you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 7 points 4 months ago (6 children)

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?

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    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.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    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.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    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.

  • source
  • parent