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Amazozn is like a marketplace. People and companies should be allowed to sell their products on the marketplace, but any one company or person shouldn´t be allowed to own the marketplace itself, and abuse that position for their own benefit, because it would be to the detriment of all. The marketplace should belong to the people, should be open to everyone.
If Amazon’s algorithms detect that a seller is offering the same item cheaper elsewhere (including on the seller’s own e-commerce site, then Amazon will immediately strip the listing of the “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” buttons. The algorithm will also hide or suppress the listing from search results. And for repeated or severe violations (especially related to price-gouging), Amazon may suspend or terminate selling privileges completely for sellers selling cheaper off site. And they call this “Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy”. F- Amazon.
Ugh. Fuck Amazon
This is one of the main reasons why many indie shops are doing so many coupons these days. Price obfuscation is not only a marketing strategy but also a genuine safety one.
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A few sources around, here’s one from https://news.law.fordham.edu/jcfl/2024/03/13/understanding-amazons-alleged-anticompetitive-practice:
the FTC claims Amazon punishes third-party sellers for offering lower prices on other websites.[2]
Select Competitor – Featured Offer Disqualification (SC-FOD).[6] SC-FOD is an algorithm that prevents a seller from “winning the Buy Box” if it finds that the seller sells that product for less on a Select Competitor’s website.[7]
References for 2, 6, 7:
[2] Complaint at 85, FTC v. Amazon, W.D. Wash. Case No. 2:23-cv-01495-JHC (Nov. 2, 2023).
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While I support the intent, I’ve personally found that:
- Half the time the company either doesn’t exist off Amazon or uses Amazon for their order fulfillment.
- See #1
- Price frequently ends up being mostly the same. I’m not sure if this is due to something that Amazon forces on companies, so they may have no choice.
- Shipping ends up being expensive and is definitely not in 2 days, more like 6-10.
- Spot on and perhaps still worth it for this reason alone.
I just try to buy what I can locally and avoid the larger companies that are all pretty disgusting. While Bezos is definitely the richest and most evil, make no mistake that the other companies would be in his place in a heartbeat if they could.
Yeah, I was going to say the advice in the meme in kind of dumb. I can order the same product on Amazon or the website of the product, but on Amazon returns are super easy, shipping is overnight, and I am not dealing with some weird 3rd party payment system.
Now if the product is made locally at a small business, and is similarly priced, then absolutely, that’s my preferred way to do things.
Yes, I don’t ever shop with Amazon, but they use their massive anti-competitive scale to be the most convenient option.
I simply reject that convenience, because fuck Amazon. Fuck billionaires. Fuck executives. And fuck shills.
I’ll just pay $10 more and wait an extra week for my toaster. This is nothing compared to shopping in the 90s.
Or - as a Canadian - they DO have an online store but it doesn’t ship here :-(
Tried that, the company fulfills web orders with Amazon.
Now I just buy local.
Found a cool product? Look it up on Temu, there is a high chance that the company that exists off amazon is buying product on Temu and selling it on Amazon and it’s own store with higher price.
If not, and they actually make the thing locally - you lucky bastard, share the name of this company with us!
Use AliExpress not Temu, temu is just there to harvest as much personal data as possible
So… it’s like Google or Meta except it sells me stuff cheaply?
And sometimes they rip you off and then you’re fucked. And by sometimes I mean most of the times
Is it how it works in USA? Not to defend Temu specifically, but honestly their service works in my country about as well as Facebook, Google and Amazon.
So, shit?
$4 XOOMJI sandals do not exist outside of amazon lmao
Aliexpress
Trading one billie for another
Well just one, instead of two. When you order the obvious Chinese stuff from Amazon Its just an aliexpress item shipped over and the delivered with amazons 5-10x markup.
They do, just on taobao/aliexpress and usually longer shipping
I do not get the appeal of Amazon. Every time I go there to buy something its filled with knock of junk at regular prices.
If you live in USA, because lots of countries have a replica of Amazon but with local shops.
This isn’t always an option, unfortunately. Some books for example are only available on Amazon. When I go to the author’s website, they just link to Amazon.
Have you considered the humble library? /nm
I’m not sure where many people in this thread are from, but I have a question in case some of you who are complaining about, “I don’t really have a choice,” are from the US. Do you guys not have other online retailers? I thought the US would have Walmart, Target, Costco, etc. so that you could avoid using Amazon.
In Japan we don’t have brick and mortar retail stores like the ones I mentioned above that carry all sorts of random products, but we do have Rakuten, which is an online shop/marketplace similar to Amazon. Does Amazon really have a grip on all online retail there?
Amazon will do same-day delivery on a bunch of stuff if you’re in an area where it’s available. You can order shit while you’re at work and have it dropped off at your house by the time you’re home without having to stop at a store.
I don’t live where same-day is available, but even ordering for pickup at brick and mortar adds 20+ minutes to my commute. A few minutes out of the way, waiting at the store, and hitting multiple traffic lights both ways isn’t a negligible amount of time.
