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The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon
- Animats 1y agoA real reason to avoid Amazon is fake merchandise. I'd been buying a vitamin supplement from them for years. Then they sent me a notice that it was being recalled as a fake.[1] (Archive [2]) They paid a refund for the last purchase. But that's all. Amazon won't respond to questions about what was in it or who the real seller is. I no longer buy anything from Amazon that could be faked. [1] https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/Tx2Q5O0C84HF1GU/ https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/Tx2Q5O0C84HF1GU/ [2] https://archive.is/rN8B9 https://archive.is/rN8B9
- apt-apt-apt-apt 1y agoHow do you know what cannot be faked? Is shipped and sold by Amazon enough?
- nurettin 1y agoI understood fake as physically harmful.
- qgin 1y agoIt is, people are being ridiculous. The third party stuff is where the fraud is.
- onli 1y agoNo, that is not correct or at least it has not been. Amazon was said to intermingle the inventory in the warehouses, mixing third party products with those shipped and sold by Amazon. So that gave you zero protection. I read that they made internal changes to tag shippings properly to reduce the risk of that behaviour, but am not sure it is true or has been effective.
- phil21 1y agoHas this co-mingling of sold by Amazon ever actually been documented at any scale beyond “extremely rare stock/pick” mistake? I am of course aware of the option for manufacturers to enable this for their registered products on FBA - and it may not have been optional at one point in time. When I researched this a while ago I was unable to come up with much compelling evidence that it was an actual thing. It certainly has not happened to me over thousands of purchases - or anyone I know for that matter. Of course a fake could have been so good none of us could tell, but I do actually attempt to inspect carefully. I have found counterfeit items from other web stores not on Amazon so it’s not like my detection skills are zero. Third party marketplace of course is different. Heck, even Costco sent me an unsolicited refund for a counterfeit item they unknowingly sold me - so supply chain issues are bound to happen. I don’t want to defend Amazon too much here, but this one is almost at urban legend status to me. Likely happened at limited scale some time ago, but it’s strange everyone says it’s endemic but no one IRL I know across probably tens of thousands of purchases has noticed it.
- khuey 1y agoI don't think Amazon has ever outright admitted that they do, but Amazon's own terms give them the right to commingle their inventory with those of third party sellers. F-4 Storage We will provide storage services as described in these FBA Service Terms once we confirm receipt of delivery. We will keep electronic records that track inventory of Units by identifying the number of Units stored in any fulfillment center. We will not be required to physically mark or segregate Units from other inventory units (e.g., products with the same Amazon standard identification number) owned by us, our Affiliates or third parties in the applicable fulfillment center(s). https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external/G1791?locale=en-US https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external... That combined with years and years of anecdotal reports of this happening certainly suggests a "where there's smoke there's fire" situation to me.
- phil21 1y agoRight, that’s FBA. I’m talking about sold by Amazon. I’m specifically talking about a case where a sold by Amazon item came from co-mingled inventory from a FBA seller. I also know from direct second party experience (I also personally saw the terms) that at least at a certain level of “brand” you can decline this option with Amazon for your registered product skus/ASIN even for FBA. I don’t know if this is offered to everyone though - I know it went through some sort of “deal reg” process in the one case I saw. I imagine this came through some sort of lawsuit or threats of one for a major brand at some point - but that is speculation on my part.
- ranger_danger 1y agoI have absolutely bought multiple hard drives that were "shipped & sold by amazon" which turned out to be fake/counterfeit in some way. The serial numbers did not verify on the manufacturer's website either and they were completely DOA.
- GuB-42 1y agoAll products can be faked, but I thing that GP means "cannot be faked without being obvious". Obvious fakes are not as much of a problem since Amazon has a pretty good return policy. In the "cannot be faked" category, you can have: - products so cheap that making a fake wouldn't make sense. for example an unbranded glass jar won't be faked because anything that looks like a glass jar but isn't a glass jar will be more expensive than a glass jar. - products too complex and/or too low margin to be worth faking. For example, you will probably never find a fake desktop printer, as even the most simple printers are hard to make and sold at a low margin, maybe even at a loss. However, consumables are (very) high margin and you will find fakes, lots of them. - products that have effective anti-counterfeiting systems. For example, Nintendo Switch games.
