I started boycotting Amazon back in 1999 when they pulled the 1-click patent bullshit. I loved them before that.
Comment on It’s Surprisingly Easy to Live Without an Amazon Prime Subscription
Engywuck@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Some of us have been living without an Amazon account since 2007 and we’re still alive. Go figure.
dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 9 months ago
swayevenly@lemm.ee 9 months ago
In 1999? Brah.
dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I was an edgy college kid who was raging against software and business process patents. Their 1-click patent started me on a 25 year grudge.
asteriskeverything@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Not a lot of people hold onto such a niche part of their righteous rebellious college years for so long. I love that, and your bar was so high too!
hoot@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
A fellow Great Book of Grudges enthusiast! I too started writing mine early. I have not purchased anything Sony since they put rootkits on their CDs in 2005. Nothing. Fuck Sony. And anything Intuit makes for multiple reasons.
And I am absolutely passing The Great Book on to my kids. They know exactly why we don’t buy certain brands.
brbposting@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
It’s kinda weird knowing I advertised for them (word of mouth) back around ~2007.
Cheaper than brick & mortar! INCREDIBLE customer service! No sales tax (until you paid it at tax time of course)!
Didn’t realize I’d be concentrating power, helping create just about earth’s richest human.
Krackalot@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
I barely manage, but I suvive.
freebee@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Sometimes shop around on amazon. Find something I like or need: look for the website of the producer or distributor, order directly from them. Usually same price, sometimes cheaper. Fuck the middleman.
Engywuck@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Well, this is exactly what I do sometimes. And not only for Amazon, but for quite a lot of local marketplaces.
KpntAutismus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
i have reverted to this lifestyle, and i love it. creating the 5-6 accounts for local platforms was a slight hassle, but now i can enjoy the benefits of a “small” company which still cares about what the customer thinks.
KnightontheSun@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Can you please expound on this?
I gave up on Amazon last year. I do without many things which is fine, but there are some things that are more difficult to find without them. I am still doing without as I’d like to figure it out for the long term.
Can you give examples of the vendors that supplant Amazon for you?
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Not the person you asked, but generally I just go to the manufacturer website. Amazon is useful for it’s pictures and an aggregate of similar products, but now it’s usually just a catalog of stuff so I know what to look for
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Plus then you can be far more certain you are not receiving a Chinese knockoff of your desired product
NightAuthor@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Home Depot, Staples, B&HPhoto (decent selection of general tech merch, but tons of photo/video)
As much as I dislike it, google shopping helps me find where I can pick things up locally.
There are things that I’ve been unsatisfied with the alternative options, or particular brands that only sell on Amazon, so I use it occasionally. But I don’t have a subscription to prevent the compulsion to use it.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 9 months ago
What “local platforms” are you referring to?
dojan@lemmy.world 9 months ago
It’s kind of crazy how Amazon has dominated so much that alternatives pretty much aren’t a thing over there.
Here in Sweden we didn’t get Amazon until a couple of years ago, and they’re honestly so skeevy. Most of the stuff they sell is weird computer generated garbage, and the brand stuff they sell is usually available cheaper or for the same price elsewhere. They also use the same shipping all other companies use, so there’s literally no upside to using Amazon outside of buying weird little niche products. These niche things could be bought on AliExpress or EBay anyway though.
When it comes to “real” products, it’s just generally preferred to buy them from Swedish/Scandinavian retailers. You know they operate within our legal framework with consumer protection in mind, and if you ever have any issues, contacting support puts you in touch with real people that work for the store, not some outsourced representative that’s disconnected from the whole thing.
The only good thing Amazon has brought is hilarious machine translations. Like curtains of people frolicking in the sexual assault, or fondue sets with integrated email functionality.
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Where I am (US), Amazon’s anti-competition practices make it pretty hard for other companies to be cheaper. If Amazon doesn’t think they’re getting the best price, they can drop you, and so many people shop exclusively on Amazon that that can be a death knell. Which is part of the reason to stop shopping there.
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
That’s the experience in the United States now as well
EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 9 months ago
seeking arrangements
KpntAutismus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
e-commerce sites that are based in germany or at least in europe.