My neighborhood stores have huge markups and bad customer service. I don’t love Amazon but they are a better alternative for most things.
People should check again. After I decided to avoid Amazon, I’m surprised by how many things are cheaper and/or better quality at my local stores. I think Amazons reputation for lowest prices is less true every year.
How about both arguments are true. You just have to price check constantly and you will find some stores are cheaper and some are pricier than Amazon.
Yes, sometimes Amazon is cheaper. But one reason I quit amazon was because, even when it’s cheaper, I got so much counterfeit and super low quality disposable junk.
Seriously, take another look at your local stores. I suspect many people aren’t and are just making assumptions. I was surprised to find my local pet store offers free delivery, and literally everything at my local mom and pop hardware store is cheaper and better quality.
Local hardware stores are a must. And if you find a good one where they know what they’re talking about you can get a lot of great advice depending on the project you’re working on.
It’s almost like every single independent store in every single city in every part of every country sets their own prices.
Amazon was better in 2012, but now it’s all just drop shipped shit that arrives broken. Local stores are surprisingly way better these days
Did they ever have a reputation for lowest price? I assumed I was paying more for the convenience of not having to go to 5 different dollar stores to find the thing I need.
Try using them as a reference guide instead of buying from them. I find what I’m looking for rhen loom up the products own website. A couple extra steps but it’s not like I’m out hunting and gathering, I’m in air conditioning and chair or taking a huge dump.
huge
Deeply unnecessary modifier here
No no, if you have ever witnessed my dumps, you would consider that modifier deeply necessary
and then probably cried
I didn’t ask for this information, never needed it, but here we are.
I can’t wait until Lemmy gets locally-stored user labels so I can label that guy “Likes to talk about his dumps”.
I’m sure most people here don’t remember when power strips and HDMI cables were $40 and coin batteries were like $15 each pre inflation because stores wanted to make money on them. We could only read, listen to, and watch what our local stores decided to stock and most things didn’t have reviews. If we needed a new power adapter for that one device with a special shaped connector, too bad. It’s literally impossible to buy it.
Europe:
- ‘Local’ stores were/are often ridiculously overpriced, had a very limited range, and it’s not like we’re talking about independent stores either. Many of those were killed by the unfair practices of large corporate chains who would sell at a loss. Before amazon killed chain mall businesses, the mall killed independent businesses on the high street.
- Packages are delivered to me personally. If I’m not there, they don’t deliver and are forced to try another time.
- No need for a PO box, as small independent stores and grocery stores often have a side hussle as a pick-up point. You go to pick-up your parcel and buy something in their store or do your groceries.
- Amazon prime is entirely unnecessary. You simply have to wait a bit longer.
- You can find independent sellers on amazon, then if their product is good, you buy from them directly next time around.
- Thanks to amazon, ebay, etc. it’s become far easier to buy second hand products. In the past you’d have to go to a second hand market, garage sales or visit twenty vintage/antique stores to find what you needed.
Amazon is evil though. So, yeah.
But there are perfectly rational reasons to use amazon.
Same here in the US Midwest. 90% of these fabled amazing local businesses are incredibly overpriced and often run by assholes who treat you like shit, treat their employees even worse, and often don’t know their products any better than a Walmart employee. Also often incredibly right wing, which of course connects to them treating their employees like shit again.
If I’m going to support bad people and bad business I’d rather do it in a way that benefits me.
Spot on. The OP doesn’t need to make up reasons Amazon are shit and should be avoided. There are plenty of legitimate reasons
Yeah if you live in like, Germany or France
More like Europe: sorry we don’t ship there lol. Oh we do? Hope you like paying twice the price for shipping that takes two weeks if you’re lucky
I’ve found a lot of times, trying to buy directly from the independent seller is still fulfilled by Amazon assuming they don’t just do all of the e-commerce through Amazon. I end up with slower, more expensive shipping and Amazon still gets a cut.
We don’t have many “local” stores where I am, except for the hardware store which is a franchise. The local stores are all owned by a large out of state corporation. I still try to support them since they employ people in the community. We have multiple Amazon warehouses in the area too, between that and the delivery stuff they employ a lot more people than the local stores do and many products have same day delivery, so even there the math isn’t simple. The options are usually how much do I want to pay and which corporation do I want to give money to.
You can find independent sellers on amazon, then if their product is good, you buy from them directly next time around.
That’s not true, you may or may not get what you ordered because they have a “close enough” rule.
Thats not a rule, but what they do have is a process that enables dickheads to ship cheap/substandard crap for an item that used to be highly rated thanks to the original seller.
Then their product isn’t good, so you don’t buy from them next round? Doesn’t make it false.
No, Amazon sends whatever they feel like sending, not that the small business is bad. The small business probably doesn’t even know it’s happening.