- davidw 1y agoI know it's not a very popular cause these days, but "Democracy" seems like a real reason too.
- UberFly 1y agoYou mean the system of government in which political power is vested in the people who freely elect representatives? Not sure how it applies.
- lanfeust6 1y agoNot sure either. Even Bezos' Washington Post has been pretty critical of the current administration.
- davkan 1y agoBezos personally blocked the WaPo editorial board from endorsing Kamala resulting in multiple resignations and a 10% loss in subscribers. A paper that adopted the tag line “Democracy Dies in Darkness” bending the knee to an authoritarian who committed election fraud would be hilarious if it weren’t so depressing. But we shouldn’t be surprised that these liberal journalism outfits consistently fail the public. The same thing happened in Germany in the 20s and 30s with Ullstein. And in Italy with their liberal papers. And with the Times running cover for Hitler’s regime under Ochs.
- SoftTalker 1y agoGood rule of thumb is that if it goes on or in your body do not buy it from Amazon.
- recursive 1y agoOr if it's electronic. Fire risk.
- blibble 1y agothe fact legitimate electricians buy fuses/wiring/circuit breakers/crimps off amazon thinking they're as advertised is actually terrifying all the buildings you enter: houses of friends/family, supermarkets, hospitals, transport, restaurants, offices, all with potentially fatal fake electrics hopefully the fire door and extinguishers weren't bought from amazon
- SoftTalker 1y agoI recall reading about some counterfeit circuit breakers that were basically just toggle switches. They had no "trip" mechanism at all. The few tradespeople I know don't even shop at Lowes. They have accounts at supply houses that don't even offer public retail sales.
- quickthrowman 1y agoIt’s usually homeowners buying and installing crappy electrical products off Amazon, or ‘handyman’ types who don’t have a license. I sell and run commercial electrical work at a union shop and we buy electrical material from supply houses, not Amazon. You certainly could buy material off Amazon but if you’re passing the cost onto the customer, why not just buy the real thing?
- _DeadFred_ 1y agoPeople buy fuses from Amazon for the cars/motorcycles not understanding it can kill them. They are actually evil at this point for doing nothing about any of these ongoing issues. They can't be unaware if us rando consumers are aware (or if they are doing recalls for fake products). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU
- bilsbie 1y agoI’m having trouble finding alternatives. Do I really have to go to four or five different websites to buy my supplements.
- immibis 1y agohave you tried a physical pharmacy
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- wredcoll 1y agoUm. Exactly how many supplements do you need?
- junon 1y agoWhy is that any of your business?
- grantith 1y agoWhat makes anything another person's business? They asked a question out of curiosity and were replied to.
- margalabargala 1y agoI think the earlier person made it everyone's business, when they posted on a discussion forum about it.
- bilsbie 1y agoI don’t mind sharing in the interest of discussion: 600mg tongkat Move free advanced 3 pills 1700mcg l-5 methyltetrahydrofolate Zinc picolinate 22mg Taurine 3g Copper 2 mg Selenium K2 mk7 45 mcg Creatine monohydrate Magnesium as needed Sunbathing for vitamin d Going for general health/longevity, joint health, and fighting high homocysteine (mthfr homozygous)
- goshacmd 1y ago
- PenguinCoder 1y agoMy rule is anything that goes on or in my body, I don't buy form Amazon for that reason.
- sokoloff 1y agoIs clothing really that big of a risk?
- ttoinou 1y agoDangerous material being in contact of your skin all day and night long does seem risky
- dolebirchwood 1y agoI ordered replacement earpads from Amazon for one of my headphones. Ended up developing a rash around my ears. So it's not just about clothing, and, yes, you should be concerned.
- margalabargala 1y agoDepends how much confidence you have that it wasn't soaked in something nasty that doesn't easily wash out.
- mandeepj 1y ago> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DJUK8HS/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DJUK8HS/ref=ask_ql_qh_d... PreserVision -> I've never heard about that brand, so I would have never bought it. What was the reason behind your purchase decision?
