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I've slowly shifted all my consumer purchases from Amazon to local shops and other online platforms, including Etsy. I'm now seriously contemplating deleting m

• snarf21 2mo ago
  Generally curious but a lot of the stuff I find on Etsy is the same crap from Alibaba/Amazon .. What are you buying from Etsy that isn't this?
  • abixb 2mo ago
    I look for independent artists and craftspeople. I recent bought a pack of sci-fi posters for my apartment from an artists who designs it herself and who has an independent reputation. My goal has now shifted to identify the thinnest intermediary between my dollars and the person doing the labor for the product/service I'm paying for.
    • apparent 2mo ago
      This is an interesting goal. I would agree in general, but in the age of AI I'm feeling like much of the 'labor' being done is done by AI.
      • oblio 2mo ago
        Posters, maybe. AI won't be knitting any time soon, though.
  • lokar 2mo ago
    It depends what you are looking for. I find small batch or custom made items from small businesses. Recently a nice wooden piece from a shop in Germany and an address sign for my yard from some place in the Midwest. For some things you do see endless shops selling cheap Chinese imports.
  • bariumbitmap 2mo ago
    I'm not the GP but I bought a wooden lapdesk on Etsy that I use every day.
    • criddell 2mo ago
      The person you responded to has a good point though. It does take some diligence on Etsy to avoid people reselling or drop shipping mass produced items.
      • glitchcrab 2mo ago
        Some of the prices are crazy too. I wanted 4 tenting legs for my keyboard, found some on Etsy for £100 total (no joke). 4 of the exact same item from AliExpress cost me about £4 including shipping.
  • devin 2mo ago
    Etsy suffers from the same review astroturfing and product category crowding that Amazon does, but the product categories tend to be narrower so it's never quite as bad. Etsy is certainly _bad_, but getting to Amazon levels is a whole other animal.
    • loeg 2mo ago
      It's Amazon bad, but with much worse customer service when anything goes wrong.
  • deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
  • zf00002 2mo ago
    Etsy is even worse for sponsored ads, way worse.
• toomuchtodo 2mo ago
  If you have a Costco nearby, highly recommend for the products they carry. I pay for the executive membership, and also ship products to where ever I need using their online shopping. (no affiliation, I just love the company and how they treat their employees and customers, strong value for price paid imho)
  • radicality 2mo ago
    Is the Costco shipping good / good inventory / similar or same as in store prices? Should I consider it if living in a city like ny? I live in central nyc, been only a few times to a Costco, and had no idea they even do any shipping! I assumed that part of all those good prices is the smaller selection, large minimum quantities, and that you have to get yourself there with a car to get it in person.
    • MattSayar 2mo ago
      I don't purchase from costco.com regularly, but the selection is generally the same as in-store and a bit more. The shipping is free, but slower than Amazon and faster than a couple weeks.
      • germinalphrase 2mo ago
        There is ~10-15% markup for Costco online delivery orders vs in-store prices.
    • ptmkenny 2mo ago
      Costco shipping is "free," but the prices on the website are more than in the store. I'm pretty sure it's based on weight; heavy stuff has a more pronounced markup. But, it saves you a trip, and the prices are low to start so it still may be significant savings. There's also a web-only deals section for clearing out inventory (I picked up some Philips Hue lights for half off).
• troupo 2mo ago
  > other online platforms, including Etsy. For the past decade Etsy has been a rebranded Temu/Ali Express. There's almost nothing local, or original, or worth anything on it. All large online shopping services converge onto the same Amazon model.
  • mohamedkoubaa 2mo ago
    There are people who rent time at my local makerspace who sell on Etsy. Maybe the issue is that Etsy doesn't make it easy to find them?
    • troupo 2mo ago
      This, too. Amazonification/Enshittification
    • swatcoder 2mo ago
      Etsy still welcomes small craft artists and makers and provides a convenient e-commerce portal for them, but yes, it's the discovery that's been ruined. They originally broke through and defined themselves by insisting that vendors only sell original cottage-crafted work, but gave up on that requirement years ago and the sincere low-volume, low-margin crafters can't compete with high-volume, high-margin importers in either advertising spend or in the etsy-profiting metrics that drive algorithmic discovery.
