in Canada are an oligopoly as well, so just moving to Loblaws, for example, would only be a marginal improvement in my view. It’s important to have some nuance in this discussion, and I’m changing my habits a bit at a time.
Yes it is has been difficult to replace it all. I review once every few months what I’m subscribed to and whether it’s worth it. (Airline gift cards alone offset the cost of membership for me). It’s also been tough to keep track of if a Canadian brand got bought by the US in the last few years, or if a US brand produces stuff at a Canadian factory. I’m not perfect, but I don’t think I’m the only Canadian who evaluates their consumption choices and look for alterantives where available. That’s the whole point for me being transparent about where I still am tied to US companies in my last comment, so thank you for raising it.
Thanks for the full and reasoned explanation.
I do agree there is nuance, and it is very difficult to balance these things when there is often not a great choice about who ultimately ends up with your money.
I’ll probably get downvoted for this but can you please specify you are boycotting the companies or government not the country itself? Most of us didn’t vote for him. Boycott the products absolutely, I understand that. Please don’t attach me or my fellow humans to it. We’re just trying to survive over here.
Most humans on this world are wanting the same thing right now and we’re all getting fucked by assholes.
Yeah I love New York, LA, Boston, Chicago, Seattle and Portland and all the other wonderful cities and natural icons of the USA, but the problem is to get there I’d have to go through the Trump gestapo’s border control. Trump and his cronies have been saying they don’t need Canadians, so we’re respectfully showing what happens when we you take us for granted.
Oh and yeah, Americans are welcome to visit us anytime. We’ll provide you with our hospitality as usual.
I’d move in a heartbeat if I could.
When you do visit, even in the trump areas, no you aren’t alone. I unfortunately live in Texas and I’m surrounded by trump flags.
I’d move to Canada if I could, or the uk, or even an oil rig in the ocean fuck it lol
Since I stopped using newegg for computer parts (and I really dislike amazon’s storefront for browsing) I started using B&H and have been pretty happy with their web design, prices and selection.
My favorite thing about b&h is, I have a buddy who’s big in to camera stuff, every time we’ve been in the same room and he’s decided to finally pull the trigger on a new camera thing it’s been Friday evening. B&H will hold on to your request until Sunday morning to actually process anything. It’s just really funny to me that he’s literally had to wait, every single time.
Newegg really went full Amazon in a bad way. Microcenter is also still good as far as I can tell.
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Ebay
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Craigslist
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Biting the bullet for Facebook marketplace
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Ordering directly from manufacturer
Depending on the product, the manufacturer themselves might link you to their “store” on Amazon. =(
This has been my experience with a lot of things too.
So with EBay you have the problem of drop shippers they basicly buy it on Amazon up the price and send it directly to you.
Is creglist even a viable option? i think Facebook Marketplace has basically destroyed their marketplace section.
Buying through facebook is like saying dont want to buy from this bad guy and then straight up buying from the devil himself.
Buying directly from the manufactur is always a good option unfortunately they dont have too many sales to not undercut their retail partners.
I disagree about the ebay thing. I buy from ebay all the time and have not come across any noticeable drop ship items or an item marked up from what it is on Amazon. It’s honestly the opposite, I feel like ebay tends to be cheaper than Amazon. Ebay also let’s you know where the seller is located which is super handy and nice to know. Also a much better place to buy used.
Yeah Craigslist still works fine. I just used it a few months ago to give away an old crt tv that was taking up way too much space.
I hadn’t brought anything from Craigslist but I have heard online of some people still use it if that helps but I can’t imagine it being as popular with Facebook Marketplace existing.
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For books, Alibris https://www.alibris.com/ has a very nice bargain section.
For other things, AliExpress is way cheaper, just do not buy expensive or tech stuff there.
Finding what I want on Amazon, and then looking it up and buying directly from the supplier. It’s usually cheaper too.
I like to buy from the company that makes whatever it is I’m buying. If they don’t sell directly online, which is rare these days, I buy from whatever store has the best price including shipping. I just search for the name of the item and see what pops up.
Literally anything else. Amazon isn’t even the cheapest place any more, and they’re almost as full of useless junk as temu.
Seriously, even buying directly from companies is cheaper than Amazon. They’re fully shit now, not just enshittified.
There isn’t a single site I’d consider an alternative. These days I mostly order from specialized online shops for different product categories, so for example electronics from Alternate, video games from netgames etc. Price comparison sites are often a good place to find these shops. When available I buy directly from manufacturers as well, especially clothing. Occasionally I also order stuff from AliExpress.
I also found that I buy less things in general since ditching Amazon. I guess the additional hassle of buying through other shops makes it easier to realize I don’t actually need many of the things I might have otherwise purchased.