So, if I understand it correct, when you order from a third party through Amazon, the third party never gets the order but Amazon sends something else instead? That wouldn’t be legal in Europe.
It happened to me a lot, enough for me to go through the manufacturer if at all possible.
Edit: This also isn’t new: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/brhow4/124-the-magic-store
What’s happening is to save space Amazon stores all items of the same likeness in bulk containers. The worker who fills the order just picks up one from the container. This is why buying memory cards (micro SD and so on) is such a crapshoot these days on Amazon. They aren’t necessarily shipping you what the independent seller shipped them. They’re shipping you one from a bulk container with the contents that many independent sellers shipped them.
Sucks that my packages keep getting stolen
And that’s why in other countries, delivery services aren’t allowed to drop a package at the door unless you’ve explicitely told them to do so
Amazon totally drops packages outside in Ireland
Here in Romania that is unheard of. The courier will personally hand it to the recipient. If you are not home, you have the option to redirect it to a different address, courier HQ or some local stores that they have contract with. And even so, they ask for a verification code you get via sms in the morning. It’s very unlikely to lose a package.
That just sounds tedious. I’ve never had a package stolen in hundreds of deliveries left outside.
Nothing tedious really. If you work from home you just go out for 2 mins to tell the courier the code and get your package. If you are in the office, you redirect the package to a store on your way home, tell them the code and get your package. Either way, it takes 5 min tops to make sure the recipient is the only person that can pick up the package.
Congratulations. You’re the exception to the rule.
Sounds like a better system. Here in Ireland, the trucks park with two wheels on the footpath and the flashers on, blocking one lane of traffic on a two lane road (completely fucking pedestrians and cyclists, and making cars have to be driven out into the opposing lane of traffic) while the driver fucks your package up against the door and they leave without ringing the bell (you’ll get an email or text, though).
We don’t use Amazon unless we, in the over 40 year old person usage of the word literal, literally cannot find something we literally need. When we extremely reluctantly do though, this is how it goes.
Up until a few months ago amazon didn’t have free delivery here, it was about 6-11€ for shipping, so the deals had to be really good to make it worth it. But since then, they added free delivery for orders over 49€, so I expect ppl to start using amazon more often.
The way couriers deliver the packages is the same for both amazon and the local online stores tho.
Not true here in Sweden, tho. I work in parcel delivery and I’m instructed to leave at the door (or next to the mailbox if it doesn’t fit), at least if it’s Class A or Express. Class B get one delivery attempt and then sent to service point if unsuccessful.
Although I don’t do all types of parcels.
Are there even thieves in Sweden ?
Sweden has changed a bit in the last decade. Especially bigger cities. Luckily I’m in a small one.
I am also from Sweden, I have always been called (or texted) and asked (if I am not home) if it is OK to leave it outside. Some call me before hand to check if I am home before trying to deliver it even. You can (most of the time) choose if you are OK with them leaving it outside if you aren’t home otherwise they will not do that unless you say it is OK through text or a call. But maybe only the delivery companies I have picked have this kind of policy. I never pick a class for my packages so maybe I always get b class? What kind get A class?
Calling every recipient sounds like your delivery person has quite a bit lower daily volumes than me to deal with. Or you always order Express. Class B has the lowest priority; the same as a regular postcard would have.
Depends on the area. Where I live I’ve never had a package stolen, Amazon or otherwise.
Some countries stupidly accept non delivery as the norm, and that’s on them.
If your delivery person leaves your package outside your house, that’s NOT, I repeat NOT delivered.
They got 99.9% of the way to delivering it and then abandoned it on the street at the very last step. It must be handed to an occupant or pushed through the letterbox to be delivered. This is obvious.
What do real delivery companies in normal countries do? If they can’t deliver the parcel, they don’t just drop it on the floor and wander off, because they’re not insane. They either try to leave it with a neighbour, or they try to deliver it again another day (or depending on the service, they may leave a paper slip in the letterbox indicating that it can be collected from the local depot).
Countries that accept delivery people throwing their stuff on the floor undelivered have nobody to blame for that but themselves. That is not the norm, it is not reasonable, and they only do it because the people in those countries allow it, and don’t do anything about it.
It’s madness. Utter insanity. Imagine if the postman did this with important letters!? “The letterbox is stuck, better just leave then on the floor outside!” Can you imagine! MADNESS.
Speak for yourself. I’d rather them leave the shit at the door then have to trudge my ass down to the post office to pick it up, which I have had to do for certain deliveries and it’s annoying every time.
You know even FedEx delivers packages into customers hands in Europe? You have to sign on their tablet that you received the package. They call you in advance if you are there for delivery and if you are nearby they even do a detour. This is general practice for all big delivery companiesike DHL, GLS, DPD, FedEx and many more.