      • senderista 2mo ago
        It's a lot like Google search: the good websites are still there but now it's impossible to find them.
        • mohamedkoubaa 2mo ago
          Etsy in particular has an incentive to fix this in ways that Google would never
          • 1mo ago
• apercu 2mo ago
  I cancelled prime this year. It no longer had any value. It's more expensive but shittier in every way.
  • drcongo 2mo ago
    And with adverts!
• retired 2mo ago
  Amazon is just so convenient for me. They deliver within a day in a package locker next to home. Meanwhile with other platforms it takes up to a week, the delivery timeframe is 08:00 to 21:00, I then have to wait for the delivery person to call me because they can never find my front door. And if I happen to be on the toilet when they ring the package is delivered to a parcel point ten kilometers away. So I have to rent a car to go pickup my package. Amazon has absolutely nailed the delivery here. They looked at how people struggle with online orders and streamlined it completely. It’s such a blessing not to have to deal with delivery drivers anymore. If Amazon charged €10 extra per package I would still order with them.
  • audidude 2mo ago
    This was something I would have never understood living in the US until I moved to France 4 months ago. And yeah, as much as I dislike the company, those lockers are clutch.
    • retired 2mo ago
      Package delivery is pretty good when you live in a country with a standardized address system, large homes and where the delivery driver can park in front of your home. However if you live in a historical city center where your address is the equivalent of “That small door if you go up two stairs behind the old tavern” then package deliveries plain suck. Especially since you don’t have the “village postmen” anymore. You have ten delivery companies and none of them have fixed routes.
      • Symbiote 2mo ago
        I live in one of those places (Copenhagen) and I prefer the local online shops, since they offer all the delivery choices. I always choose delivery to the convenience shop on the opposite corner. It's open late, and picking up a parcel takes about a minute.
  • scrollop 2mo ago
    For your next 10 purchases that you don't need within 3 days, use an llm to find the best choice for your needs (have been doing this and learning a lot on how the ideas I had about a product prior to purchasing missed many things I didn't knew I dind't know, and the llm helped to find better products) and ask the LLM to find alternative shops - you may be surprised and have the nice feeling of increasing choice in the world by allowing alternate stores to keep going. eg. wanted to purchase a FIio KA17 DAC - amazon price £150, asked an llm for an alternative, found for £120 from a decent small audiovisual real store, ordered, delivered within 3 days. Have found you can save money for purchases from cosmetics to garden fertilizer and grass seed to audiovisual and IT equipment.
• ButlerianJihad 2mo ago
  There are a lot of cases where I go direct-to-vendor. Particularly for niche products such as supplements and men's cosmetics, it is easier to find one or two trustworthy distributors or manufacturers who have most of what I want. There has been a lot of consolidation in this space. Part of that means that independent webstores closed up and moved exclusively to Amazon. If they did not close up shop, they now use Shop/Shopify or a similar SaaS, which streamlines sign-ups, sign-ins, and checkouts, for better or worse. All the better if you've got PayPal or Apple/Google Pay. I've noticed that a lot of "click and mortar" stores have really abysmal product on their physical shelves. Like, it's discontinued, or all the wrong sizes, subtly defective, or just undesirable. It's like their stores are kind of dumping grounds, and it makes sense, because the sort of person in 2026 who gets in a car, and shops in a store, and grabs stuff uncritically off the shelf is not your most discerning or astute shopper. Target's shopping experience remains better than most. Their stores include everyday needs like groceries and medicine, so I can meet a lot of my needs by dropping in. Furthermore, their app-based shopping (marketplace) is pretty good too, so if I need housewares delivered or something, or I need to look up something and find it right now, in-store, their app is right there. And their shopping carts now have little dedicated slots to drop in your smartphone next to the cupholders. The best online shopping is Office Depot/OfficeMAX. They've shrunk their retail footprint, but their online store is still a non-marketplace, and really good for buying the kinds of things they sell. That includes some non-intuitive buys, like you can find kitchen supplies, because they stock many breakrooms for small/medium businesses. Good place for electronics and accessories and art supplies, even if you are just comparison-shopping. Their delivery is rapid and often just comes from the nearest store!
