I haven't bought from Amazon in about three years. And I'm ordering online quite a lot. Only this month: a bike (boc24.de), bike equipment (nanobike.de), several books (booklooker.de, medimops.de, thalia.de, hugendubel.de), a Whisky (mcgin.de), a pizza stone (otto.de), USB microskope (digitalo.de) ...<p>No problem or hassle whatsoever. I just find a shop (usually idealo), then I order - done.<p>It's so simple, there's not much to write about - lest a guide.<p>> You can often cut out the middleman if you are buying electronics. For computers, phones and TVs, Dell, Apple and Samsung are all offering free delivery on their products<p>That's why the guide goes beyond its purported goal and tries to avoid other shops as well?<p>> Environmentally friendly cleaning products, pet food and baby gear are available at Ethicalsupermarket.com. Standard delivery in the UK is free on orders over £50, or £3.95 on smaller orders.<p>Then specific shops and information about shipping?<p>Whatever - useless text. Just order somewhere else. It's that easy. (at least in Germany) (yes, I hate Amazon - yes, I make a living with AWS)<p>---<p>Special love goes to:<p>- booklooker.de<p>- medimops.de<p>- notebookgalerie.de<p>- thalia.de<p>- mcgin.de
I tried shopping Newegg recently (BC). Newegg's online customer service made Amazon's look positively erudite, and in addition Newegg's return policy is terrible by comparison. I still haven't received an item that I ordered 7 weeks ago (shipping was not advertised as being particularly slow), and I still haven't been refunded for another item that I returned 2 weeks ago. Amazon gets that if you can't touch the item in store, there should be a no-fault return policy (and yes, I know that returns are environmentally unfriendly, etc).<p>I tried to shop Jet (before they were acquired) and I found the search / shop experience had too much friction. Amazon's UI has plenty of annoyances, but they've made it _real_ easy to get something into your cart and check out.<p>On the other hand, all of my music studio purchases I make at Sweetwater. Great customer service, free shipping, will price match if you ask, and frictionless returns.<p>IMO Amazon is vulnerable to good competitors, but the emphasis is on good. I can tolerate a small shipping fee, and I don't need next day or two day shipping (although it's nice). On the other hand if you make it hard for me to shop, customer service sucks, or I have to jump through hoops to return something, I'll go back to Amazon.
If you want your mom n' pop shops to survive this thing consider them first. You'd be surprised how many are probably doing deliveries.<p>It's awfully low tech, but the local indie book shop here in Vancouver will order any book you ask for and deliver it throughout Metro Vancouver. All you need to do is call them and ask.
It’s a nice touch by The Guardian to write this article but given how much Amazon has benefited from this epidemic, I do not think any kind of individual vigilantism will really work here. You’re not even a drop in the bucket for them and most people do not care.<p>If anything, thanks to them being a go-to platform, they’ve single handedly allowed a lot of third party shops to sell their inventory, and have come out net positive as a result. I don’t mean to sound as an apologist saying this - just stating the bloody obvious.<p>The “vote with your wallet” rhetoric doesn’t work. It’s half past feel good bullshit. If you want these companies to change it must be codified into the law and backed up by hard time.<p>But good luck with that, since China is a massive trade partner and every country is turning a blind eye to them imprisoning people in concentration camps and harvesting organs. It’s unlikely The States are going to have a change of heart anytime soon.
If you're in the Bay Area and need more computer things, give Central Computers a try. Their website is delightfully simple.<p>This article recommends hitting up major brands on their websites, which is ok for all of them except Dell. Dell's website is an absolute shitshow.<p>I've been using Google Express and liked it quite a bit.
