I’ve been on it since things got bad in the US. And in most cases, I found a good replacement. Different Pizza delivery, book order, convenient even, most of the time.
For general products I switched to Otto (Germany) mostly, Thalia for books. And I was able to get the biggest recent order through there (two big screens, screen mount, cables), as well as some smaller ones. Alternate would have been another option.
Cost is significantly higher, often +10 % - +20% for the same product and no free shipping.
But what I miss most is convenience. The whole process at Amazon is just working great, especially for stupid people with bad attention (that might be me). Miss a little detail, and you ordered with advanced payment, adding double the clicks and inputs to do a wire transfer. Or not realise you did that and wonder why the product never ships a few days later. Buy from a marketplace seller who ships through DHL, but can’t use a DHL pickup location anyway.
What I always disliked about Amazon was the exploitation of employees. How much does that even save per product? I bet that the people handling my order would be happy with EUR 2 extra split among them, as they certainly handle many orders per hour, and I’d be happy to pay that. Is there really no market for high convenience with fair prices?
I do have 10 minutes extra per day to work through a lacking order flow for a good cause, but it would take lots of resources to catch up to that level of convenience.
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I haven’t ordered from Amazon in years so I don’t know how better things got, but I remember exactly why I stopped, and that’s because of the variety and convenience of ordering literally anything from smaller e-commerce sites in Sweden, using Prisjakt to discover the best products.
What my way of shopping differs from most people who order from Amazon is that I don’t want to be “inspired” to shop. I shop only what I need and for that I want the best, based on specifications and maybe the few detailed reviews made months after purchase that I may find for some products.
When I see a shopping platform using words like “inspiration”, “season” and “for you”, my rectum clinches.
About OTTO prices and shipping: they do have a program similar to Amazon Prime where you pay 10€ a year and all orders that are shipped by OTTO directly (marketplace items not included, just like with Amazon) are shipped for free. The fun/weird thing is that for orders you collect points which you can use for a discount later and by paying the 10€ for one year of free shipping you get points that equal a 10€ which you can immediately use for your first order, so in a way free shipping is indeed completely free.
If it doesn’t cost you anything (money or comfortwise) then it wouldn’t be a standpoint. It would just have been a good/better decision.
If you have alternatives that work, but are more expensive or inconvenient, it is up to you to decide if it is worth it, compared to the gain of showing your dislike of American products and services.
For me, it is. Also personally I have come to question if I really do need the products that I want to buy from Amazon. Often the answer is no
Honestly for me the answer has been “yes” or “kinda” every time. But to be fair I’ve ordered from Amazon twice. ANC headphones for my first long flight because I knew I wouldn’t stand the noise and a Bluetooth to aux module in my car that made it a breeze to always have Waze on to tell me about hazards and remind me I’m doing 6 km/h over and there’s a camera coming. The first saved my sanity, the second was just a huge QoL improvement with a jackless phone and two regular dongles crapping out on me. Not a necessity but I literally couldn’t go back to no bluetooth afterwards.
Often the answer is no
Man if most of people would get to this point, we would have more money and less trash!
I already ask that question, and what I order, I really do need.
E. g. I have a high-end desktop PC from 2011 that is still fine, even though I use it professionally - don’t need a new computer.
But I just ordered lavender, because I have a moth problem. Moths can be managed, but skipping the repellent vector entirely is not advisable.
Or a belt. The last belt I bought is from the 2000s, and it broke about 7 years ago, and ever since my pants are slipping down. It’s not a good impression. I need a belt.
That’s how I view it, I don’t use amazon because I don’t have an account. It makes life harder but that’s the point, I want consumption to be hard.
I had a 6 month blip during covid and noticed because it was easy I bought more.
I recommend Geizhals, it’s a German price comparison website, but there is also a UK, Austrian, and Polish version. Not only does it show you the website where a product is the cheapest, but most of the stores listed there are also European, so it’s a win-win situation.
We have some pretty nice online stores for PC hardware here in Germany, for example Mindfactory or Caseking. If you’re looking for electronics in general, check out Conrad Electric, Reichelt Elektronik or Pollin Electronic. BerryBase is focused on Raspberry PIs and other DIY electronics stuff. Sertronics, the company behind BerryBase, also operates another online store called Tecgarden, which is more focused on consumer electronics.
Yes, good ones! I’ve been using geizhals since it was new (it’s a very old site), also used Mindfactory for electronics in the past.