• arcticfox 2mo ago
  I love that Perplexity just beat them in court because AIs are at least one hammer that might smash this bullshit. It's so sad, Amazon is chasing every short-term dollar at the expense of long-term success. I have also been moving my purchases away from them - might as well buy direct from the Chinese sellers rather than use Amazon as a middleman.
• rocketpastsix 2mo ago
  I deleted my Amazon account earlier this year. I have yet to feel like I am stuck and unable to get something. It has made me turn directly to the seller, so it then I know every single dollar is going to them, versus most of it going to the seller and Amazon getting a cut. It has also made me look closely at places in my city where I can pick things up. I've found a few new shops I didnt know existed because the default was Amazon. The only bummer was I lost about 5 years of Audible books, most I listened to once but a few were repeat listens. I will just pick them up on Libro when I get the desire to listen to it again.
• foodandart 2mo ago
  This. I only have an Amazon account for a specific item - a dried soup mix that my mom who is off the grid, lives for. No PRime, no other purchases and if I could find the product elsewhere, I'd leave Amazon in a heartbeat. For the rest of it, my online shopping is mostly ebay. Been on it since the start and have had zero issues with any merchant or product (mostly used computer kit or repair items) that I've purchased.
• doctoboggan 2mo ago
  As someone who sells actually custom created stuff on Etsy, it’s still definitely the best place for that but the alibaba and temu junk is growing on the platform.
• cute_boi 2mo ago
  I would love to support mom and pop stores if they don't charge 25% more than amazon. Here, in NY buying from small store means getting ripped off.
  • JKCalhoun 2mo ago
    Yeah, those moms and pops are ripping us off, living like… well, not like Bezos.
    • cute_boi 2mo ago
      You are assuming all moms and pops are poor and barely thriving. This isn't case with many stores. I have worked as clerk and I know the margin. I am sorry, but I will not buy 20 cents water at $2.
    • tt24 2mo ago
      So Bezos has produced a more efficient option and was rewarded for it? I already said I like Amazon, you don’t have to convince me
  • toss1 2mo ago
    If it is only 25% more, you are NOT getting ripped off. Mere economies of scale and purchasing power yield Amazon more than 25% lower costs. the mom & pop stores you accuse of ripping you off likely have even slimmer margins than Amazon, even at their prices. Yes, all of us who are not wealthy must have an upper limit to what we can support, and maybe 25% is over your limit, but please don't ignorantly accuse them of ripping you off when you clearly know nothing of the costs of vastly different scales of business.
    • tt24 2mo ago
      Sounds like the economy of scale option produced better results for consumers :)
      • toss1 2mo ago
• JKCalhoun 2mo ago
  eBay is my first go-to.
  • adolph 2mo ago
    publicsurplus.com has everything a person might need and you are supporting local government. You can find yourself a nice laptop for cheap. "It's got a cop CPU, an i5 10th gen. It's got cop RAM, cop SSD, cop 12v power input."
    • JKCalhoun 2mo ago
      New to me.
    • coredog64 2mo ago
      Fix the cigarette lighter
• libria 2mo ago
  > Amazon's only core product that they care about now is their stock price. "Only" here is incorrect. I posit every public company's primary concern is stock price. But certain behaviors and values align with driving that stock price up and for Amazon it's Customer Obsession. And they are not obsessed with it because they love you, it's because they love your repeat business. But that obsession means your happiness and their stock price are aligned, for now. I pushed Purchase on Amazon one day and was opening the package 36 minutes later. I can barely drive down to a gas station, get a coke and come back in that time. But I wanted a particular, random item one morning and was setting it up within the hour without leaving my seat. Ebay and Walmart and Local shop can't do that. I support leaving out of principle, that's laudable. But it won't be because they aren't good at delivering CX.
