How Do You Go About Buying Stuff Online While Avoiding Amazon?
It's been ages since I've really done some deal hunting online with how ubiquitious Amazon is I've realized I'm not up to date with the current ecosystem for finding trustworthy online storefronts. Do you have any sources/tips for finding good quality products (especially with all the AI slop that exists nowadays)?
You could use Amazon as kind of a browser or search and then go directly to the brand's web site. Any particular thing you're looking for?
Showrooming Amazon. How Ironic. I love it!
In a few cases I saved over 10% by going straight to the manufacturer. Shipping was slower but rarely do I need stuff next day.
This has also saved me on more than one occasion as I've tried to find the same "brand" of something I was going to buy on another site, only to find it was actually an Amazon product they were trying to push. Dodged that bullet for sure
I personally look to see if the company has their own storefront. And sometimes it pays off in unexpected ways.
For example I was in the market for a soldering iron. I found a solid Hakko one on Amazon, but I decided to check their site first and, lo and behold, they had the exact same one for sale for the exact same price. BUT I could choose what color I wanted; Amazon only had the standard blue/yellow, whereas they had two other color choices.
On top of that they included an extra goodie of my choosing, which I chose their coffee mug (I forget the other options).
So because I took the extra time to look around, I was able to get one in a color I preferred, got an extra item out of it, and cut out the unnecessary middle man. Win-win-win as they say.
Sometimes, though, it's just not possible. I was in the market for a triple monitor stand as I use a unique configuration (ultrawide as my main, with two regular widescreens side-by-side above it). The only viable stand I found was available either through Amazon or Walmart. They did not sell directly from their site. So I had to choose which devil I wanted to support.
From what I heard it is the same price because amazon doesn't allow them to sell cheaper anywhere else.
It especially kills me when the vendor DOES have their own website, and it looks like they have their own store. You go to buy it and it redirects you to their Amazon page.
I'm guessing that some manufacturers just don't want to bother with the setup of their own PoS system, or they find Amazon lands them so many more sales that the alternative upkeep isn't really worth it.
Buy directly from the seller. Due to most people using Amazon the past decade, created a modern shipping infrastructure. Everyone has similar shipping pricing and timeframes. Amazon doesn’t provide anything special now. Other big box store just use their stores as shipping hubs like edge computing. There’s a lot of same day delivery.
The seller usually charges more on their own site. I think Amazon gives them incentives to sell on Amazon.
A lot of that is also Amazon, but an individual can only do so much
When Amazon started it was next day delivery, now a lot of stuff is two days.
What are you talking about? Amazon started as an online book store in 1994. They were not doing next day delivery, that's for sure. Amazon had a big push for "Prime 2 day delivery" for a long time, but from my anecdotal experience it's more than often longer than two days. Sometimes they offer one or two day shipping, but it's not the norm.
Reminds me of a thread I saw here a while ago on "What if advertising were illegal?"
I've found the best method for reducing my need on Amazon is to just buy less crap. Online shopping is simple because you can get stuff immediately, but I don't think anybody "needs" 3-4 new products per week.
Aside from that, I try and support local: find local shops that sell items similar to my style, or trust word of mouth for online retailers that are good. At the end of the day, as long as you're buying good-quality stuff (which oddly seems to spend less on advertisements) it doesn't really matter where exactly you buy from, as it's all pretty similar in price / quality.
Amazon used to not deliver in my country so we developed our own, with 24h free delivery, blackjack and hookers.
Now that Amazon figured out the custom taxes for us, it is too late as we have our own local alternative.
Flapjacks*
Go directly to the manufacturer isn't the bargain hunt, but it's the best option. Amazon won't even send you the right product occasionally. Even if you buy it from Amazon ultimately because the manufacturer uses them, they'll be alerted to the sale.
I just go directly to the company's website and go from there. Usually it's the same price, on rare occasions it's a few dollars more but to me it's worth it not to do business with Amazon. I've passed up on buying things entirely because they were only available on Amazon.
In fact, over the last couple years I've been transitioning from buying online to buying from small-business brick and mortar stores. Sure it's less convenient but it's also less wasteful, it keeps resources within my local economy and I'm buying a lot less junk that I don't really need.
I try small brick and mortar as much as possible but the up charges for the identical product can really hurt, like why is the same brand of pet food twice the cost if I drive 10 miles for it vs if I order it online
Because retailers are middle-men by definition. Large online resellers just have much less overhead, so the cut they take for being a middleman is much smaller. They often also have the bargaining power to reduce their cost price with the supplier. You should look for things that are produced in large quantities locally, and find ways to purchase direct from supplier, if you want to save money buying locally rather than spending more to support local business. Buying from independent local retailers is for indirect social and economic benefit. We should all endeavour to do it as much as we can but it's also very hard to justify when cost differences are large.