And if you’re Estonian you’ve probably already heard of hinnavaatlus which has been the go-to price comparison here for over 2 decades. Expats might not know so I thought I’d mention in case anybody ever moves here.
Use Geizhals.eu instead of .de. :)
Thanks, wasn’t aware of this
The filter criteria on geizhals are so far superior to amazon (at least for computer and tv stuff), it’s not even funny anymore.
Plus, you can filter for “item is physically present in shop”, so you can just look up what you want and then go there and get it yourself, no need for same-day-delivery.
I fully agree.
Probably also a good opportunity to mention that BerryBase also lets you pick up your stuff at their Berlin Adlershof location. Never tried it though, I don’t live in Berlin.
At least Mindfactory stopped shipping outside Germany at some point for some odd reason.
Oh that’s pretty unfortunate
Yep, I was just got used to it and then had to find my preferred shop once more. These days https://www.computeruniverse.net/en it is.
In Germany you should have access to the Swiss Amazon (we basically don’t use Amazon): Galaxus
For anyone with LogoiX, you can send it to them and they forward it to your address (pls check LogoiX which countries are included). Alles Post for Austria has that service too, so check your countries’ post offices if they offer that service.
In Poland we have Allegro, basically noone is using Amazon or ebay - so I think that’s a win.
That sounds so familiar.
Same challenge for me. I ditched Microsoft, Facebook, X, Amazon, Facebook, Reddit, Google.
I am teasing Amazon with the fact that I have entered a big wish list :-)
My list of shops includes Otto, Reichelt, Alternate, notebooksbilliger, Pollin and, where possible, I buy directly from the manufacturer.
I can really recommend eBay as an alternative for many small things you get on Amazon, especially electronics.
I’ve found eBay to be the best drop-in replacement so far, but that depends on if you want to boycott US companies in general or just Amazon.
I ordered something from ebay recently and it came from amazon. I think the seller just ordered from amazon for me 😒
Lmao that’s actually kinda hilarious
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I mean why not? Amazon has largely become a dropshipper for cheap Chinese products anyway and the sole reason I was using it is because of the generous refunds and the fast shipping. eBay ships in 2 days instead of one, but the price is often the same or very close, regardless if you’re buying something for 500 Euros or just 5. Their search is also much better and a lot of companies sell directly through the site.
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That was maybe the case 15 years ago. eBay hasn’t been this lawless wasteland in a while. I’ve bought a lot of things over the years and have only had issues once.
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What are the extra steps?
Maybe it’s different in Europe compared to the US, but eBay is mostly new stuff and not used these days.
I’ve just started to visit Kaufland more. They’ve usually got what I’m looking for xD
I like the experience with Kaufland too; it’s practically as fool-/negligence-proof as Amazon. Never had to return anything so far iirc, which is good, but also means I can’t say how easy it will be if one does have to do it. Also, I have no data on how well they treat their employees etc.
I have completely stopped buying from Amazon buuuuuut I still use them.
Use them to find the products you want. They have a good search engine and lots of reviews of products. Use https://www.fakespot.com/ to make sure the reviews are good! Once you find the thing you want, look up the company and buy from them. Most places have free shipping for things over a certain amount. I’m in the USA so I’m no sure if this would be the same for you. But, you can use a search engine to find it at a more local store.
Kindle is still my favorite eReader but I don’t buy them from Amazon. Calibre is a good program that can change file types of ebooks. If you buy an ebook from anywhere else, you can convert the file to epub. Then you can email the file to your kindle library. It will add it and keep all functionality as if you bought it on kindle.
Just about every serious seller on Amazon has a website or another direct sales channel. The bigger ones will even ship with a professional warehouse in about the same time. Some even give discounts or return incentives if you shop them regularly and can almost surely handle customer service or tech issues faster and more directly without going through Amazon. If they are honest in their dealings their return and exchange policies may even be better too.
Amazon really understands the lifetime value of a customer and benefits tremendously by having the biggest catalog in existence. They do a lot of stuff to keep buyers satisfied and sellers on edge. It’s a race to the bottom there and nobody wins except Amazon, while customers get cheaper and cheaper shit and sellers can have their livelihood and the funds to pay the salaries of their staff by a Monday morning email which could come after the slightest infraction.
This gives me an idea for a browser plug in that would show you the sellers direct store as you shop Amazon. Maybe something like that exists already.
I have never shopped on Amazon so saying you can’t cut them out completely is a lie.
I’ve never taken heroin so saying you can’t stop completely is a lie.