  • Freedom2 2mo ago
    It's not very customer obsessed when their email that they send me doesn't even have which items I've ordered.
    • alejohausner 2mo ago
      That's because you probably are using gmail, and Google is reading your emails and harvesting your shopping history. That's why Amazon is being secretive: to deny Google that information.
      • dpkirchner 2mo ago
        I'm ok with Google having that information. Where is the checkbox to enable including useful details in emails?
      • mint5 2mo ago
        I.e you’re saying AWS values hiding data from google more than customer satisfaction. That doesn’t sound like being customer focused or obsessed at all.
      • Freedom2 2mo ago
• ramijames 2mo ago
  Mostly I'm buying Amazon groceries because here in Boston if you don't have a car and access to Costco, wow are your local shops over-priced. Wholefoods, Star Market, and Trader Joes are all at least 25% more expensive.
  • ulfw 2mo ago
    Who do you think Wholefoods belongs to?
    • mynameisash 2mo ago
      > Oh yea. Getting downvoted for saying the truth. So modern Hackernews I didn't downvote you - and I agree with the sentiment that Whole Foods is also Amazon - but the meta complaining isn't beneficial to the conversation.
    • ramijames 2mo ago
      Oh, I know, but the prices that I get on Amazon are definitely cheaper than what I can get from the real Wholefoods 500 meters away. It's absurdist.
• preg_match 2mo ago
  The best part about not using Amazon is I get to get my stuff quicker, and I can see/feel it. Buying clothes off Amazon is basically the worst thing ever, for instance. One day shipping is fast, but I can run to the store in 15 minutes. Can't beat that.
  • sholladay 2mo ago
    Amazon built their own in-house logistics network because UPS et al. weren’t cutting it. They offer one-hour delivery for a lot of basic items where I am and it’s not even a particularly urban area. I think in urban centers those same items have 15 minute delivery. They are also the only ones who will consistently deliver on Sunday, when your local store might not even be open. There are still lots of good reasons to shop local, but I’m not sure speed is the best reason.
• tcfhgj 2mo ago
  did that already years ago :)
• jondea 2mo ago
  But Etsy also has these ads, and I find them even harder to identify than on Amazon
• SomeHacker44 2mo ago
  I have a place in upstate NY, near the vermont/canada border. I have prime. The best shipping they usually do is a week. Nigh useless. Best Buy, Microcenter, B&H, Walmart all do better. They just don't have the range or sometimes do not respect my tax forms. I am an hour drive from a larger town with a big box store like Walmart. The Best Buy closed. The closest thing nearby is something called Tractor Supply. They put out a big sign each year saying "We Have Chicks!!!" which means they have baby chickens, ducks and turkeys. They are super cute.
  • nkurz 2mo ago
    > I have a place in upstate NY, near the vermont/canada border. I have prime. The best shipping they usually do is a week. Nigh useless. We're in rural Vermont, but not particularly remote. Amazon is the same for us, with a minimum 1 week quoted delivery time. And it's not because it actually takes that long to get to us, since Walmart is reliably 2 day. Prime used to be 2 day delivery, like Walmart still is. Amazon has just decided to deprioritize rural northeastern delivery, and just don't ship it out for several days. Even random Ebay sellers using USPS are typically faster. This doesn't make Amazon useless, but it's definitely not my preferred place to buy from anymore. > They put out a big sign each year saying "We Have Chicks!!!" which means they have baby chickens, ducks and turkeys. They also sell bees in season, although I think you might have to preorder.
    • SomeHacker44 1mo ago
      I have noticed that too!! I order something, they take 3-5 days to ship, it arrives in 1-2 days after that. Why not just ship it straight away? Shouldn't AmazonPrime be sued for fraudulence?