Given how much Bezos has added to his personal net worth during the pandemic ($24B [1]), perhaps its time for governments to expect better treatment for Amazon employees... or else. Charges of pandemic profiteering could be convincingly brought to bear.<p>[1]<a href="https://fortune.com/2020/04/14/jeff-bezos-net-worth-2020-billionaires-amzn-amazon-stock/" rel="nofollow">https://fortune.com/2020/04/14/jeff-bezos-net-worth-2020-bil...</a>
Been buying a lot of stuff on eBay. On the app, you can filter by Guaranteed Delivery 1 to 4 days. If it doesn't make it by the guaranteed date, you get a $5 credit to your eBay account. It's also frequently cheaper for new stuff. For example, water bottles and bluetooth adapters.
Problem is that return policy for Amazon is excellent, but completely nonexistent or cumbersome with other suppliers. That in itself is pretty much a deal breaker for competitors.
I feel like there's a lack of good price comparison websites in US and Canada. I'm used to e.g. PriceSpy which compares thousands of stores. Just as an example showing 42 different stores selling this particular SSD <a href="https://pricespy.co.uk/computers-accessories/storage-media/hard-drives/ssd-solid-state-drives/samsung-970-evo-plus-series-mz-v7s1t0bw-1tb--p5035391" rel="nofollow">https://pricespy.co.uk/computers-accessories/storage-media/h...</a><p>Whenever I search for something like that for US/Canada I end up on a site that indexes Amazon/ebay with affiliate links.
For me it's been:<p>- NewEgg for electronics<p>- Walmart/Target. You have to be careful with walmart as that they have an open market place<p>- Aliexpress for assorted small things that I can wait on<p>- Abebooks (although they're owned by amazon :( ) for used books<p>- Vitacost (owned by koger) for supplements/vitimins etc<p>I've gone through 2018, 2019, and 2020 so far without placing a single Amazon order.
Step 1: Live somewhere where online shopping other than with Amazon actually works.<p>(You can think what you want about Amazon, but it's a remarkably provincial piece.)
In the book "The Everything Store," Jeff Bezos mentions that the public tends to hate companies as they get bigger and that managing the company's image is very important.<p>All politics aside, I find it very interesting that this seems to be a law that people just think companies are evil when they are big.
Whilst I'm not sure it's healthy to have one company so dominant, and whilst Amazon's product range is not perfect:<p>1. In terms of logistics it seems to me they handed every other logistic company's arse to them - even those that have been running for <i>hundreds of years</i> and thus which you might hope to have some expertise in the field, and conversely even the newer companies which you might hope are relatively unburdened by inertia etc. Prime is awesome.<p>2. At the risk of sounding heartless, I don't care about all the struggling small competitors. Times and industries change, and Amazon's approach is simply more efficient. Does it really benefit society to have x thousands of people running their own e-commerce business rather than finding something else to do? Should we be putting restrictions on weaving machines in order to support manual weavers? Or supporting buggy whip manufacturers by taxing car makers? Where do we draw the line?<p>3. I don't care about the tax avoidance etc. I'd rather see Bezos spend the money on rocketry than have governments wasting yet more on handouts. The former will probably benefit humanity more in the end.<p>4. Price. If Amazon weren't almost always equal or very slightly above competitors I wouldn't use it. But it is. Why should I pay more? To support ye olde historical e-commerce shoppe?
This article is very focused on the UK but its still possible to try and avoid supporting Amazon if you are willing to pay for shipping or use alternative outlets like EBay although many of those selling on that platform still use Amazon for fulfillment.
I have done most of my pandemic shopping on Amazon, but have had luck with 4/5 externally run sites, most of which are on shopify. In the first 3 weeks after the first shelter in place orders, Amazon was about a week slower than the rest. Now it switched, and it seems Amazon is faster again. However I am now regularly doing business with a few other sites that have products Amazon doesn't.
In Germany: go to Amazon.de, search for the product. Check if it’s available from third party sellers. Copy the seller’s name, google for their online shop. If they have one, buy direct. Bit clunky but pretty often cheaper.
