- cross-posted to:
- frugal@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- frugal@lemmy.world
- The author canceled their Amazon Prime subscription on a whim and realized they didn’t really need it.
- Leaving Prime meant slower shipping but the author was happy to wait and still found the selection and delivery speed satisfactory.
- Many people love Prime for its fast shipping and convenience, but some readers expressed ambivalence and considered canceling.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/3M27c
You must log in or register to comment.
Some of us have been living without an Amazon account since 2007 and we’re still alive. Go figure.
I started boycotting Amazon back in 1999 when they pulled the 1-click patent bullshit. I loved them before that.
In 1999? Brah.
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.
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!
What’s this one click patent ?
In 1999 Amazon applied for and was granted a US Patent for One Click Purchase. Before then, everyone had a shopping cart that you had to go into to check out and pay. Amazon realized that a huge percentage of people would add stuff to their cart and then leave without buying anything, either because they decided they didn’t REALLY need that thing or because they found it cheaper somewhere else or whatever. They allowed you to save all your credit card info plus shipping preferences, then just hit “1 Click Purchase.” It was convenient for shoppers because they didn’t have to go through the whole checkout steps or add everything then come back later to check out. They could just hit a button and be done. For Amazon, though, it prevented the dreaded “items left in cart.”
Other sites like Borders and Barnes & Noble, etc also implemented the feature, since it made a lot of money. Amazon filed for a business process patent (I think they also tried it as a software patent??) and forced the entire internet to go back to normal shopping cart purchases. They ended up losing the patent lawsuit in the EU, but that didn’t stop them from enforcing it on US websites. Borders and BN both implemented “2 Click Purchase” to get around it, but the damage was done. In everyone’s minds, Amazon was the place to go for convenience and speed. Amazon made more money, while others started losing money. With that extra money, Amazon was able to move into the “niche” of Walmart, since Walmart hadn’t yet figured out e-commerce. Amazon out-Walmarted Walmart on the web and became the trillion dollar behemoth we have today.
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.
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?
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
Plus then you can be far more certain you are not receiving a Chinese knockoff of your desired product
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.
deleted by creator
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.
You’re kidding right? Are there actually people thinking they just can’t live without Amazon Prime? Seriously? Fuck even if you HAVE to order something off of Amazon, which you absolutely don’t HAVE to do, you don’t fuckin need prime just for… what… slightly faster shipping?
Free shipping, but at that point you should question why you are buying so much from amazon in the first place
$25 gets you free shipping anyways unless they changed it!
Might be 35 bucks now. Can’t remember.
Buying anything on Amazon hardly seems viable anymore. There’s so much counterfeit crap there, and a million low-effort rebrandings of the same stuff you can get on AliExpress for cheaper.
Shop local when you can, and at least shop not-Amazon for the rest.
Shop local when you can
Not sustainable for me, I price it from time to time and local stores are usually, at best, double what Amazon or even Walmart has it for and that’s if the local store even has what I’m looking for to begin with
So my choices are Amazon or Walmart (or similar big name stores) and going to Walmart…yea fuck that it’s a last resort for everything but groceries…
There’s so much counterfeit crap there, and a million low-effort rebrandings of the same stuff you can get on AliExpress for cheaper.
I keep seeing this over and over, but I order a lot off Amazon and I’ve never had a problem with it. Don’t know if I’m just incredibly lucky or what, but the only times I get counterfeit / cheap Chinese crap is when I order it on purpose.
Ofc, those things I can just get off AliExpress too and sometimes I do when I don’t mind waiting which is the biggest issue with AliExpress, the waiting
I, and probably millions of others, are shopping where the best price/value is and nothing else because we can’t afford not to. I wouldn’t mind shopping locally owned and paying the premium…if I could afford it. Stop pushing for expensive alternatives people can’t afford and push for regulations instead.
Ya simple solution: don’t buy no-name chinesium crap regardless of the storefront and you won’t be disappointed
I thought this meant the writer is forgoing Amazon as a service completely.
Cause that would be something worth reading. Not these first world problems ffs
Seriously. I have stopped doing as much business with Amazon as I can. Terrible company. Bad for the planet.
I wish I had alternatives. For man yof the stuff I need, my only option is amazon simply because local shops dont stock them.
Okay, but can’t you simply ship something from a non-local company the same way you ship from Amazon?
Pro-Tip: If you’re already signed up for prime, you can go to your membership details and cancel auto-renewal OR they allow you to cancel now and will refund whatever they owe you before the renewal date.
Ok, thanks!
When I lived in NYC I could not even understand the appeal of Prime. Now that I live in the burbs I can’t live without it. I hate that I keep throwing money at Bezos but abusing their return policy is my little solace.
As somebody who lives on an island, I don’t understand the appeal of Amazon Prime. It’s a bogus product - if you live outside the mainland USA, you still get slower shipping speeds (usually like 1 week with Prime vs 2 weeks without it). It’s literally just an instant gratification thing - if I need something now, I’d just go out and buy it from a store instead of ordering it through Amazon or any online retailer.
Shop local, it’s actually quite fun
Must be nice if you can leave the house without need for concern while receiving home treatment for disease/injury and your local brick and mortars actually do hold the products you need.
These aren’t personal shots at you bud.
Then stop with the public lecturing.
Why don’t you stop doing the exact same thing you want others to stop doing?
What: representing minorities where they are ignored? No. You won’t silence me. All experiences matter. Even ones you don’t share in. It’s a far cry on ordering other people around “Shop local” on what to do with their life as if they all fit the same standard experience. Not even the same planet of existence. So you can go huff your farts through your empty comparisons for a shitty red herring argument. That is some bad actor Bullshit to try to silence me as if they are even remotely compared that I shouldnt reply to an absent minded direct order like that. Neglect minorities and order me around. Nope. Fuck that. Not on my watch. You get the full brunt of this argument if you think you can order me around. Fuck that poorly thought out action all the way up a mountain.
As the famous words go; standards are good, double standards are double as good.
What you are essentially doing is that you are publicly lecturing people on public lecturing. The very same thing you despise, you’re doing yourself.
The cause is lost the very same second that you cross your own line.
You dig a good hole for someone with an injury.
Don’t tread on me.
I’ve never really understood what prime actually is. They nag me about it on the occasion I might buy something from amazon. weird to think someone perhaps couldn’t live without it.
Free two day delivery and access to prime video
One thing I’ve noticed is that it pretty much always takes two days to deliver your items. The only difference is that Amazon will let your order sit in their warehouse for a few extra days if you don’t have Prime.
Yep I think that they optimized so much for 2 day delivery that it is cheaper to give to everyone. They just let the order sit around for a few days to make it take longer.
That’s what I don’t understand. The item is using up warehouse space, marked for me, for five days. Surely they’d make more money just mailing it and restocking the item to sell more during those five days.
