4 ms·

This reminded me that I'm using Amazon too much lately. Time to give some juice to the competition, for my own future good.

gdulli 11y ago
A while back I noticed my last Amazon purchase was in late December 2014. I set a goal of not making a single Amazon purchase in calendar 2015. I'm on track and it hasn't been difficult at all.
- chx 11y ago
  The problem is AmazonGlobal. There's extremely little competition in this space. If I order from abroad (I am in Canada) then the courier will charge me a ridiculous amounts of money to process customs (http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs... twenty percent, easily!). If I order from amazon.com / .de / whatever then at checkout I will pay all the necessary import fees and taxes (very low usually) and no customs processing fees. As far as I am aware, only eBay has a similar Global Shipping program.
  - apricot 11y ago
    I found that by asking the seller to use the USPS instead of a courier company, I could avoid brokerage fees and sometimes even duty/import fees as well. Not all sellers will agree to use USPS, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
    - chx 11y ago
      Canada Post will also charge a fee.
- verbatim 11y ago
  What do you use as alternatives, and for what categories of shopping?
  - gdulli 11y ago
    It's case by case. For books I like to go shopping/browsing in physical stores, which is just more fun. And no waiting for shipping. For video games/movies I follow RSS feeds of some deal monitoring sites and buy wherever I can get a good deal. Sometimes it's Target, or Best Buy, sometimes it's a random online retailer that's legit, but I wouldn't have otherwise considered. It's a competitive business and the same deals pop up in more than one place. I used to get eye drops and vitamins on Amazon, the everyday price at CVS is higher than Amazon but they regularly go on sale at CVS and I do just as well by just timing the purchase. I'm in CVS all the time anyway. I haven't made a major purchase like a TV this year but I'm sure I'd do fine if I waited for a specific sale or the general holiday season deals. And sometimes I just don't buy something at all. I started out not wanting to buy from Amazon because of how they treat their employees and business partners. In the process of rethinking that I also realized I don't need to be buying so much stuff anyway. I used to throw in items so I'd qualify for free shipping on $25 (now $35) orders. Now I buy fewer things, only when I'm sure I'll really use them. Instead of building up a backlog of books I'll get to someday, I buy one when I'm ready to start reading it. I bought a pair of $8 earphones from Best Buy and got free shipping for it alone, at Amazon it would have been $6 but shipping would have been extra unless I bought more. The cost of Prime amortized to my number of purchases would not be a good shipping rate. (I'm not interested in the other Prime benefits.) I've found that dropping loyalty to any one retailer gives me the best overall experience and/or the best deals.
protomyth 11y ago
Ah, to live in a universe where Sears remembered it was a catalog store in the 90's and realized it could be again because of the web.

gdulli 11y ago

A while back I noticed my last Amazon purchase was in late December 2014. I set a goal of not making a single Amazon purchase in calendar 2015. I'm on track and it hasn't been difficult at all.

chx 11y ago
The problem is AmazonGlobal. There's extremely little competition in this space. If I order from abroad (I am in Canada) then the courier will charge me a ridiculous amounts of money to process customs (http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs... twenty percent, easily!). If I order from amazon.com / .de / whatever then at checkout I will pay all the necessary import fees and taxes (very low usually) and no customs processing fees. As far as I am aware, only eBay has a similar Global Shipping program.
- apricot 11y ago
  I found that by asking the seller to use the USPS instead of a courier company, I could avoid brokerage fees and sometimes even duty/import fees as well. Not all sellers will agree to use USPS, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
  - chx 11y ago
    Canada Post will also charge a fee.
verbatim 11y ago
What do you use as alternatives, and for what categories of shopping?
- gdulli 11y ago
  It's case by case. For books I like to go shopping/browsing in physical stores, which is just more fun. And no waiting for shipping. For video games/movies I follow RSS feeds of some deal monitoring sites and buy wherever I can get a good deal. Sometimes it's Target, or Best Buy, sometimes it's a random online retailer that's legit, but I wouldn't have otherwise considered. It's a competitive business and the same deals pop up in more than one place. I used to get eye drops and vitamins on Amazon, the everyday price at CVS is higher than Amazon but they regularly go on sale at CVS and I do just as well by just timing the purchase. I'm in CVS all the time anyway. I haven't made a major purchase like a TV this year but I'm sure I'd do fine if I waited for a specific sale or the general holiday season deals. And sometimes I just don't buy something at all. I started out not wanting to buy from Amazon because of how they treat their employees and business partners. In the process of rethinking that I also realized I don't need to be buying so much stuff anyway. I used to throw in items so I'd qualify for free shipping on $25 (now $35) orders. Now I buy fewer things, only when I'm sure I'll really use them. Instead of building up a backlog of books I'll get to someday, I buy one when I'm ready to start reading it. I bought a pair of $8 earphones from Best Buy and got free shipping for it alone, at Amazon it would have been $6 but shipping would have been extra unless I bought more. The cost of Prime amortized to my number of purchases would not be a good shipping rate. (I'm not interested in the other Prime benefits.) I've found that dropping loyalty to any one retailer gives me the best overall experience and/or the best deals.

protomyth 11y ago

Ah, to live in a universe where Sears remembered it was a catalog store in the 90's and realized it could be again because of the web.