I haven't bought anything from Amazon for about 5 years, because I moved, but I really feel uncomfortable about Amazon bashing. I think Amazon has done a huge favor for online stores. I think AWS is incredible service that powers a lot of great online services. You absolutely should criticize Amazon for poor labor practices and you are free to avoid buying from them on ethical grounds. But I think it the end you might hurt more people you are trying to protect. We all love to have our favorite evils. Facebook yesterday, Amazon today, Microsoft ten years ago. But the history teaches us that the only effective way to limit monopolies and stop them from abusing their powers is strong government actions. Boycotts don't work.
I wonder if it is <i>thanks to Amazon</i> that so many other online retailers are now offering service "as good as Amazon".<p>Because they have to. It certainly wasn't always the case.
Does anyone have further CD (or FLAC) vendors they'd recommend for uncensored music? I often have a hard time finding CDs outside of Amazon or FLACs beyond Bandcamp. For example, Con by Tegan & Sara, The Jungle Is The Only Way Out by Mereba (which even Amazon doesn't have in CD), and Blueprint by Ferry Corsten. I didn't see them on Very, Zavvi, or Hive mentioned in the article.<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DI5SXM6" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DI5SXM6</a>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Only-Way-Out-Explicit/dp/B07NZXB295" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Only-Way-Out-Explicit/dp/B07NZ...</a>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-FERRY-CORSTEN/dp/B071S3RLL3" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-FERRY-CORSTEN/dp/B071S3RLL3</a>
Normally the media in the UK can't have 'how to avoid retailer x' articles as that means 'retailer x' isn't going to place adverts in their paper. However, online, I imagine it does not matter, ads just arrive without negotiation between 'retailer x' and the publication/paper.<p>Currently avoiding Amazon however I can't get a garden sieve/riddle in my preferred local store. So I have to go on Amazon if I really want one.<p>My local store has a sieve for £5 when in stock. That is all the sieve options, take it or leave it. The decision is easy. But, on Amazon, there is paralysis of choice. Hundreds of sieves to choose from, invariably more expensive than the £5 local store price. With shipping on top.<p>The choice works with books but not with everything. A decent retailer only sells top quality stuff with an affordable option and maybe a super deluxe option, so your choice is between a small amount of items. Amazon doesn't help with that.
I order from <a href="https://bookshop.org" rel="nofollow">https://bookshop.org</a>. It's a sort of umbrella for local bookstores: one storefront, many vendors. I select my favorite local bookstore and support them.
I got sick of Amazon trying to squeeze the last cent from me that I now consciously avoid it, even in case it is "the cheapest".<p>It happened to me many time that Amazon show me higher price when I go there and search directly, then when I open the same product page by copy&pasting the Amazon url in the incognito window.<p>Not to mention that coming to Amazon through the idealo.de or some other meta engine gives sometimes even better price.<p>To hell with them, most of the competition in Germany doesn't do those scummy things. And the delivery and return policies are mandated by law anyway.
I see a lot of articles trying to reason their dislike for Amazon into logical dot points. I think it's enough to just not like the idea of any entity having so much of the general market.
It's like "Let's buy something not made in China"... Amazon is very convenient and at some point addictive (same day or 2 days delivery) way of online shopping. They got big enough that now they can dictate rules. So unless some other company with really great customer service, delivery speed, and return policy comes up, Amazon will be dominant in the US and Europe. Alibaba/AliExpress is an asian amazon.
Given <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-google-amazon-to-be-hit-with-new-2-uk-digital-service-tax-2020-03-11" rel="nofollow">https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-google-amazon-to-...</a><p>Then why is this not only overlooked by this article, but not even touched upon. That I find most curious.
I recently found out of a site (<a href="https://syessa.com" rel="nofollow">https://syessa.com</a>) selling household items (hand soap, detergent, dish liquid, etc.) at equal to or cheaper prices than Amazon. Better to support small businesses! I ordered from them last thursday and received my order today.