My problem is that so many small businesses in my region are run by shitheads with terrible customer service, or they don't treat their employees well, or they insult younger people, or they're straight up broadcasting their politics in their business.
Usually it’s the same price
Notable exception to this would be the Spigen phone case I recently bought. It's 20.99 on Amazon, but 39.99 on Spigen's website.
It's true for a lot of other things, though, Amazon especially here in Canada hasn't been the cheapest place to buy stuff in quite some time.
Posted most of this in another thread but I'm glad to help share my tricks. I have managed to nearly eliminate Amazon entirely from our lives for the past two years. I usually find things by searching what I want to buy on DuckDuckGo and then adding "-amazon", "-etsy", "-walmart", "-temu" and "-pinterest" as search modifiers.
A lot of little shops are perfectly legit, but watch out for:
Things being ridiculous bargains. Small shops will almost always be more expensive due to higher overheads and less bulk
Too much variety in product (unless they're a marketplace with 3rd party vendors). A legit shop will have inventory that makes sense together in its theme. If they sell everything from bubblebath to uranium they're either probably not actually selling it or drop shipping it.
Pictures that look like they come from lots of different sources, or no consistency in images. If they don't have their own pictures of products or standards of presentation that's suspicious
Some general recs:
For anything electronic or computer related: B&H Photo or Microcenter
For music stuff: Sweetwater, but there's a lot of great small music stores, or you can use a marketplace like Reverb
For clothes: if you have any clothes you already enjoy, go directly to their brand website. If you don't, go to local secondhand shops and touch, handle and try on some clothes to see them in person. I've discovered some brands I like by finding something in a thrift store that was well made but not my size or preferred color.
For house repair and DIY stuff: we order from a local building supply store, but there's also hardwareandtools.com, 1stoplighting, Waysource, Lightbulbs.com, Timothy's Toolbox etc.
For food items, local grocery stores often offer online shopping and delivery. If it's a specialty item or imported the import companies sometimes have their own websites. There's also Hive or GroveCo for some granola type B Corp goodness
For tea, coffee and spices, Adagio and its sister websites
For super fast, need it now shipping, Target has a lot of the same things Amazon does and even does same day delivery for an extra fee for certain items.
For something hard to find you can't find another site for, try Ebay.
I do business with all sorts of independent retailers and have only had good experiences with them. These are sites that I've personally bought from but there are a lot of smaller sites just trying to make a place for themselves on the internet
This was really helpful. Thank you.
Piracy.
As in, plunder the ships, get the booty (treasure).
yaRrr 🏴☠️
I'm something of a Captain Jack Sparrow myself.
Edit: Serious Answer:
Boston Harbor. Dump the entire warehouse into it.
If I need something bad enough, I start within my range of locality and then work outwards. Like for instance, I'm currently looking for a full set of seat covers for my car. If I were to use Amazon, wham bam I'd get the cutest ones by tomorrow. But instead Ive been looking up the availability of the auto goods stores nearby for delivery or pickup. That way i can go see the quality with my own eyes.
If there aren't any cute or affordable seats covers nearby, Ill end up going straight to the websites of the manufacturer qhile cross referencing whatever reviews i can find online. A lot of times the manufacturer or distributor website will have coupon codes at checkout. And yes, the websites can be seedy, but I have in the past gotten some really high quality products from sus websites that like never sent me a confirmation email.
Sometimes there are really specific or niche things that seemingly almost only are on amazon, (like my damn vaccuum filters that dont exist anymore,) about 99% of the time youll find them on ebay too.
Just go to covercraft.com
Looking for anything via Amazon is always a terrible idea. You figure out what you want exactly, then buy from oem, eBay, second hand etc.
Blows my mind when people browse Amazon for something before knowing what’s a quality product or what they want.
What a great site thanks!
For my country there is a price comparison website at geizhals.at which is where I usually start. They also seem to be a thing for Germany, the UK, and Poland. Maybe there are similar services for other countries too?
Lifes basics are often online at Costco for prices much better than big box or Amazon with same shipping times. eBay is potential alternative. For niche items, directly to the manufacturer. No need giving Amazon a share when it could go directly to the engineers, designers and people who made it.