- freeone3000 1y agoI bought a book. A literal book. And it was wrong size, wrong paper, printed on a 5 degree skew including the cover. It should have been from Simon and Schulster, but despite Sold and Shipped, it just wasn’t. It’s all fake. Every bit of it.
- wafflebot 1y ago[dead]
- sheepscreek 1y agoWas it “Sold by Amazon” or a third party marketplace seller?
- zargon 1y agoIt doesn't matter. Amazon co-mingles product they sourced themselves with product from all the marketplace sellers. They also resell returns, which could have been swapped with something else.
- bawana 1y ago[flagged]
- renewiltord 1y agoTrains are shaped like penis, bus is shape like penis, skyscraper is shape like penis, rocket is shape like penis, now Amazon logo is shape like penis? Why are all Americans always looking everywhere for shape like penis. Every time. "Hello, American, look at this pencil" "Pencil?! Shaped like penis!" "Hello, American, look at your hands" "Oh my god! That is five penises a hand!" Constantly searching for penis everywhere. Is there reason for this? It is not as common elsewhere, but American is always constantly searching for penis. If not provided, American will construct it out of household objects. Desperate for penis, American will find it even in intangible objects like logo.
- immibis 1y agoI guess people want what they can't have, and Americans are shielded from body parts since birth.
- DanAtC 1y agoIf not penises... https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt...
- renewiltord 1y agoHa! Good reference. Look at perplexity logo. It is fan of rectangular slats with line in middle. To American this is "butthole". Can only imagine that in USA, people are like duck with strangely corkscrewing genitals. Fan shaped butthole is for insertion of Torx T6 bit perhaps, to fulfill local slang of "screwing".
- SoftTalker 1y agoYeah and once you notice that you can't unsee it.
- Spivak 1y agoI feel like the author is undermining their own complaint in regards to Rekognition. Anyone can just sign up for an AWS account and start using the service, pretty much the same as anything else AWS sells. Then in response to specific bad behavior by US police departments Amazon cut off their access, a practice they've kept up to this day. Amazon could have quietly (or loudly in 2025) lifted the ban at any point in the last five years to much nothing in the terms of pushback.
- ajross 1y agoI guess, but Amazon gets me stuff tomorrow or the next day, reliably, week in and week out. Yeah, I could find this stuff elsewhere on the internet. But not for Tuesday delivery. And not without opening another account. Also, right now, often only by paying a tariff-adjacent fee to cover the import costs of the vendors that didn't have the foresight to pre-stock imports like Amazon did. People who want to write stuff like this really need to reckon with the fact that Amazon is and remains the superior product, and by a very significant degree. They're not winning because they "hate democracy" or are "full-stop evil" or whatever. They're winning because they're the best.
- fred_is_fred 1y agoCanceling my Prime account mainly meant I bought less stuff overall. A win for my wallet and the planet in the end. I need zero friction in my life for healthy eating and exercise, not for buying crap from a Chinese brand of the week (Glorf, Qerdu, Plund or whatever).
- ajross 1y ago> Canceling my Prime account mainly meant I bought less stuff overall. Which sounds like an agreement with my point, no? Buying stuff without Amazon was in aggregate "more expensive" for you in the broader sense of value that includes effort/experience/whatever. So you didn't. And, bravo? I'm all for efficiency and reasonable asceticism, and likely agree with you about the general consumerist bent of our society. All I'm saying is that constitutes an argument in FAVOR of Amazon as a retailer product, and not an indictment.
- tenuousemphasis 1y agoHumans survived up until about 20 years ago without free 2-day shipping. You'll be fine. Or you could compromise your morals for convenience, I guess.
- kevin_thibedeau 1y agoIt's not free. It's baked into the price.
- Aloisius 1y agoI understand hyperbole is a useful rhetorical device, but it's very hard for me to take anyone who uses it seriously or trust anything they say at all. And it really doesn't help develop trust when the citations used to support one's points directly contradicts them (like that bit about Amazon providing real-time surveillance from Ring doorbells to police without owners' knowledge - the one and only thing I decided to read the source for which said quite the opposite). It's a shame too since I'm sure the author had some good points, but I have neither the time nor energy to research every single claim made to see which ones aren't bullshit.
