My neighborhood stores have huge markups and bad customer service. I don’t love Amazon but they are a better alternative for most things.
People should check again. After I decided to avoid Amazon, I’m surprised by how many things are cheaper and/or better quality at my local stores. I think Amazons reputation for lowest prices is less true every year.
Did they ever have a reputation for lowest price? I assumed I was paying more for the convenience of not having to go to 5 different dollar stores to find the thing I need.
How about both arguments are true. You just have to price check constantly and you will find some stores are cheaper and some are pricier than Amazon.
It’s almost like every single independent store in every single city in every part of every country sets their own prices.
Yes, sometimes Amazon is cheaper. But one reason I quit amazon was because, even when it’s cheaper, I got so much counterfeit and super low quality disposable junk.
Seriously, take another look at your local stores. I suspect many people aren’t and are just making assumptions. I was surprised to find my local pet store offers free delivery, and literally everything at my local mom and pop hardware store is cheaper and better quality.
Local hardware stores are a must. And if you find a good one where they know what they’re talking about you can get a lot of great advice depending on the project you’re working on.
Amazon was better in 2012, but now it’s all just drop shipped shit that arrives broken. Local stores are surprisingly way better these days
I’m sure most people here don’t remember when power strips and HDMI cables were $40 and coin batteries were like $15 each pre inflation because stores wanted to make money on them. We could only read, listen to, and watch what our local stores decided to stock and most things didn’t have reviews. If we needed a new power adapter for that one device with a special shaped connector, too bad. It’s literally impossible to buy it.
Try using them as a reference guide instead of buying from them. I find what I’m looking for rhen loom up the products own website. A couple extra steps but it’s not like I’m out hunting and gathering, I’m in air conditioning and chair or taking a huge dump.
huge
Deeply unnecessary modifier here
No no, if you have ever witnessed my dumps, you would consider that modifier deeply necessary
and then probably cried
I didn’t ask for this information, never needed it, but here we are.
I can’t wait until Lemmy gets locally-stored user labels so I can label that guy “Likes to talk about his dumps”.
I wish Amazon didn’t treat their employees so shittily. But I really don’t want to find out which of the stores around me have the thing I want and go there by bus. Even without prime the tickets are more expensive than shipping.
Yeah that’s a big thing for me. I hate having to check out 2-3 local stores to find out they don’t have the product I want. A lot of small businesses have such shitty online presence.
Yeah, and shopping locally is so hit-and-miss. Some smaller stores are great, but there are also plenty that seem to act like serving you is such a fucking inconvenience. Oh I’m sorry you have to get off your phone because I want to buy something. You have to make change from £10? Sorry it’s inconveniencing you that I have to bring fucking cash just because you want to dodge some tax by not taking cards.
To be fair, the delivery really is handy if you’re shopping for something niche enough that it isn’t sold locally, or if you don’t have a car and are trying to buy something not sold within walking distance/within easy access to transit if available, or which is too heavy to carry without a vehicle. There’s definitely a point here about local stores not being able to compete or with Amazon’s monopolistic business practices though. The ideal thing I suppose would be some sort of website that local stores could sign up with to let people order stuff from to be delivered by the store or by a service the store uses, run as a non-profiting venture just at breakeven to avoid a motive to exploit stores that use it and have less individual power, combined with some kind of law against averaging shipping costs into the base costs of products and making shipping seem free, so as to ensure that local items are generally cheaper due to less needed transportation. In such a scenario, the central online shopping area wouldn’t end up as a competitor to smaller local stores since it wouldn’t actually sell anything itself, customers would be encouraged to buy items that take less transportation and thus fewer carbon emissions, and the convenience of having an online space in which almost everything for sale can be found and delivered can be preserved.
Such a system could very much exist in a decentralized manner with blockchain, it’s just a matter of time until somebody builds it. All stores could have constant visibility into the shipping/logistics network capacity, lead times, etc and list their items with those prices baked in. Importantly, a single party like Amazon can’t dominate the market. Importantly the entire system could be administered by the participants in that system (stores and consumers) instead of some third-party siphoning off value from the interactions between the two (rent-seeking leads to enshittification).