I've learned to live with less. I don't need a new gadget or the latest shiny plastic distraction. I buy food, gas, beer. If I just have to have something, Costco or eBay. Closed my amazon, walmart, target accounts. Don't miss them.
eBay
Several times I have purchased an item on email only to have it arrive from Amazon. The sellers were using both sites and there was no way to tell from the eBay listings. Big sad.
i feel like it's important to note that this is against the ebay seller agreement, and though ebay does nothing about it if you report it after the fact, leaving feedback with a statement like "this seller drop shipped the item via amazon" helps other shoppers.
generally, though, it's getting easier to tell: higher volume (we're talking 1k or higher, usually) of feedback with less than ~97% positive feedback, is a good first indication of some kind of reseller/dropshipper.
personally, i started shopping on ebay to avoid amazon, so it's a supreme annoyance to have something drop-shipped or gift-shipped through them. I get why some sellers do it, but that doesn't make it right.
Is it delivered via Amazon or just in Amazonian packaging? I guess I don't mind either as much, since I can't expect a small seller to keep two separate streamlined processes....
This! I use eBay very often
I go rob container ship
While I don’t put enough effort into it to really make a difference, I’ve had decent luck using Amazon to narrow down a search, then purchase from a company’s store.
Of course that’s quite possibly Amazon also
Yeah lol a couple of times I've tried to do this only to get to the cokpany's site and see "pay through amazon" in the checkout
I use Amazon to find the stuff and then Google the seller. They typically have the same product for sale at the same or similar price on an unaffiliated website. It takes extra effort but it's worth it if you are seriously trying to boycott Amazon.
Coincidentally, that's how I use lieferando. I pick what I need, then call the shop and order that way. Some give a free drink at least for saving the 10-18% fee.
A lot of searching. Then I add good alternatives to a "buy Canadian" list I keep at Github. That makes it a lot easier the next time around.
If it's a public list, feel free to share it on !buycanadian@lemmy.ca :)
Just did!
Care to share that list? I may not be Canadian, but want to support people dealing with America's bullshit if I can.
Hey, yeah, definitely.
It's https://github.com/Visiblink/CanadianRetailers
I just started it when all the tariffy-goodness began, so it's bound to see additions whenever I (or anyone who wants to add to it) shop for things.
I like iherb.com for supplements, tea, olive oil, and castile soap. And whatever else you may find there amongst the strange assortment of things they carry. Other than that, I've been going right to manufacturers websites, except for mechanical keyboard stuff, where I search a whole bunch of different specialty vendor sites.
Before searching I am asking myself 10 times "do I really need this" and I compare caracteristics ans prices on various websites (this process can take months), I check references about sellers and items, then I prepare myself to buy it but at this step I forgot I wanted/needed this, or it does not answer my need, in 80% cases.
Not a single comment with an ideal alternative, despite best efforts. We need a fediverse Amazon alternative. 😞
It isn't easy, but it's worth it. I find I'm calling a lot of local stores lately, because I hate shopping in person, and selections are limited. I find I am spending about 10% more per item on average, but I'm also buying fewer things in general. I'm still shopping at chains, like Microcenter, Staples, Dick's, and Lowes, but I'm trying to be intentional about going to local or thrift stores first.
I also shop on AliExpress more now, when I need some cheap garbage, but I'm trying to stop that, too.
Same for me. Im just trying to buy less.
I’ve never used Amazon. eBay is pretty much where I get what I want and that has been true since 2004 according to my account.
Why eBay? I understand getting deals on used stuff but it seems like anything newer is usually overpriced.
I don’t really buy much new stuff.
I just built my daughter a computer for 1k that would have cost nearly double anywhere else though.
I’m also a creature of habit. I’ve been using eBay for more than 20 years now and I don’t have to fuck with setting up a new account and all that anywhere else.
I did try Facebook marketplace recently and I have been ripped off twice. Yay. The only two purchases I ever made there.
Aliexpress. It's the same shit.
I have a few specialty storefronts I'll go to for specific items.
I wouldn't trust any networking equipment, anything that can send data off your network back home unfortunately.
But yes, I'd say 90+% you can easily get off there. I got a Benchmade bugout knockoff recently, $150 for this tiny knife, $12 on AE. after honing and a drop of oil, beautiful useful knife. The mini griptilian is another great knockoff. Packaging came near identical to the real knife. I open boxes, not fight hand to hand, even though I'm sure it'd cut flesh just as well.
Honest question, not trying to be adversarial. Do you have any sources behind not trusting networking equipment (I've seen the claim from others apply to electronics more broadly) from AliExpress? I don't buy much from Amazon or AliExpress so I'm not directly impacted but I've seen that caveat a lot and haven't seen reasons why.