- coredog64 1y agoIt’s right there in the second paragraph of the WaPo(!) story that Ring owners opt in and can decline to share data. Does Rekognition perform poorly? Maybe it does, but it’s a best effort service, not a police officer in a box. That AWS was shamed into not selling it to law enforcement doesn’t mean law enforcement won’t have access to facial recognition, only that the vendor they choose isn’t capable of being embarrassed by bad PR.
- Aloisius 1y agoYes. That made me scratch my head. It also says explicitly that no real-time feeds were available. It appears the program just let police contact owners to request video. Never mind that program was discontinued last year. I can only assume the author didn't think anyone would read the links they provided.
- alwa 1y agoMy favorite part: "Amazon only stopped for PR reasons at the start of the George Floyd protests, and even then they only issued a “one-year moratorium.” This has since been extended indefinitely, but frankly that doesn’t matter." So he's... blaming them... for doing what he wishes they would do?
- PaulHoule 1y agoMyself I can't stand the media blitz that tries to talk up Prime Day every year. I like hunting for bargains as much as anybody, I love checking out the used games at Gamestop or items on clearance at Best Buy, not least the reuse center at Ithaca where I might find a cassette or Video CD deck with karaoke features or a minidisc player. Prime Day seems to be just a waste of time. I don't see any attractive prices on anything I want to buy. So many web sites scour Amazon for good deals and can't find any. It's a snoozer.
- heavyset_go 1y agoIt's because Amazon buyers are used to Amazon prices. It's literally been a decade or more since Prime Day, or Amazon in general, had the best prices online.
- PaulHoule 1y agoI’ve often seen items selling in physical stores (like a UV tooth whitening kit) for $40 and at Amazon for $65.
- jedimastert 1y agoFun fact: if you click on Amazon affiliate link, anything you put in your cart in the next 24 hours counts towards that affiliate once you hit purchase on that cart
- whall6 1y agoThis honestly may as well have been a paid ad by Amazon. It served as a reminder for me that Prime Day is coming up. That reminder was followed up with several extremely weak arguments that Amazon is the pinnacle of evil. Also felt like it was written largely by AI
- johncole 1y agoWould you consider Target or Walmart more ethical? Or better at policing counterfeits?
- cogman10 1y agoStrangely enough, yes to both (at least for in store purchases). And I find neither company particularly ethical. They have a tighter control on their supply chain and don't have a truly open "market" where anyone can sell crap (or stolen crap). A lot of this comes down to limited stocking and shelf space. Amazon effectively has unlimited storage space. Hence their ability to show off 6000 drop shipping products which are actually the same product. Walmart and Target, on the other hand, have to be somewhat judicious because shelf space is limited. They can't have a row of the same products under different labels. And if what they choose to sell has quality problems they get hit harder for it. They take the loss for the unsold counterfeit goods. Amazon, by their nature, sees minimal hits when products are determined to be counterfeit. That usually just means they blacklist a seller. They are hardly impacted. Also, funnily enough, it's why I don't worry about counterfeits at Wholefoods even though it's parent company is Amazon.
- yupitsme123 1y agoWhat you said is true for their physical locations, but both Target and Walmart implemented Amazon-style marketplaces a while back, and my impression is that there's very little oversight or quality control. Even less than on Amazon.
- SoftTalker 1y agoI'm pretty sure they don't co-mingle though. So if you make sure you're buying from Walmart or Target and not some other party you should be getting the same items that are in the stores.
- yupitsme123 1y agoYes, it's on you to identify if the seller is Target or a third party. It's listed on the product page, but if you didnt know that there were third party items, you would probably just assume you were buying from Target/Walmart.