I've discovered if you search for local online shops you get poor results, but if you visit the websites of local businesses, quite a few have implemented home delivery. I guess they aren't good at SEO.
I was on Amazon a few weeks ago, clicked on the ratings graph, and was returned a page with nothing but an ascii art dog. The company just seems to be a mess.
Amazon used to be good for more obscure, hard to find things. I now use Ebay for such stuff. It is more transparent and I can communicate directly with seller.
Ok, let me try for the US:<p>newegg.com (Electronics)<p>alibris.com (books)<p>monoprice.com (electronics)<p>bhphotovideo.com (photo)<p>purebulk.com (dietary supplements)<p>ebay.com (everything)
i needed a 12mm masonry bit to floor-mount an amazon safe i ordered and was surprised to find that in a local diy store the drill bit was £1.99 and on amazon it was £12.99.
Do people not know how to shop online outside of Amazon?<p>I'm not paying more to buy things through other platforms. If something is the same price on Amazon as it is elsewhere - the other place will lose until they have faster shipping or some other benefit. And this is coming from someone who buys a lot of stuff elsewhere and does a lot more than the average consumer when it comes to shopping. I do buy stuff elsewhere frequently. (I just spent $600 on soldering equipment through TEquipment, Louis Rossman's store, and some Amazon stuff because I couldn't find the stuff elsewhere for cheaper) The reason I do it isn't because I'm anti-Amazon - I buy stuff through various sources because I'm a thoroughbred slickdealer. (And you can bet your butt I looked up all those items to see if there were ever any deals on them or if I could get them used for cheaper - odd stuff doesn't get posted much about, sadly)<p>So, yeah, I buy stuff outside of Amazon... However, I'm a bit annoyed because I feel like the quality control is really bad at other sources far too often. With some shops I feel like they're gonna call me up and say, "Hey, I noticed you bought X, Y, and Z, do you want to buy this too?" And this just pads delivery time by days. They're slow to ship often enough as well. You buy an item online but you didn't know the shop was closed for 2 weeks. Sometimes - it's good. I remember I got $100 off my vacuum cleaner because they offered free overnight shipping for these vacuum cleaners - but I could get $100 off the price if I chose ground shipping. (Not an option online) That was worth knowing but that's rare! Most of the time I get a call like, "I noticed you bought X which is an accessory to Y, and Y wasn't in your order, do you want to buy Y?" No, of course not. I didn't buy Y because you charge too much for it and I can get it for cheaper elsewhere!<p>On top of this - even big names mess up too often! I tried to buy an Elgato capture card off through Bestbuy this last week. It wasn't even available anywhere else except Bestbuy. I used Google Shopping in the process because it was quicker/easier than going through Bestbuy's website. In the end - I got shipped a god damn microwave that I had to return today via UPS. Huge pain in the ass. I had to go to the local UPS store twice because I went <i>too early</i> (never thought that would happen!) to the UPS store the first time. (They're open 11-5) Yes, that stuff could happen with Amazon but I feel like they might have slightly better inventory management than that and would recognize when a 50lb+ item is being shipped instead of a 1lb. Surprisingly, the shipping labels (both ways) were only for objects < 5lbs. And yet UPS took them both times.<p>Target - same crap. Order something for store pickup even - no go. They cancel the order days later saying it isn't in stock. Home Depot? Fulfills half your order when you clearly need the whole thing. <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22795970" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22795970</a> I avoid store pickup when I can now. It's usually faster for me to find the item(s) in store and go through self-checkout than to wait in line at pickup.<p>I'm not pro-Amazon but I am not pro-poor experience for the same or more price. There's a reason Amazon is doing well compared to the competition and it's because they've made it much lower friction.
Is avoiding Amazon so hard that a guide is needed? I have only ever purchased something from Amazon once because someone gave me a gift card. It wasn't any cheaper or more convenient than ebay so I'm not sure what the craze over Amazon is about.