• sholladay 2mo ago
  In my experience, Etsy and Amazon are both following the same trajectory. Lower quality, lower value, fake and imitation products becoming more common, etc. On Etsy, it used to be the norm that a product would be unique, interesting, and probably handmade. Now, there’s a decent amount of 3D/screen printed junk that might also have some AI slop thrown in for good measure. The corporations have also moved in, just like they did with Airbnb. The most common issue for me is what happened when I bought a custom dog bowl, thinking the ceramic was made by the seller. Later stumbled upon something similar and realized it was just an off the shelf bowl and the dog’s name had been painted on. That not worth nothing, and it was still probably nicer than what I could’ve gotten on Amazon, and maybe I should’ve asked before buying. But there’s just a lot of that, “make a quick buck” type of stuff and it’s not always obvious.
• qmr 2mo ago
  Etsy is full of AI and temu aliexpress slop; how do you avoid it?
• mbesto 2mo ago
  >I've slowly shifted all my consumer purchases from Amazon to local shops and other online platforms, including Etsy. This is why I'm so bullish on Shopify. It increasingly is getting network effects (Shop.app) and people are starting to become even more brand loyal than before. Even Chinese companies are creating strong brand categories at a fraction of US counterparts and selling direct on Shopify to (e.g. Anker, Fnirsi, Fanttik, etc.)
• Jach 2mo ago
  I live in Bellevue so by supporting Amazon I'm supporting a local business. It's hard to imagine replacing most of the things I get from the site with someplace else. (Though it'd be nice to have a Micro Center.) I've even started getting more grocery products as Safeway/QFC/Fred Meyer up their prices, and the Redmond Fred Meyer closed which had the best produce. Etsy is mainly useful to me for the occasional copyright-infringing merch.
  • deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
  • cobbzilla 2mo ago
    I wonder if people who live in DC think the same about their federal tax dollars, it’s roughly the same flavor of “local”
    • wlesieutre 2mo ago
      Just going off the "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION" license plates, I'd guess not. Federal tax dollars are spent according to the whims of literally everyone else in the country except them.
  • webdood90 2mo ago
    It's a local business to nearly everyone in the US. Anyways, it's not a local shop as the person you replied to called out. Shopping at Amazon perpetuates the monopolization and consolidation of players in the economy. That means less competition. That means less incentive to improve the value they provide. Seems pretty clear to me that shopping with Amazon makes things worse for everyone in the long run.
• epistasis 2mo ago
  Yeah, same here. Shopping on Amazon is awful. Logistics and delivery, A-OK, but I don't want what they are selling. I'm happy to wait 3 more days, and have inaccurate delivery estimates, in order to get what I actually want. It also spurred me to move most of stuff off of AWS, which is saving me money now too! The cloud ecosystem has grown in the past 10 years, and I hadn't shopped around, and was missing out on better experience that cost far less.
• jambalaya8 2mo ago
  Alot of things are just fine, or more than fine, on Amazon (behemoth or not). If I know what brand I want, or I want a cheap version of something and the more or less guarantee if they screw up, it will be replaced or refunded, I absolutely would use Amazon. Some of the Amazon Essentials are a godsend if you cannot stand shopping. It is looking for new things, being unable to find exactly what I need without being overwhelmed, or not being sure of what of something to get, that gets me anxious. Amused so many people here seem to be pushing etsy. I saw the same supposedly hand-made mugs on sale by hundreds of people on etsy a few years ago.
• BloondAndDoom 2mo ago
  I’m trying to get rid of Amazon but honestly it’s very hard. All vendor websites are shit, high friction, high bugs. Vendors consistently delivers significantly slower (like 2-3 weeks sometimes) There is no single website that offers similar solution where my payment is saved and I can just buy and forget. Only thing I’ve successfully replaced is grocery shopping.
• deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
• righthand 2mo ago
  I havent bought anything on Amazon for 10 years. Sure the local prices are infrequently higher but with 20%+ inflation over the last half decade comparison shopping is pretty much dead. Glad to support my local places or find an alternative or just live without whatever.
• conmod278 2mo ago
  > Amazon's only core product that they care about now is their stock price. wrt to article insight, Benedicts Evans has been mentioning Ads being the major profit driver at Amazon in his newsletter since 2-3 years ago.