- jbermudes 1y agoMany of the things the author accuses Amazon of doing are troubling, but the logic the author used in the Chris Brown music buying example to tie it all together shows of a lack of distinction between types of cooperation with evil. When an act has both a potentially good and bad effect Philosophers like to distinguish the morality of this act of "cooperating with evil" by analyzing the degrees to which your cooperation is: - formal or material (do you want the bad thing to happen and that's why you're buying from Amazon?) - immediate or mediate (are you supplying a critical component such that without your specific instance of cooperation the evil could not occur?) - proximate or remote (Do you work for Amazon?) Each of these dimensions should be taken into consideration because without such analysis one can easily become scrupulous about every act that one does that may have unintended side effects. This is how you get people who say things like "there is no such thing as ethical consumption in capitalism" and other extreme statements that would otherwise force you to be a monk in a desert lest your acts accidentally create harm. To learn more about this principle of double effect: https://thinkingthoughtout.com/2021/01/24/cooperation-with-evil/ https://thinkingthoughtout.com/2021/01/24/cooperation-with-e... https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/double-effect/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/double-effect/
- djoldman 1y agoRegardless of what one thinks about Amazon, one's actions have approximately zero effect on it. Even if one controlled, 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, or 100,000 people and commanded them to not use Amazon, it would have little effect. If someone opts to stay away from Amazon, they should at least do it with clear eyes: they are doing it to feel something and will not actually affect the company.
- recursive 1y agoI do it not for the feelings but just to avoid hypocrisy.
- jvanderbot 1y agoI hate to be this guy, really, but did you consider that hypocrisy and anti-hypocrisy is basically what OP meant by "feelings" since they are based on (mostly self) perceptions? (Have you ever pointed out hypocrisy to someone? They are quick to tell you why you're wrong - it's absolutely about self justification not external judgement)
- add-sub-mul-div 1y agoI don't understand the point you're making. Someone is living according to their principles and we're playing games with semantics as if "feelings" is a bad word? Okay, you win, it "feels" better to satisfy one's values.
- Dylan16807 1y agoIf those principles don't make a difference on the world around you then it's not bad but it is quite limited. It's fine to do things that don't make a difference, but it's important to keep perspective. In particular, if you have an urge to make a difference on a regular basis, that's a great urge, but you need to make sure you don't fall into the trap of doing something that feels good but has negligible effect and thinking the job is done.
- kristianp 1y agoI wish our local postage carrier was more efficient. Amazon provides next day delivery, whilst other online stores dispatch your purchase within 2-3 days and the package arrives is a further 2-5 days.
- add-sub-mul-div 1y agoI noped out of Prime a long time ago when it became clear they were training the population to treat all their purchases as instant gratification impulse buys.
- Den_VR 1y agoThat’s a bit interesting. Do you have similar ideas about commercial air travel?
- add-sub-mul-div 1y agoNo, because taking a week out of my life to go by train instead of plane is impractical. Making myself wait a few extra business days for my books to arrive is not. I apologize if you had a better point you were trying to make and I missed it.
- titanomachy 1y agoThe point might have been that booking travel online is now fairly easy and seamless, to the point where people might impulse book international vacations when they might otherwise have stayed close to home.
- add-sub-mul-div 1y agoSure, I'm not a fan of the environmental footprint of casual air travel, but offsetting that there are positive effects of the world having become smaller. My subscription to Prime would only be an unnecessary convenience.
- 1y ago
- dosinga 1y agoAm I missing something, the article randomly says: "For context, the US federal government spent $53 million on public education in 2022." and links to: https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statisti... which says K-12 schools spend $857.2 billion.
- wging 1y agoThe federal government is distinct from state or local governments. The numbers still might not be consistent (it says “[t]he federal government provides 13.6% of funding for public K-12 education”, which would be more than $53MM) but the page you linked draws that distinction too. State and local funds make up the difference.
- bentt 1y agoYeah that bit seems wrong. I agree with the overall sentiment of the article, but that is off.
- zmgsabst 1y agoUS Dept of Ed has a $238B budget in 2024. I think much of that is at the collegiate level, but $53M is almost certainly wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Ed...
- SllX 1y agoYou didn't miss anything, the author of the piece was just wrong. They either screwed up the math or didn't read their own link correctly, or both. Moreover, it is trivial to search for the US Dept of Education's budget for 2022 and fact check this. It's also cited as evidence that Amazon is now more powerful than the US Government which is just factually fucking false. It really is a different breed of person that thinks some millions of dollars > sovereign power. It's like, yeah, they lobby, but they also have people lobbying against them, including near-competitors. The dynamic is not as simple as spend some $X millions of dollars and get some amount of equivalent benefit. You lobby because an entity with sovereign power can trivially destroy your business.
