With all of the sketchy products Amazon has and their bad practices, I’m really considering getting rid of Amazon. The only thing I will really miss is the fast shipping.
My reasoning is that I don’t use Prime benefits outside of shipping because I don’t play live service games anymore, and lots of local stores price match.
For those of you who have ditched Amazon(or not), what’s your reasoning and advice?
Any input is appreciated, thank you.
It used to be that if you searched for a particular brand or product on Amazon, that’s what would come up. Now you get sponsored links followed by pages of brands with names like “QERNTOO”. Amazon essentially transferred the responsibility for vetting brands to the US patent and trade office. The resellers, drop shippers, and scammers create dumb unique brand names to get the paperwork through the USPTO quickly whenever they have a brand fall apart or get caught scamming.
You can get stuff quickly through Amazon, but it really isn’t worth it anymore. Often you can get products right from the website of actual brands for the same price. You might not get 2 day shipping, but that’s almost never necessary. If you live somewhere where the 2 day shipping actually gets to you in 2 days, you live close enough to a brick and mortar store where you can get whatever you need even faster.
I live in a major west coast city and “next” or “second day” shipping often takes 3 or 4 and Amazon just effectively says “oh well”. It:s become kind pf a scam.
If you live somewhere where the 2 day shipping actually gets to you in 2 days, you live close enough to a brick and mortar store where you can get whatever you need even faster.
I’m always looking for ways to avoid Amazon, and if I had a car, this might be true, but because I live in the downtown core where parking is extremely expensive and transit covers most of my needs, I don’t have a car, although a significant portion of the retail stores near me have shut down in the past few years. So, if I want to buy things from a brick and mortar store that’s not a grocery store or random boutique, I have to spend 45+ minutes each way on a bus to the stores in the suburbs. And since I’m on public transit, picking up bulky items, heavy items, or a large quantity of items is not very practical. A large selection of Amazon’s items are available to me via same day or next day shipping (and they show up on time ~97% of the time), so they actually do get to me faster than figuring out how to get the same items from a brick and mortar store. I have most definitely wasted 2 days running around to various stores only to return empty handed, and eventually order it from Amazon anyway.
In my opinion, the best option is ordering online from whatever business makes the thing. If it takes a few days longer than Amazon, that’s fine by me. Often, support for good products is easier to get if you’ve ordered right from the source, too. My second choice is ordering online from a non-amazon store. E.g., for electronics, new egg or best buy, for tools, home depot, for groceries, whatever your local chain is, etc. Not that any of those businesses are going to be completely better than Amazon, but that way you are at least avoiding the monopoly. Lots of those businesses have free shipping, too, anyway.
Only if you actually need something right away, would I advocate going to the brick and mortar location. I almost never need anything right away, though. Only real exception is groceries; I’ve never been a huge fan of grocery delivery (for me).
If you live somewhere where the 2 day shipping actually gets to you in 2 days
That’s not really true if you need a specific thing, or choice of thing, and not just a generic version of thing. And …
Often you can get products right from the website of actual brands for the same price. You might not get 2 day shipping, but that’s almost never necessary. If you live somewhere where the 2 day shipping actually
… often you spend a hours finding an item somewhere else and when you go to checkout, they redirect you to their Amazon store.
I fully support efforts to boycott Amazon. But, sad to say, sometimes it’s not really feasible.
Cancel Prime
Add ‘Personal Blocklist’ to your browser, block Amazon from search results (although ‘Google Hit Hider’ for Greasemonkey works better)
Amazon hasn’t managed to get any of my orders to me in fewer than 3 days for over a year. I just put together some computer parts using PCPartsPicker, and Amazon wasn’t the cheapest option on anything. There’s no advantage to using them anymore. They treat their employees like shit, they treat their suppliers like shit, and they force anyone selling through Amazon Marketplace to agree to some seriously fucked up shit.
I didltched amazon for multiple reasons.
The horrible working conditions of the people that actually package and ship the products I purchased, the anti-competitive nature of their platform, and the insane amount of shit that you find combined with the impossibility of searching or browsing their website for any product whatsoever.
I still have to use it for work because it’s the only one that our corporate overseers have approved and I fucking hate it.
It’s impossible to have any amount of ethics and shop online any more.
It’s also very fucking difficult to shop in person and have ethics.
It’s nearly impossible to have ethics and exist in America.
Fuck
Stop using things that you know are unethical, then you will have nothing. Suddenly, new options previously invisible to you start showing up.
This (the ethical bit) is the premise of The Good Place.
Cancel it and see how it goes. You won’t miss it, especially when you look at the price to sign back up.
I’ve started buying more stuff from eBay. eBay can also be a total mess, but depending on what you’re buying the sellers are usually quick to ship.
Sign up again when they offer free month. Then cancel. I used to do it, however I didn’t even order anything when it was free. Too much garbage. I’d rather see the garbage before buying it so I went back to malls and stores.
In my experience, they stopped offering free months and started changing it to “pay $2 for one month” offers. I found it super useful when I knew someone had a birthday coming up or something I needed to shop for. But I don’t think they do free months anymore.
I think they also knew it would be useful for that birthday, sadly.
I do everything I can to avoid Amazon, for exactly this reason. I don’t want to be one of those people in the 1800s wearing slave-picked and processed cotton (which, living in the US, I basically am, but every little step back upwards helps I guess).