Examples of things you could do:
- You could get a discount for choosing a slower shipping option that only used “un-booked” capacity in the shipping chain.
- Different couriers could compete for different parts of the shipping/logistics network (so you could have a package routed via DHL internationally and have last-mile delivery completed by a local bike messenger company). Consumers could have some choice in how routing for their packages was done, and eco-friendly routing methods could be incentivized by however the system is administered.
- You could actually trust product reviews to be honest since there’s a built-in reputation system and you don’t have the same incentives Amazon has to allow fake products and fake reviews to proliferate.
- Because you, as a consumer, can get insight into the whole supply chain, you can make more educated choices about the environmental/social/etc impacts of the products you buy. A whole ecosystem of apps would exist to help assign ratings to products and you could pick which one you liked.
The problem in this scenario is that the biggest player will still have an opportunity to dominate. Proof of work blockchain? Well, Amazon just has to outspend all the others—which they can handily do, or run computation on AWS. Similar with staking, except worse because more money = more direct influence.
Our local stores, as discussed in other comments, can’t even offer shipping or workable websites. And we expect them to self administer part of that blockchain? They are just going to pay Amazon to do it.
And big data companies like Amazon would love to peer into the blockchain and see the throughput for each of these competitors and discover patterns. Edit: and they already do that for vendors selling on Amazon, which is where all these Amazon-branded products come from.
That’s probably the biggest turn off to the MBA-types; it would require sharing information, even if obfuscated.
The problem in this scenario is that the biggest player will still have an opportunity to dominate. Proof of work blockchain? Well, Amazon just has to outspend all the others—which they can handily do, or run computation on AWS. Similar with staking, except worse because more money = more direct influence.
Not necessarily, it greatly depends on the incentives the system is setup with and how distribution of the token supply goes. And if you use PoW, PoS, DAG, or other systems. If what you are saying were true, Bitcoin mining for example would be entirely dominated by Amazon or some other major player, but that’s not the case. It’s a lot more complicated than just more money = dominance of the system. With Blockchain, we can have the participants in the system vote on how the system is administered in a more democratic and transparent way than amazon reviews or central banks or name your existing structure. It’s just a matter of how it’s all setup from the jump and how those incentives shape behavior in that system. Just like capitalism’s starting parameters and current legal environment (like concepts around the shareholder corporation) encourage the formation of monopolies, consolidation of power, and “externalizing” costs like destroying the environment to make 10c more per unit.
Our local stores, as discussed in other comments, can’t even offer shipping or workable websites. And we expect them to self administer part of that blockchain? They are just going to pay Amazon to do it.
One benefit of Amazon, eBay, etc is that companies producing goods no longer have to administer their own website, storage, or logistics chain. Amazon has resulted in massive efficiency gains both economically and environmentally (depending on where you draw the box of course) for these kinds of businesses. I don’t expect small companies to be developing the blockchain, just using it as a turnkey system like they currently use Amazon, Facebook, and other tools in their tech stack. They would however be able to vote on governance decisions like for example what fees exist in what categories or what rules shipping suppliers would have to abide by or how much to incentivize greener shipping methods etc. Consumers could also vote. It all depends on how you structure the system.
And big data companies like Amazon would love to peer into the blockchain and see the throughput for each of these competitors and discover patterns. Edit: and they already do that for vendors selling on Amazon, which is where all these Amazon-branded products come from.
Ok sure. This evens the playing field by giving all parties access to this information instead of it being monopolized by Amazon et al. One of the great ineffiencies of capitalism is the siloing if information. Company A needs to compete with Company B which needs to Compete with company C yet none of them know what the others is doing or how the market is responding. And really the only way to test some of this information is to bring a product to market and potentially waste millions of dollars and countless environmental resources building a product there is no demand for or which there would be demand for if Company B hadn’t also come out with a very similar bug slightly better product at the same time. You could also add some privacy and obfuscation layers, for example, I don’t think consumers want everybody on the blockchain knowing what brand of sex toy they prefer.
It started taking 5 days for deliveries during COVID so I cancelled prime and just get $35 free shipping.