- Phelinofist 1y agoHonestly I hate Amazon because they are a mega corp that just gets bigger and bigger. But on the other hand they are just the best online store hands down. I ordered an electric toothbrush yesterday at 23:30 and it arrived today at 15:30 - that's just amazing. Also returning stuff is hassle-free and they often are the cheapest. I tried using Otto for some time but it just cannot compare. Sure. I could also shop from multiple shops but that is kinda waste of time. Amazon is a real one-stop shop.
- witty_username 1y agoWhy do you hate mega corps getting bigger and bigger if they provide good service?
- gibbitz 1y agoAs they get bigger competing with them becomes harder and harder as their overhead per transaction reduces due to volume. Eventually they become the only choice. I feel like with Amazon this is nearly the case. Many local brick-and-mortar stores that would have existed in the early 200's are non-existent today. Even chains like RadioShack and Circuit City are gone. This leaves the next alternative to be slower and more expensive online stores that struggle to compete.
- submeta 1y agoAmazon manipulates your product searches. When you search for a product, it will push a few select brands and you won’t get past that, except you deliberately search for a specific brand. So it will limit your options. But it will give you the illusion to show you a large amount of various brands. Searching for a product category on Google won‘t allow you to find a big number of brands either. Because they will push certain products as well. So be aware that these platforms will limit your options. But I admit that Amazon has a very polished UX. It‘s a one-stop shop, returns are handled very generously, and you don’t need to visit a dozen sites to get various products.
- AvAn12 1y agoIt’s like some Soviet-style retailer where everyone is supposed to shop for everything. It’s about as contrary to competitive capitalism as a company can be. I signed off two years ago and haven’t missed it for a minute - though you should make your own decisions, as with everything.
- starik36 1y agoI don't think you have the slightest idea of what a Soviet style retailer is. Standing in line for 2 hours to buy milk with my grandma is a childhood memory that's burned into my brain.
- deadbabe 1y agoThe only standard I hold Amazon to is if they can get me the things I want in the fastest time. Until someone does that better, I have no reasons not to use Amazon.
- gibbitz 1y agoThis behavior works in a competitive, monopoly averse economy. In the US, this means you will eventuy have no alternative to Amazon. I've been thinking about the poor quality and availability of Communist goods in the 1980s. I think about the bread lines every time I shop at Costco. What happened to make us so complacent?
- deadbabe 1y agoThis behavior has been working for me for over a decade. Not sure what you’re talking about.
- ______ 1y agoA good first step is not paying for Prime. It's like $140 annually now... and if you're mostly just buying things and not watching their content, it's a nice speed bump to just accumulate items in the cart until you hit the minimum free shipping and only order then. When you occasionally do for some reason need an instant item, you can pay the shipping then. It's kinda like for most people, having a second or third car is much more expensive than just renting one when you actually need it. That said, I am close to a Costco so that's where I get most of my bulk items - the Amazon stuff tends to be more discretionary.
- fvgvkujdfbllo 1y agoThat’s the key. Amazon is very convenient when needing something one off. But we are not going to renew Prime and slowly ween off it. Still looking for alternatives though, Costco is okay, but when you want something asap, you need either to drive to stores or pay for same day delivery and tips.
- pkaye 1y agoHome Depot seems to delivering some stuff for free the next day (and occasionally the same day.) And they can always have the product ready for pickup in front. Sometimes its so hard to find stuff in their store. Even some of the delivery charges feel lower than before.
- EasyMark 1y agoI've always found the location pretty accurate on the home depot site (which works fine on mobile browsers) for items I'm looking for.
- paxys 1y agoEspecially since the base Prime Video has ads now, so that aspect of your prime membership is useless.