Edit: none of the responses to me are specific to AliExpress which pretty much confirms my thoughts that the caution exercised should be equally applied to any retailer.
aliexpress has most of the same stuff from amazon, just without the sellers nonsensical name slapped on it.
For more important stuff, most brick and mortar shops have an online storefront nowadays.
As someone who needs tall sizes, I long ago gave up on most stores selling anything that fits me. However using their online stores, I’m discovering that many still can have tall sizes, if I’m patient enough
Idk, Aliexpress has plenty of the nonsensical names still. At least on the product listing, often the name isn't bothered to be put on the product itself. However, for American's Trump is wanting to handicap the de minimis for China.
You are right about the names, that was my point.
I shop at the bin stores where they have a ton of Amazon and WalMart products. Some are returns but I always test them at the store and have found a ton of stuff for $4 or $10. I just bought a wet suit, 7 head electric shaver, fog machine, 4 smart bulbs, 3 USB plugs, hand warmers, queen sized inflatable mattress, ice bath tub (to wash my dog) and a Dirt Devil all for $72.
in germany we have local shop comparing portals like geizhals.de
Geizhals is great. I use it to track pricrs of tech that I need especially when I'm not in a rush.
Mydealz is also quite useful, but encourages you to buy things you don't need, and there are a lot of Amazon postings of course.
Slickdeals!
I order directly from the companies or buy used off eBay, Craigslist, etc.
I cut out Amazon completely after ordering from them four to five times a week. Heres how I did it:
(Many people who do buy from Amazon immediately donate it after they're done.)
They have free shipping
... depending on the seller. YMMV, widely.
If you can't find it used or local, use eBay!
About half the time I try that, the seller just buys it from walmart/amazon and has it drop shipped to me. So I'm not sure how much good that does.
Free shipping? On eBay? Are you high? Not even local listings have free shipping on that platform. Often they're even abused to make the listing seem really cheap only to find out that they offset that cheapness by very steep shipping costs.
Also their international shipping hub that they make you use has so little care for your purchases that there have been many reports of stuff being broken in that warehouse, despite careful wrapping around the packaging.
Meaning the seller gets screwed out of the money from the sale (because the buyer wants their money back), and the buyer gets screwed out of the product.
i look on amazon, and look on local chains, sometimes it cheaper in the stores, but sometimes it more expensive than on amazon.
I will use suck duck go shopping and Google shopping to see other retailers I might not know about.
Google shopping has a function where you can look for items in stock in retail stores near you. That's helpful.
Be careful how you suck the duck!
That's how you get the great deals, proficiency in sucking
Denmark has Pricerunner. When buying electronics I can find many different types of local dealers and suppliers.
Second hand can be gotten through Den Blå Avis (dba.dk. Essentially translates to "The Blue Pages").
Clothing has various online solutions as well, but it's also easy to just hop onto a bike and cycle to the nearest shopping centre. I live in Copenhagen, so there's also train and metro, but I prefer biking.
When it comes to food, I only ever order food online through Too Good To Go. Recently got a large breakfast cereal box through TGTG.
Electronics: We have a local (DACH region) to compare most electronics both in specs and price
Anything else: Search on the web and decide from there.
For example: I bought tea from a local japanese tea farm I got introduced by a youtuber visiting said farm.
Example for other stuff: I will research it and then market research where it's available.
Is it a pain to get (example: No other payment then SEPA), then I'll choose a shop that is more expensive but less pain to deal with.
But everything is a trial and error. For drinks I am very cautious if I can't test it while shopping and thus refrain from shopping it online.
Might as well provide the URL for the comparison site: www.geizhals.de
It's been around forever and is still as good as ever.
As Lemmy is usually US centric (Germany is usually only 2nd or 3rd place) I didnt deem it necessary. And most on Reddit Lemmy are so tech focused, they are more or less already aware anyway.
Here in Canada I've started ordering from the Canadian Tire app instead.
Even though mom and pop stores are mostly dead, Amazon's market share is thankfully still relatively contained where I live. So it's still simply a matter of just picking a different "big box store" to order your things from.
Search for real businesses that sell items near you or online. Also, eBay. It has a sort by distance option so you can see if there’s something near you for faster shipping. eBay is full of Amazon dropshippers so if there’s free expedited shipping and free returns and they have thousands of feedback, they may be a dropshipper.
