• @[email protected]
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    92 months ago

    Ugh, here’s a new wrinkle (at least to me), that literally showed up in my inbox as I was reading this post.

    I’m actively trying to avoid Amazon, researched and found the site of a small company making the product I’m looking for, and then find out that Amazon is handling their shipping.

    No mention of this anywhere on their site.

    • @[email protected]
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      62 months ago

      This just happened to me. I purchased shoes and they shipped via Amazon even though I didn’t buy them there.

      I think that’s part of what people don’t understand. Amazon isn’t a website that sells stuff, they are a dozen infrastructure based industries.

      Shut down their website and they still have the logistics to fulfill for the sites you shop on and their servers are probably hosting them too.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 months ago

        That’s vertical integration, and the end result for a virus like Amazon is that, left unchecked, they own everything.

  • @[email protected]
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    92 months ago

    The missing reason is that you should just buy less anyway and if you avoid Amazon it is slightly harder to just buy stuff.

    That being said, if you need it cheap, quick, and you cannot source it locally, just buy it on Amazon. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. You are not guilty of a moral crime by using them when the need exists.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      … when the need exists.

      Like you already said, it’s much easier to separate needs from wants when you just don’t go to Amazon. It was a real eye opener for me, how I could just add a tiny bit of friction to my “customer journey” (just don’t automatically start my search on Amazon), and my desire for the object would usually just … evaporate.

      Like a fey mood had overtaken me, but I managed to shake it.

      I guess that’s consumerism.

  • 𝔗𝔢𝔯 𝔐𝔞𝔵𝔦𝔪𝔞
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    82 months ago

    I agree with the message, but these two points following each other feels a little hypocritical:

    “Amazon is supporting new nuclear plants” and “Amazon has a poor climate record”

    Nuclear power is the most effective way to get out of climate change. Caring about climate change and being against nuclear power at the same time is a contradictory position to take, and needlessly puritanical.

    If we could only rely on renewables, that would be very nice. That is not currently the case. We should strive to have more renewable energy, while keeping in mind nuclear power is here to stay and even be expanded as we eliminate carbon emitting sources of energy.

  • @[email protected]
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    42 months ago

    I feel like I found a new reason to avoid amazon every time I looked for a product not being sold under some random fake brand name. I cancelled prime over a year ago and started shopping elsewhere. It costs more, but the quality of just about anything is higher.

    I avoid amazon for the same reason I avoid walmart: everything is a simulacrum of an actual product. Somehow, amazon is even worse than walmart.

    So yeah, boycott amazon and shop at places selling actual products.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
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      22 months ago

      And if you really want a simulacrum of a real product for whatever reason, Aliexpress exists and has the same crap available for a fraction of the cost, and doesn’t enrich Jeff Bezos.

  • SharkAttak
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    32 months ago

    What I don’t get is HOW people shops on Amazon, their search engine is the shittiest I’ve seen in a long time: “you searched for AMD RX1234 video card; here is a RX1235, a RX1024, and another one from a completely different brand! People also searched for other that is maybe related to that”

    • @[email protected]
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      12 months ago

      For sure; you’d have better luck finding product listings from another search engine their own search. I feel like it used to be better. Years ago, it would return exactly what I searched for, but not today. I think that was before 3rd party resellers were as common as today though

  • @[email protected]
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    32 months ago

    It’s a real shame, because amazon was able to deliver to some very remote communities in the north. It was the first time they really had access to shit that big cities had without having to fly down there and carry everything back.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 months ago

    Well, 8 reasons anyway. Only one I needed is Amazon is a shit company that will try to squeeze money out of you anyway they can.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 months ago

    I’ve got a $25 Amazon gift card sitting around that I don’t know what to do with. My mother-in-law gave it to me for Xmas, and I don’t shop on Amazon.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      This situation is the only time I use Amazon. May as well burn it on something cause they already have the money