- PaulDavisThe1st 1y ago> Amazon needs to be stopped, and legislation will not do so. Only its loyal consumers – who keep the beast alive – can do that by taking their money elsewhere. We've (my wife and I) tried to stop using Amazon. But recently, I've run into issues where I need particular specialized bits and pieces (e.g. just today, a low profile 4" HVAC 90 degree elbow) that are only available via Amazon. A variation is where the item is available from one or two other places, but at a 10x markup. We need to convince vendors to also avoid Amazon, and that may be even more of a difficult sell (no pun intended). ps. Amazon employee #2, and I approve this message.
- hinterlands 1y agoThe other problem are people doing price arbitrage. You find the item on eBay and think to yourself, "cool, I'd rather patronize a small business" - but as it turns out, the item is drop-shipped from Amazon, Walmart, or the like.
- w-ll 1y agoThis got me the other day, and it had me cracking up, they just put my shipping address and and checked out from Walmart. $5 lesson that Walmart actually sold what i wanted and i should have checked there first.
- jedimastert 1y agoI recently had something very similar happened to me, and then the seller accidentally sent me another weirdly expensive item by mistake. Unfortunately it's a large heavy part from a ride lawn mower
- PaulDavisThe1st 1y agoYep, had this happen to me a couple of months ago, for a bike component. Incredibly annoying, since they still marked up from the Amazon price!
- Hikikomori 1y agoJust got hit by hustler university
- lisper 1y agoI would love to avoid Amazon, and indeed I would love to support local retailers, but more often than not it is simply impossible. The only way I can find out if a local vendor carries an item I'm interested in, and if they have it in stock, is to physically go there. The amount of time that requires is orders of magnitude more than what it takes to order the item on Amazon, where I am all but guaranteed that it will be available. It is astonishing to me that brick-and-mortar retailers have not banded together to put an on-line front-end onto their stock. It would technically straightforward (albeit not trivial) to build a web site as easy to use as Amazon, but with guaranteed same-day or next-day delivery via a partner like doordash, and with more reliable quality because local vendors have more of an incentive to vet their suppliers. I would love to use a service like that, but AFAICT it doesn't exist. Someone here, please build this. I will be your first customer.
- mitthrowaway2 1y agoI've been hoping someone would build the same thing. Even without delivery, I'd love to be able to search for products across multiple stores through a web interface and see their availability in a map view, with price and in-stock status. I would be happy to go to the store and buy it, as long as I only need to make one trip and I know it will be in stock and at a certain price.
- zhivota 1y agoI worked on this, it was called Milo.com. we had crazy scraping and xml/csv feed ingestion. It was a terribly difficult business because most retailers hated us. ebay bought it and eventually killed it.
- FreezerburnV 1y agoWhy did retailers hate you? Wouldn’t they want a solution that brings people to their store because you listed their product as being there and available?
- 1y ago
- bluGill 1y agoI can almost always find a small company - often thing-i-want.com that has just as good deals and they provide useful advice about which version is best - often I have bought the more expensive version for those reasons. (I think for the better though I rarely buy enough of anything to have an informed opinion on relative merit)
- unit149 1y ago[dead]
- jkuli 1y agoIt's not enough to be against Amazon. You need to be against everyone who - sells tech to the gov, - undercuts prices, - exploits employees, - lobbies for regulation. Not to mention the real reason we hate Jeff Bezos. Because you wouldn't like it if I mentioned it.
- v8410 1y agoWhy are partial solutions unacceptable?
- amanaplanacanal 1y agoI give up. What's the real reason you hate Bezos?
- variadix 1y agoNone of these are good arguments to convince the average person to not use Amazon (or any other service provided by a megacorp). A better argument (well, maybe not as of May 2025) is that most crap on Amazon is available for 1/5 the price from websites like Aliexpress. Nothing on Amazon is sold for less than ~8 dollars, meanwhile you can buy the exact same product from Aliexpress for less than a dollar.
- jedimastert 1y agoOne of the people I follow on tiktok suggested abstaining from shopping from large corporations for Lent except for sundays. I tried it and ended up finding out some things about myself I did not realize, which I guess is kind of the point.
- lr0 1y agoRelated: Reasons not to buy from Amazon - https://www.stallman.org/amazon.html https://www.stallman.org/amazon.html
- EasyMark 1y agoI refuse to boycott Amazon, but I do try other sites and local places first, but I'm not going to to a 100% boycott that doesn't really prove much; I just don't run to Amazon first to get stuff.