Somewhat depending on your country, local shops may have opened online storefronts during COVID. Them having a physical presence means their products tend to be decent quality (as most customers look at them physically before buying).
Lately (no doubt due to getting back into prosumer photography stuff) I've been using B&H Photo and Video. I kinda-sorta forgot I bought my drone from them several years ago and at the time they were cheaper than Amazon and also offered next day shipping for free for an order of that magnitude. Since I'm not using Amazon anymore I've been getting my stuff from there again.
Everything I've been interested in has been the same price as on Amazon or cheaper. I think they're hamstrung by their name by this point since they seem to have a pretty wide swath of general electronics and not just camera gear.
Just don't try to order on the Shabbat (i.e. Saturday), because you can't. Their web site literally disables its checkout during that time.
If you specifically need yum-cha generic Chinese garbage (for instance, if you have a particular brand related to bizarre knockoff knives you need to maintain) I find going straight to the source and just getting that crap from Aliexpress is the best plan. It's the same bullshit that litters most of Amazon and sure, maybe you don't get it quite as fast. But at least they're broadly honest about the inherent crappiness of what you're getting, and the same stuff is significantly less expensive.
It's very easy in Sweden - there are plenty of e-commerce alternatives present, and you can use a comparison website to find the best price for any given item.
For various cycling gadgets and other cheap stuff, I've started ordering on AliExpress, with a pretty decent success rate so far.
I barely buy from Amazon nowadays, quit the subscription 3 years ago. Except for very specific items anywhere else is cheaper, better quality or both. Besides trying to search for something on Amazon has become a nightmare.
Benelux has Bol, so that's what I use.
I use Facebook. I hate that I have to use Facebook, but I feel like using it to buy second hand items (which is most of what I buy anyway) is slightly more ethical.
You should research regional and local options! This may not help you specifically, but fun thing about Finland and the other Nordic countries is that we seem to have pretty decent local chains selling stuff. I think the last physical book I ordered from Amazon was a mildly obscure out of print one I couldn't find elsewhere, about 10 years ago. I think the local used book web store situation has gotten better since. All of my recent new physical book purchases have been via AdLibris (a Swedish store). For ebooks it's been harder, I think Google Play is the most feasible place nowadays when the Finnish ebook store I used to use recently shut down (luckily they were DRM free). We have a couple of good options for stuff like electronics. Even the hypermarket chains have good web stores if I can't be bothered to visit them in person.
Not perfect but if you can't get it from the company's website or at a local shop, try Target and Walmart they both offer free ship options too. Lastly, something like Google shopping sometimes works.
I've always considered Amazon a store that mostly Americans use. Personally I've always just used eBay and Aliexpress myself.
I used to use eBay as well, before I was scammed, and eBay did absolutely nothing. On top of that it was impossible to reach a human. Ever since I never felt comfortable buying from there, knowing that if the automated service page can't help me then I'm just fucked.
I once had a problem with amazon, a 100$ item was missing from a package, and after talking to a representative for 10 minutes they completely refunded me.
Amazon is monopolistic, and evil, but in my experience have excellent customer service.
If you are using Amazon, you can look for products from small businesses. There are many that only sell on Amazon. At least your helping someone else at the same time.
And you're supporting one of the few companies that actually give immigrants, transgender people, mentally and/or physically disabled people, recovered felons/addicts/etc, the homeless, single parents, poor people, people facing eviction, and anyone else in horrible situations multiple chances at saving themselves, living real lives, being independent, and actually living. All while being the most flexible workplace so whatever life throws at you doesn't ever cost you your job, and paying for their college tuition as a benefit alongside access to emergency loans on top of that.
Can Amazon be a better employer? Sure, there is much more room for improvement. But they are far from unethical or evil. Boycott all the big box retailers and shop exclusively on Amazon. You're literally saving lives by doing nothing. You all wish for a button you could press to make people less poor and struggling, and you already have it. Buy your Pampers and cat litter on Amazon. Stream Prime shows. Watch Twitch. Shop at Whole Foods. Support the only actually ethical company.
No one cares about their employees, let alone their entry level employees, as much as Amazon.
If your search engine allows you to configure your results, you can set it to block any results from amazon.com. I use Kagi and have been pretty happy with that feature.
Check gohug.eu/join
Where are you? I can recommend idealo.de & check24.de to find low prices over all the retailers with online store (e.g. mediamarkt, otto, etc.)
There are some simple steps:
Easy, in Switzerland we don't have amazon (there are only a few sellers that send to Switzerland. We only got Galaxus and other shops.
Easy ... we don't really have Amazon.