I did exactly the same. It’s fine if they can no longer ship in 2 days, but then lower the cost of Prime or something. It’s no longer worth it, and tbh I’m going to spend a lot less money on Amazon since I won’t order until I have enough for free shipping.
This is also what I do. Not very difficult to hit the free shipping. I put stuff in my cart then save for later.
Scamazon prime started looking like a bad deal to me well before COVID. When they were not meeting 2 day delivery and not compensating for it I was done with prime. I don’t care much about video or music or whatever other shit comes with prime…it is all about the shipping.
How much is Prime now? And is what you get really worth that much?
Sucks that my packages keep getting stolen
And that’s why in other countries, delivery services aren’t allowed to drop a package at the door unless you’ve explicitely told them to do so
Amazon totally drops packages outside in Ireland
Here in Romania that is unheard of. The courier will personally hand it to the recipient. If you are not home, you have the option to redirect it to a different address, courier HQ or some local stores that they have contract with. And even so, they ask for a verification code you get via sms in the morning. It’s very unlikely to lose a package.
Sounds like a better system. Here in Ireland, the trucks park with two wheels on the footpath and the flashers on, blocking one lane of traffic on a two lane road (completely fucking pedestrians and cyclists, and making cars have to be driven out into the opposing lane of traffic) while the driver fucks your package up against the door and they leave without ringing the bell (you’ll get an email or text, though).
We don’t use Amazon unless we, in the over 40 year old person usage of the word literal, literally cannot find something we literally need. When we extremely reluctantly do though, this is how it goes.
Up until a few months ago amazon didn’t have free delivery here, it was about 6-11€ for shipping, so the deals had to be really good to make it worth it. But since then, they added free delivery for orders over 49€, so I expect ppl to start using amazon more often.
The way couriers deliver the packages is the same for both amazon and the local online stores tho.
That just sounds tedious. I’ve never had a package stolen in hundreds of deliveries left outside.
Congratulations. You’re the exception to the rule.
Nothing tedious really. If you work from home you just go out for 2 mins to tell the courier the code and get your package. If you are in the office, you redirect the package to a store on your way home, tell them the code and get your package. Either way, it takes 5 min tops to make sure the recipient is the only person that can pick up the package.
Not true here in Sweden, tho. I work in parcel delivery and I’m instructed to leave at the door (or next to the mailbox if it doesn’t fit), at least if it’s Class A or Express. Class B get one delivery attempt and then sent to service point if unsuccessful.
Although I don’t do all types of parcels.
I am also from Sweden, I have always been called (or texted) and asked (if I am not home) if it is OK to leave it outside. Some call me before hand to check if I am home before trying to deliver it even. You can (most of the time) choose if you are OK with them leaving it outside if you aren’t home otherwise they will not do that unless you say it is OK through text or a call. But maybe only the delivery companies I have picked have this kind of policy. I never pick a class for my packages so maybe I always get b class? What kind get A class?
Calling every recipient sounds like your delivery person has quite a bit lower daily volumes than me to deal with. Or you always order Express. Class B has the lowest priority; the same as a regular postcard would have.
Are there even thieves in Sweden ?
Sweden has changed a bit in the last decade. Especially bigger cities. Luckily I’m in a small one.
For me Amazon delivers to my doorstep, listens and acts on complaints if undelivered or product is faulty, arrange replacement for free, allow me to use stuffs for a month and then return no questions asked, and is way more cost effective.
Say whatever about their business practices, they beat local stores in every possible way and it’s not even close.
For me as a customer, local stores doesn’t make any possible sense.
My anxiety ridden ass loves Amazon. My house is in a private enough area that I’ve never had a package stolen, but I live near a distribution center, so I can often get same-day delivery.
I don’t know about everywhere, but in many places the last point is kinda irrelevant since the Amazon lockers exist. I think there is one at most QuikTrips, even.
The last point is that the one of the advantages of shopping from home disappears, since you still need to get to either P.O. Box or Amazon box or whatever. You could as well go to the store to begin with.
If I had a store that sold everything in the world two blocks away, I wouldn’t need Amazon, that’s an excellent point. Unfortunately, in the real world, there’s just a 7-11 with a big yellow box in front.