How many things actually need to be delivered on the same day though?
A few years ago, my radiator decided to break in the middle of a cold snap. I could deal with it, but I had an elderly budgie, but since I don’t have a car and I’m a weedy old lady, I had to order from Curry’s (in the past I would have gone straight to Amazon). Luckily it arrived the same day, no delivery charge. Even then, I would have just used a hot water bottle next to my budgie’s cage if the radiator hadn’t come that day.
I’m not sure why I told that story. But in any case, it was definitely a better outcome than ordering some no name brand that Amazon is filled with.
I hear the “same day delivery” to justify Amazon a lot, but I do wonder how many things actually need next day delivery and how did such people survive before that? Are people not keeping track of what’s running out? How many times would you need an emergency radiator replacement during a cold snap?
Of course I live in London and most things I need are walking distance or easily reachable by bus. So I have that on my side.
But yeah for me, the way they treat their staff, the way they protect bad faith sellers (see Louis rossman’s videos on how they respond to reports of unsafe items), racketeering (stealing marketplace supplier info and undercutting, see pirate trading’s tripods) means that as long as I have alternatives, even if they are also corpos, I will never willingly buy from scamazon again.
This was actually going to be my follow up question as well. It seems like some people are really into their same-day delivery but I’ve never felt the need for that. Probably because I’ve never experienced the convenience since I live in Okinawa which is a tiny island in Japan that didn’t have an Amazon warehouse until last year.
Walmart and Target are just as bad as Amazon. Bad examples. I’m from the US and haven’t used Amazon in 2 years. I just search for other online retailers and I’ve always been able to find what I’m looking for at a price less or equal to what I’d pay Amazon. I don’t get the pro-Amazon arguments.
There are a plethora of options, but many will not tolerate even a millisecond of inconvenience to find a new website. Honestly, many of the alternative websites even ship faster at this point. Amazon is a marketplace of crap riding on former glory days of quick shipping.
Thanks for clarifying!
Any suggestions on buying lots of cheap random electronic parts for projects and avoiding racking up shipping costs from ordering from multiple sites? E.g. I had to order ~20 different cheap parts (boost converter, charge controller, micro switches, a cheap devboard, USB breakouts, etc) for a personal hobby project recently. I used Amazon unfortunately. Curious about good alternatives for this kind of stuff.
Same boat, somewhat. I keep a digikey cart and when it gets big enough, I’ll order there. There’s also digikey marketplace but the shipping costs aren’t great. I need to start comparing prices on Newegg and Mouser to Amazon.
The Amazon shit is sketchy but it’s cheap and fast for things like interconnects, boost modules, i2c boarded sensors, etc.
Just aliexpress has all the same stuff cheaper but when you need a widget by the weekend, it doesn’t work.
Good advice. I will treat the amazon site as nothing more than a catalogue I can peruse. Any purchase decisions will make me find the source of the product. Thanks!
I also look up an Amazon listing on eBay too and usually the shipping is free even without prime.
Last time I did this I ordered from the companies website actually paid a couple dollars more and it shipped from an Amazon warehouse.
I try not to shop at Amazon if I can help it (especially since they make it suck for non-prime members. It’s honestly amazing…it’s like they intentionally sabotage their platform to drive you to want to buy Prime, and even more amazingly, it actually works).
More than once I’d ordered something with “fast and free” shipping from eBay, though, and it was delivered by an Amazon truck and wrapped in Prime package tape.
I bought a tamagotchi from ebay and it came in an amazon bag 😭😭
Yeah, I was gonna say “how many of those companies are actual full on companies and not just dropshippers using Amazon regardless of where you buy?” Cuz that’s a lot.
ITT, people show how little effort they’re willing to make to avoid supporting evil.
Unfortunately, there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism. And it becomes even more difficult after we are stuck with a few mega monopolies that own everything. No matter where you buy from, your money is supporting the exploitation of workers.
Have issue with product. Return process is abysmal and chargeable. End up wishing you bought from Amazon.
Would you let your fellow man suffer and the earth be trashed, just for the convience of a return policy?
Not saying you are one of these people at all, but there are folks out there who for example, will buy 3 pairs of the same shoes, try them on at home, and then return the other two. For those I say, just go to the store. This is over consumption. The energy needed to move all this product has consquences… from labor and energy resources ,human health, and planet health.
I find it quite selfish and lame to use the excuse, “but its convienent!”
I understand its difficult for certain electronics, but, for most things, if you can look physically at the item before buying it, the chance youll need to return it go down because you can judge the quality before buying it.
I don’t know about you, but stores have realized this and simply don’t stock a lot of things any longer. I had it recently with a shirt brand I enjoyed, wanted to go to the store to buy it and check the size, and they indicated they only ship online now. So you buy through them, have to get various sizes and if you return you pay a restocking fee. Or you go through Amazon, buy the same shirt, overnight delivery and free returns.
Maybe it’s selfish, but it’s not any more efficient to drive to somewhere, to get told to buy it online, to buy online and have to ship or physically return to somewhere.