- agnishom 1y agoWhen I lived in the US, I tried to order stuff from Amazon as less as possible. The problem was the lack of decent urban areas and public transport. Going to a shop in my city where they had the same thing which I wanted would take the better part of a day.
- cavisne 1y ago"Do you think police have too much funding?" No. "For context, the US federal government spent $53 million on public education in 2022" Hilarious, the federal government probably spent more on photocopiers for the department of education in 2022 than that.
- subjectsigma 1y agoAs someone who is very personally interested in the intersection between different political opinions, I really like how this article side-stepped individual issues to present the argument that Amazon is bad as a whole. “Ok, you don’t connect with BLM? Let’s talk about something else.” I find very, very often that conservatives & liberals are talking past each other and cannot even understand why the other side is making the argument they are. This is the first time in a while I’ve seen that side-step motion applied productively. I agree with the authors conclusion about Amazon, but even if you don’t, you should think about how polarized the nation is and what political issues we can try to coalesce on.
- alwa 1y agoIt felt pretty insulting to me. It had the smug, sarcastic, holier-than-thou kind of flavor to it—"there are only 3 ways to think about things, I already know more than you do about who you are and what you believe, you must be one of THAT tribe of one-dimensional dummies, here's YOUR flavor that I've so generously dumbed down for you." Kind of like the "didactic" voice that the young men on YouTube use when they're cosplaying documentarians or newscasters. It works better for authors who genuinely know what they're talking about--but in most cases, the closer you look at something, the more complexity you notice, and the less breezily confident you are about it. So often, it's like this—"reheated nachos," do the kids call it? A big sassy omnibus "take" of "takes," more than, like, facts and analysis? All building up to a meaningless language-of-empowerment call to action?
- subjectsigma 1y agoMm, I could see someone deeply invested in and knowledgeable about politics feeling this way. But I think it’s an uncharitable read. I don’t think the average layman would bristle so hard at this. What facts is the author not presenting?
- HYPRFLX 1y agoFor LPs specifically: it's much better than paying import fees now that preorders are instant with RSS alerts. Also AWS Science/Dev Program Training is nice. Supplement labels can be cross-referenced elsewhere. Just use Nootropics Depot, Science Bio, Cosmic Nootropics,iHerb, Syntharise, etcetera. All legal/not iillicit.
- worik 1y agoMany commenter's here saying they cannot avoid Amazon. I am not here to deny their reality, but I have a different story I have avoided Amazon since ~2004 when I accidentally bought two box sets (double clicked) and there was no way to undo one. Clearly a Dark Pattern. Fuckers I have succeeded. I always find another source for everything (mostly books, some small electronics). I am not in the USA, I am in the South Pacific, a long way away however you measure it (except we speak English, mostly, here too). I have to wonder if that is a reason? Yet we use the same Internet I started avoiding Amazon because they dishonestly ripped me off 20 years ago. I would start to avoid them today because they are evil
- worik 1y agoI agree wholeheartedly with everything said, fine sentiments, well said But I am unsure that this will convince anyone not already convinced. We need good political messaging to bring them, them all, down and to get economic freedom
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- aussieguy1234 1y agoMostly social reasons here but there are also practical reasons even for those who don't care about any of this stuff. Amazon is becoming more and more like AliExpress and Temu. They can always do it cheaper, but it's very touch and go when it comes to the quality of the merchandise you'll receive. If that quality isn't a concern for you, Temu and AliExpress can give you similar quality for much less. Take a screenshot of the item on Amazon with Google Lens and use the image search on either of these platforms to get the item even cheaper.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y agoWhat about AWS
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- duckilicious 1y agoThe author reeks of self importance and what he thinks is moral superiorioty. Was too hard to read. To the point of the post, Amazon engages in lawful tactics to conquer the retail market. Consumers are incentivelzed to get the best value out of their money. If you want change legislation is needed. Your approach of shaming people for using their services isn't scalable. And I also don't agree with plenty of the premises in your article but it doesn't matter.