I am not arguing with that, I am simply explaining the idea behind the OP, which apparently was missed.
Functionally it’s the same thing though. From my own experience they are less common than PO boxes but that depends on the neighborhood.
Europe:
- ‘Local’ stores were/are often ridiculously overpriced, had a very limited range, and it’s not like we’re talking about independent stores either. Many of those were killed by the unfair practices of large corporate chains who would sell at a loss. Before amazon killed chain mall businesses, the mall killed independent businesses on the high street.
- Packages are delivered to me personally. If I’m not there, they don’t deliver and are forced to try another time.
- No need for a PO box, as small independent stores and grocery stores often have a side hussle as a pick-up point. You go to pick-up your parcel and buy something in their store or do your groceries.
- Amazon prime is entirely unnecessary. You simply have to wait a bit longer.
- You can find independent sellers on amazon, then if their product is good, you buy from them directly next time around.
- Thanks to amazon, ebay, etc. it’s become far easier to buy second hand products. In the past you’d have to go to a second hand market, garage sales or visit twenty vintage/antique stores to find what you needed.
Amazon is evil though. So, yeah.
But there are perfectly rational reasons to use amazon.
Yeah if you live in like, Germany or France
More like Europe: sorry we don’t ship there lol. Oh we do? Hope you like paying twice the price for shipping that takes two weeks if you’re lucky
Same here in the US Midwest. 90% of these fabled amazing local businesses are incredibly overpriced and often run by assholes who treat you like shit, treat their employees even worse, and often don’t know their products any better than a Walmart employee. Also often incredibly right wing, which of course connects to them treating their employees like shit again.
If I’m going to support bad people and bad business I’d rather do it in a way that benefits me.
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Thats not a rule, but what they do have is a process that enables dickheads to ship cheap/substandard crap for an item that used to be highly rated thanks to the original seller.
Then their product isn’t good, so you don’t buy from them next round? Doesn’t make it false.
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So, if I understand it correct, when you order from a third party through Amazon, the third party never gets the order but Amazon sends something else instead? That wouldn’t be legal in Europe.
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What’s happening is to save space Amazon stores all items of the same likeness in bulk containers. The worker who fills the order just picks up one from the container. This is why buying memory cards (micro SD and so on) is such a crapshoot these days on Amazon. They aren’t necessarily shipping you what the independent seller shipped them. They’re shipping you one from a bulk container with the contents that many independent sellers shipped them.
Spot on. The OP doesn’t need to make up reasons Amazon are shit and should be avoided. There are plenty of legitimate reasons
I’ve found a lot of times, trying to buy directly from the independent seller is still fulfilled by Amazon assuming they don’t just do all of the e-commerce through Amazon. I end up with slower, more expensive shipping and Amazon still gets a cut.
We don’t have many “local” stores where I am, except for the hardware store which is a franchise. The local stores are all owned by a large out of state corporation. I still try to support them since they employ people in the community. We have multiple Amazon warehouses in the area too, between that and the delivery stuff they employ a lot more people than the local stores do and many products have same day delivery, so even there the math isn’t simple. The options are usually how much do I want to pay and which corporation do I want to give money to.
Depends on what I need tbh. Comics? Got three locals, and if they’re out of whatever back issue I need than mycomicshop, then ebay, then amazon if they are the only ones with it in stock. Books? Local bookstores or direct from publishers, then same pattern with the comics if need be. Records? Local shops or discogs. But electronics or general “life” shit, my “locals” are best buy and walmart, fuck them too I might as well order from amazon at that point.
Yeah cool hot take. Let me guess “capitalism bad” lmao tool
What else can you expect on Lemmy. The entire community is /r/capitalismbad. This one is literally an edgelord post.
I don’t know if I can do it anymore guys… ive been trying but nah.
Reddit sucks for corporate dystopian reasons, and tbh Lemmy sucks kind of worse: “wow look how shit people still are when they have options”.
Maybe the internet really is dead and I should stop wasting my time on this fucking device.
There are things that you can only buy in amazon.
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Never had anything stolen. Guess living in a European village is nice after all.
Scamazon.
