Amazon’s now-legendary “Prime Day” is July 8-11. Much like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, this means sales on lots of items on Amazon’s vast marketplace, and as such many people flock to the giant’s website to get sweet deals on everything from computers to small kitchen appliances and more. While many of us are feeling the financial crunch more than ever, I urge you, dear reader, to resist the allure. I don’t typically have strong opinions about where people chose to shop or how they decide to spend their heard-earned money, but in this post I hope to lay out a convincing case for why Amazon is full-stop evil, no caveats, and is undeserving of your money on a moral and ethical level no matter what your values are. 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. No matter your political or personal beliefs, I’m certain Amazon violates them in one way or another, and you should vote with your dollar by buying from other places whenever possible. Here’s why.
I have never bought anything from Amazon and I don’t plan on it. I do understand that sometimes it’s the only place to find something that a person might NEED though - and at a price they can afford, so I don’t hate on the people on tight budgets that can’t find an item anywhere else. (It’s like when people buy stuff from Walmart, Target, etc. sometimes it’s the only place where you can get necessities.) However, if you can afford to get it somewhere else then do it…or if you can only find it on Amazon maybe reassess if you ACTUALLY need it.
How does Temu compare to Crapazon?
If you love the Chinese low quality drop shipped items on Amazon, and wish that was the only thing they stocked, then Temu is great!
ITT: “I agree they’re systematically fucking us over (and don’t get me started on their horrible politics!) but will continue to enable them because it’s convenient and saves me a few bucks” this defense doesn’t make you look reasonable it makes you look like a clown
The only reason you need - it’s a monopoly. Fuck its all.
And I also hate with passion that 5 years ago you’d need AWS in your CV.
Amazon is a parasite. That’s all the reason I need.
I try to use local stores or other websites, and only use Amazon if I can’t find what I need there. But at least half the time I end up having to use Amazon because I can’t find what I need.
It’s probably a kind of vicious cycle: as Amazon eats further into profits of other companies they are more limited in what they can offer.
Know the struggle, just keep trying local stores or other sites first, maybe we can be a small part of change for the better ;)
I have yet to see a single item have a significant discount on prime day, it’s not even a sale.
www.Camelcamelcamel.com for all your Amazon price comp needs.
Owned by Amazon, FYI.Turns out I’m full of shit.
I can’t seem to find evidence of that. All I see is they’re Amazon affiliates, which pretty much anybody can be.
Do you have a source?
Looks like I was wrong! Consider it a human hallucination.
Fair enough. Honestly it was probably a safe bet too considering how much they have their hands in.
Oh no way
It’s not.
I didn’t look into it yet but that would seem a bit… Against its own interests.
Yeah turns out I was wrong about that… Must’ve been thinking of some other company! My bad.
Prices mysteriously go up about a week before prime day sales, then drop to a few dollars below normal, scream “39% off” and you feel like you beat the system.
Or sometimes they remove a 25% off coupon that usually shows all the time and for the “sale” they just reduce the price of the item to that same amount without and then remove the coupon from the page. It will then look like it has gone on sale from camelcamelcamel because it wasn’t accounting for the price after the coupon it was only showing the item price.
I’ve gone 3 years without ordering a single thing from amazon. I never intend to give them anymore money.
anymore money.
- any more money
- money anymore
You can’t straddle the lanes: you have to pick one.
I dont agree with every point made, but agree with the overall sentinent. My problem is that the same thing can be said about other retailers, especially the brick and mortar ones. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, …whoever. They’ve all done it, and continue to do it.
Small business? Yeah, those essentially don’t exist in this context.
I have always said, ecommerce isn’t killing brick and mortar retail. They are killing themselves. Why? Because I’ve never felt like a valued customer at any of the retailers out there. I’ve been absolutely shit on by all the big retailers out there. And that’s not even getting into their policies, politics, and other behind the scenes stuff that I do care about, but it doesn’t directly impact my shopping experience.
So then I can buy something online, from a wide selection, with competitive prices, have it delivered to my door quickly, and if there’s any issues have zero problem with returns? That works for me.
Now in modern times I can argue that they don’t always have great customer service, don’t always have great pricing (for what you get), and its not all sunshine and roses. But I don’t see a viable alternative.
Find me another retailer online or brick and mortar that can supply me well and treat me well and I’ll go. But small business cant compete. And big retailers when they had all the money and power they didn’t do that so now that they are the underdogs why would they do it? So it’s just not happening.
I’ve never felt like a valued customer
I only have once, and it’s made all the other ones seem so much worse by comparison.
Thank you Ace Hardware. You fucking ruined me.
That’s because Ace Hardware is franchised. It’s essentially a bunch of small businesses that use the same branding.
ACE is more like a franchise than other retailers. Most are locally-owned. Some are employee-owned.
Story time?
The staff was friendly and helpful without being overbearing. They also knew what they were doing and could advise on projects. They weren’t understaffed, and they generally all seemed to enjoy working there.
It was strange.
That sounds so pleasant! Here, you go to Rona / Lowe’s, you ask them a question and you’re met with an “iunnodude”. Maybe home hardware is comparable.
ACE is awesome compared to the competition. Especially if exchanging your propane tank.
Not OC, but here’s no single story. Any time I pop into my local Ace I can instantly get help getting what I need, which is not always what I think I want when I enter the store. Consistently knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly staff, combined with my money staying in the neighborhood, makes it worth it.
Strictly, over consumption is the enemy. Less so where you buy, but the rampant rush to the bottom in price and quality is what the issue is. I shop where I get the best quality, rather than the best price
If I lived in a city where there are lots of different retailers that carry varieties of products then maybe I wouldn’t use Amazon. But when you live in a more rural area where the selection is limited and you like better stuff, there’s really not many other options.
It also seems like a very one sided criticism of Amazon. No corporation is good, and Amazon might very well be evil™️ but not everything about it is negative. It has also brought thousands of jobs to rural or semi rural areas that pay better than anything else in the area. They increase access to products that people like me wouldn’t be able to access otherwise. And they are actively trying to disrupt the healthcare industry by lowering prices and giving greater access to healthcare to people who are far from cities.
I also suspect that these descriptions of working conditions at Amazon centers seem to be cherry picked and might be attributed more to bad managers than company policy, because I’ve met people who work at Amazon warehouses and they don’t complain about this kind of stuff at all. In fact they seem to generally like their jobs.
Their business model has been to undercut and extinguish their competition for as long as they’ve been around. The ‘good’ you talk about is about controlling the market and leaving you with no choice as they’ve already largely done with your ‘nicer stuff’. Workers will be shit-canned without a second thought if they realize their ai/robot dreams. Drugs will become more expensive again once they capture the market.
The world depends on everyone voting with their wallets despite the inconvenience. You don’t have to be perfect, just make some changes. Pay more and support your small local businesses whenever possible.
Also, what “nicer stuff”? It’s practically impossible to find anything on Amazon anymore that isn’t cheap, disposable garbage. Amazon sellers have been in a race to the bottom to deliver the lowest price for more than a decade, and the result is that everything on Amazon is crap.
the buisnesses near me will never sell rp-sma to mhf 1 cables as there is approximately no demand for them. Not everyone lives in mega cities with dozens of stores selling the same products.
It’s not about paying more. It’s that Amazon has products that local retailers simply do not stock and will never stock because the demand just isn’t there.
Enshittification.
Defund Bezzzos!!!
full-stop
Instantly distrust.
Today, you learned that not everyone on the Internet is from the USA or Canada.