You can pay extra to require a signature on deliveries in the US too but for most shipments it’s really just a waste of money that may cause delays in receiving your package if they happen to come by when you’re unavailable.
While I often get the package delivered to a pickup point, many carriers now offer a predetermined safe dropoff point on your property, and I utilize that as much as I can. Even if I didn’t, I’ve always hated the ones that need a signature, as they used to have to come back multiple times because they tried to deliver during work hours when people were (surprise) at work. Luckily most don’t require a signature these days (and yes, this is in Europe).
I know it is not working with every workplace but I often deliver packages to my work. Most carriers define the delivery time to an hour timeframe, some like ExpressOne are doing it down to 20min time frame with a live tracking showing your courier’s progress to reach you.
I prefer having my shit left at the door as opposed to being bothered to have to come to the door to personally accept it from them.
I’m typically busy and I’ll get it when I get to it… But, I don’t live somewhere where I have to be paranoid that someone is just waiting to steal my shit either.
You say that, but in the US, if you don’t live in an apartment, your letterbox most likely doesn’t lock or anything like that either. They may as well just be tossing the mail onto the floor.
I don’t know a single person without a locking mailbox
Cool story. I don’t know a single person in my area with a letterbox let alone a locking one. It’s just not something we have in the more rural areas.
Unless this is a language thing. To me, a letterbox is generally attached to a house, often it’s just a slot on the front door. And a mailbox is on a post near the street (and generally they do not lock)
I believe @Willie@kbin.social was using letterbox and mailbox interchangeably.
Yeah, you’re correct in that assumption.
I’ve only really ever heard of the box outside of someone’s home being called a postbox or mailbox. Despite the fact that both terms also refer to the box at the post office where you can put outgoing mail, there’s just no separate word for them. And I’ve only ever heard of the slot on the house door where the mail is placed being called a mail slot.
Letterbox is a completely new term to me in this context… and I still am not quite sure what it would mean, if not a mailbox. Haha.
It’s an interesting discussion in general… I’ve lived in 5 states in the US and mail service isn’t necessarily the same across all of them even among similar types of neighborhoods…
For example, in Georgia it’s common for every house on a rural residential dirt road to have its own individual (non-lockable) USPS mailbox at the end of their dirt driveway.
In Colorado, on the other hand, it’s not uncommon for many of those similar rural dirt road neighborhoods to have a communal (locking) mailbox at the entrance to the dirt road neighborhood similar to what most apartment complexes have.
It’s also not uncommon in Colorado or even California for some suburban single family home neighborhoods to have similar communal (lockable) mailboxes but that’s less common, in my experience, in most Southeastern states.
I’ve also lived in an old Victorian building with a mail slot but it had been converted to apartments and had a multi unit locking mailbox bolted to the front of the building at that point.
I don’t remember if I had a point or not now other than that shit is weird.
Letter boxes are sized smaller, for just envelopes/letters. Mailbox is larger for newspapers etc. Small packages, also envolopes.
Not sure why the aggression, I was stating an objective point of view so that people can get some counter perspective. It’s an important part of establishing the scope of things normally. But ok, go full steam ahead captain.
To me, a letterbox is generally attached to a house, often it’s just a slot on the front door. And a mailbox is on a post near the street
You’re coming across as an unintelligent pedant right now.
Not really. Letters are generally of a known size so a house-side box is used to receive letters. It’s a letterbox. Then mailboxes, which you may note are generally much larger than house-sixe boxes, are intended for more than letters, and are sized as such. They care called mailboxes dur to them holding more than letters/envolopes.
Please explain? After doing some quick googling, it looks like my interpretation is pretty accurate. But again this could be due to localized results. I’m not going to pretend all English speakers use the same words for the same things.
You could drop the hostility though.
The two are used fairly interchangeably, in my experience. Usually someone uses one or the other depending on where they’re from.
What’s your point? We know there’s different infrastructure and protocol for delivery in different areas, which was established in the original comment.
Do you have a residence in every single place on Earth? No? I can tell you that I’ve never lived in a neighborhood with (outdoor) mailboxes with locks. Does that add anything to the conversation?
I have an unlocked box outside on the street where letters go. That’s where the postman leaves them. Tampering or stealing the mail = 30 years in prison.
nah I prefer them to leave. before covid the post here was notorious for not knocking, and dropping a card meaning you had to go to a post office and collect it in person, but only during business hours, you had to line up behind all the old people who paid bills at the post office, finally get your chance and if you are lucky they would find your parcel, but usually either way they would make out like you are being the biggest inconvenience in the world.
these days they drop and scan, sometimes knock, sometimes not, but it doesn’t matter. havnt had a theft ever
For me Amazon delivers to my doorstep, listens and acts on complaints if undelivered or product is faulty, arrange replacement for free, allow me to use stuffs for a month and then return no questions asked, and is way more cost effective.
