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The Best Thing About Amazon Was Never Going to Last | If shopping on the site feels different now, that’s because it is (www.theatlantic.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The Best Thing About Amazon Was Never Going to Last | If shopping on the site feels different now, that’s because it is::If shopping on the site feels different now, that’s because it is.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What are the alternatives you’re using?

I cancelled prime years ago but still struggle to find a decent replacement.

I mean, books alone are tough with AMZ often being 30% cheaper than most online retailers. In that case, I sometimes go to eBay to get a used book (if it’s not a new release).

This past week though, I bought some athletic wear, waterproofing wax, a heat gun, and picture frames. Without prime, everything was delivered within three days. For free.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I use Amazon for research and then purchase the product for about $5-$10 more on other websites, ideally the company selling on a Amazon has their own website. I’d rather pay a little more than give a dime to Jeff Bezos.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Gotcha. I was hoping there were better market places but this works too. I’ve found sometimes that items are less on a seller’s site if it’s not something too generic. Shopping can add up though if you don’t hit their minimum.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It depends on what you're buying - I don't buy (commodity) books much anymore so can't comment on those. What I can say is for "random tat" that I don't need quickly, Temu is an unabashedly "cheap chinese stuff" that is often the same as the Amazon version, but usually a lot cheaper. I'm assuming they charge less fees to the sellers. They deliver in under 2 weeks. AliExpress has now started offering the same service. Downside is there's not really returns - or at least I've never wanted to deal with the hassle. However, for most stuff under $10, I wasn't going to return to Amazon either.

For "Brand Name Stuff" I kind of go to ebay and/or the specific retailer like Best Buy or B&H or the manufacturers site. They seem far less likely now to have counterfits because with e-bay the actual seller is tied to the specific product where Amazon isn't, and the other stores don't want counterfeits and have a more controlled supply chain.

For stuff like spices or the like, ebay or Walmart.com seems reasonably good. Walmart also has a lot of random sellers, but as far as I can tell, they don't do the binning Amazon does, if you buy from Walmart it's from them, if you buy from a third party, it ships from that third party.