I found myself using Amazon less and less for shipping, so when Prime Video started injecting ads, I canceled and haven’t looked back.
My solution is that I buy my products in stores, now. I hate it, but that’s what it’s come to. The Amazon deals are not what they once were, so there’s barely a difference in cost. Plus, with so much garbage just flooding Amazon’s search results, it admittedly helps to be able to see a product before choosing to buy it.
I’ve worked in shipping for a couple months and I can only say this: People should order way less stuff online or make sure they are using an ethical shipping company (if they even exist).
the industry prays on young people (often minorities) who have trouble getting other jobs. they almost exclusively hire people with short term contracts (because your body can’t take the work for more than a few months). I’ve been part of a union for a long time and I know a lot about work safety. These companies teach people nothing and they can only meet their deadlines if people actively break their backs twisting around, doing unsafe lifts and generally working to fast.
I get that shipping is sometimes necessary, but it can only be as fast and cheap as it is, because poor people pay with their bodies.
I thought so, and also because of that try not to buy overseas and generally buy second Hand and local, but still its terrible to hear that it is indeed this way. :/
I got rid of Amazon Prime and I don’t miss it. I only really signed up for the faster shipping. But then they started raising their prices and I started questioning why I even pay for this. I never pay for faster shipping on other sites. Pair that with the sketchy or poor quality products and bad practices and the decision was a no-brainer for me.
Yes I was thinking about the fast shipping and most things that I would need I can get locally. To offset shipping times I can just order earlier, and it’s not like any emergency items that I trust would be on Amazon
I unsubscribed from Prime over a year ago. Just like you, the only reason I subscribed was for the fast and free shipping. Without Prime, if you place an order over $35, it’s free shipping. It’s not as fast as it was but honestly the fast shipping wasn’t as fast as it used to be either.
The instant gratification technology has afforded us is something I think we should ponder. Are we not being manipulated to pay increasingly higher fees just to get something in our hands a day or two sooner? I know local businesses often don’t carry what we can get online, if they exist at all (RIP RadioShack), but some places like Target can have things available for pickup in a day or two. I’m all for getting off ours asses and contributing a few pennies to our local economies. Nothing against Amazon workers, but I rather keep even big box stores that are operating locally open and employing people in my community.
Also, now without Prime, I’m finding better deals from other sources across the web - especially eBay for things like used books.
I avoid Amazon whenever possible. I’d rather pay a little more and support a small online business, or better yet find what I need locally.
Me too, and pirate prima!
I ditched Amazon because I worked for them for almost two years and saw how they treat people. They care about nothing other than making as much money as they can and spending as little as possible to do it. They work people to the bone because it’s cheaper to have them quit and just hire someone else than it is to keep ‘em around and have ‘em eventually ask for a raise.
I just finally decided to ditch them this month, so not a ton of experience yet. I ran to Best Buy last night for the first time in years as opposed to ordering what I needed off Amazon. I miss the ease and all but I still feel like I’m making a good choice. There is no perfect company but fuck Amazon.
Just shop AliExpress. It’s the same garbage that is sold on Amazon, but without Amazon’s large markup.
AliExpress takes a zillion years to receive your item…longer than any other online retailer I’ve used. Great value for your money, but you ain’t getting that shit any time soon. I’ve had good experiences with them, but Amazon is when you need something within a reasonable timeframe.
Like OP said, Amazon is really the only company that managed to figure out how to ship stuff fast. So many other websites are ungodly slow, making you wait multiple weeks for your item. Patience is a virtue, I guess…but it’s hard to order items online from these other vendors when you’re out of town frequently (I drive to visit my mom a lot and stay at her place since it’s somewhat far from me) and have no idea when your package will eventually arrive.
I’ve found Aliexpress shipping is much better than it used to be. It used to be 1 month for ocean shipping and another for customs and delivery. Now it is a couple weeks total. Just bought a bunch of stuff mid January and it all arrived last week.
Yeah, it usually sits in customs longer than it takes to get here from China.
I consider the cost for prime worth it for shipping alone, like you I never use the other prime services (With the exception of that prime gaming freebie stuff)
The best shipping speed from a different online store is usually overnight, but you’ll be paying for it, last time I tried it was almost $60 for one order. Already half of the yearly prime fee and prime you might be able to even get something the same day.
Without Amazon I would just be feeding another evil (Big box stores like Walmart). I could shop at locally owned stores, but their “premium” prices would just end up adding up to over the prime fee anyway and far less selection.
I’ve never really had a problem with fakes on Amazon, idk know if that’s just pure luck or what, but when I get cheap Chinese crap I know because I ordered the cheap Chinese crap on purpose.
Because of everything Amazon does and is I’ve completely stopped using Amazon a few years back and it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be.
Most small businesses have an online store and a very convenient ordering process. Hell, most even ship the next day. I go out of my way to try and find smaller businesses (who often have to charge for shipping) to order from, but if you just want to avoid Amazon, you can find larger outlets that don’t have shipping costs either.
If you need some weird stuff that you can’t seem to find anywhere but Amazon, try eBay.
And you won’t miss next day delivery very long, I can promise you that. You’ll even get to know a completely new joy: “Oh shit, I totally forgot I had ordered that!”
I agree with you, Amazon seems to be designed to make it feel like there are not better options when there definitely are better options.