Say whatever about their business practices, they beat local stores in every possible way and it’s not even close.
For me as a customer, local stores doesn’t make any possible sense.
I absolutely agree that local shops closing is a bad thing, but for a lot of niche goods companies like Amazon are a good thing. Delivery by one vehicle is far more efficient than everyone driving their own vehicle to whatever niche shop has your stuff. Don’t get me wrong, Amazon is 100% a big evil corporation with huge problems… but the fact that they deliver goods to your house is not the problem lol. Doubly so since you can designate a day for them to deliver and just be in on that day!
Recently needed to buy a KVM switch to swap between my work computer and my personal computer on the same monitor. Not a single brick and mortar store in my entire area stocked them.
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That’s exactly the kind of niche goods that it makes sense to stock primarily in warehouses and ship out by post. Most people don’t even know what a KVM switch is lol, I didn’t when I first read this and I own one!
Never had a package get stolen before, but if I ordered something expensive I have it sent to the Amazon locker about 5 min away. Last year I needed an ironing board, I went to Walmart, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Roses. The only ironing board I found was at Bed Bath and Beyond for $120. I bought my ironing board on Amazon for $25 and it arrived the next day, also I didn’t have to pay shipping because of prime. I have prime, but I cut Netflix when I got it. Now I get my packages faster, with free shipping, and I get Prime Video.
Recently I bought a new foam mattress and they brought it to my house, unboxed it, put it on the bed frame, and took the old one away. This cost me $200 and I had free shipping with Prime.
Hate on Amazon all you want, there are plenty of reasons, but they’re doing the business better than big box stores which had already driven most small businesses out years ago.
This bit about the big box stores is where I’m at. There’s a Target and two different Walmarts near me. There aren’t any mom and pop independent stores. Everything is a chain.
That’s pretty much my life as well, any local stores that were decent went under 20 years ago. Anything left is a specialty store or boutique that costs 20% more. Sometimes they’re worth the added price, but not for many things.
This is only my personal experience but…
I’ve never had a package stolen. Even when I lived in a sketchy apartment years ago. If it’s a high value item I either have it delivered to me at my work (this is a privileged position to have, I know) or get it delivered at an Amazon locker a mile or two down the road.
Would it be a pain in my ass if I lived in a high crime area, worked somewhere that didn’t accept my deliveries, and relied on public transport? Absolutely. But I’m guessing that’s not who the majority of Amazon’s customer base is.
It’s one of those opportunity crimes where the easiest victim generally picked. It usually comes down to just two things:
-
How many people see your porch
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How easy is it to walk up and walk away?
You’d be surprised how much of a deterrent a mild inconvenience is. You’ll get significantly fewer packages that walk off if you live on a big hill, or have a bunch of steps, where it’s mildly inconvenient for someone to walk up.
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I lived in a high crime area and I still didn’t have any packages stolen. I lost more packages to the delivery person delivering it to the wrong apartment versus porch pirates.
Ehh, call me a 🤡 but I kinda like sitting at home to browse, pay for the thing that doesn’t even exist at another store, then go get it at the post office 2 blocks away from home, right beside the grocery store, on my way home when it’s ready.
I don’t think your a clown at all. That convieince of ordering hard to find stuff is alluring as fuck.
I used to go to a local book store, until they stopped stocking any new science fiction. Then they went out of business and I was forced to buy books at Amazon as there was no other book store to go to.
We didn’t have a local book store. We had Border’s, Barnes and Noble, and a couple of used book shops. I frequented used book shops for the majority of my childhood and teenaged years. Then they all closed and it was just The Big B’s. And then Border’s went and it was just Barnes and Noble. I’m not convinced that this was all Amazon’s fault. I’m actually inclined to believe that Border’s and B&N both forced out the book stores and then got their crap pushed in by Amazon.
Amazon Lock boxes are like PO boxes but free, you just order with one as a destination and you put a code in and it unlocks a locker with your item in it
I don’t like Amazon but I mean this does pretty much defeat porch piracy
Get a locking shipment container for deliveries. From Amazon, of course.
But what if someone steals the container before I can bolt it down? Sounds like an insecure bootstrap process to me.
My intent was absolutely this as a joke.
I mean, I take advantage of everything Prime offers. Movies, discounts, games, books, all of it, so I definitely get back more than the cost. I’ve also got a locker within walking distance of my house, and Walmart already did in all my local businesses, so I’m not worried about hurting their bottom line.
If you purchase any tech over $150, and need to return it, you’ll be waiting a month for your refund. Amazon has been slowing down refunds for the last nine months or so, before that, refund issued day of return to ups.
I ordered a MacBook that got damaged in shipping before it arrived at my house. A month later after it was returned during transport, Amazon hasn’t refunded me. I just did a charge back on the credit card, that took 3 minutes for a full refund.
