What’s a better alternative? All I know of is eBay, but I used Amazon to buy DVDs and Blu-Rays to support films, and eBay sales don’t count as disc sales the same way that Amazon sales do.
So drive around from store to store in 104°F (40°C) heat looking for the thing that I want, but everyone seems to be out of, just to go home and order it online anyway (for less money, too) because no one had it?
With Fry’s and Radio Shack gone, I can’t even find electronics anymore. Best Buy is fucking useless, and they just closed the one nearest to me (not surprised. They were always out of stock of everything).
If I need electronics, I’m honestly not sure what my choice is.
I would have said Newegg for electronics but that too got enshittified a few years ago. A shame, because their offerings were pretty competitive and I could build a computer at a reasonable price.
I wish microcenter opened more locations. From what I’ve seen it’s essentially a modern day radio shack, but they have only 25 locations (in only 16 states!), and none of them are in my state. They do sell things online I guess, but they just aren’t as competitive online compared to their physical stores.
So do you just assume everyone lives within convenient travel distance of a wide variety of shops that would supply everything that they could possibly want, or are you claiming moral superiority because you shop at Walmart instead of online at Amazon?
Seriously, though… just because there are other vendors that sell online does mean that each and every thing someone may want/need is available from other vendors online. Amazon has spent decades forcing competitors either out of business or to work through Amazon. They also leverage volume and loss leaders to drastically undercut prices of competitors they can’t eliminate.
Even if you can find someone else that has what you’re looking for and are willing to pay more (and for the record, I absolutely pay extra to avoid Amazon whenever possible), there are a lot of small businesses that provide even shittier service (or are outright scams) than Amazon. You may or may not actually get what you ordered, and if something is wrong with it, good luck getting a replacement or refund short of a formal dispute with your bank. Many require credit cards for online transactions, and you have no idea how they’re handling that data. Plenty exist that store CC info on local servers with nonexistent security precautions.
“Just shop online elsewhere” is just as lazy and undeservedly self-righteous as assuming everyone can just walk to a physical store to buy whatever they want.
So did you just skip the first half of my comment, or did you not understand the words?
Newsflash: not everyone in America lives in a major urban area where a wide variety of shops are available, let alone small independent shops. I live 30 minutes from the nearest city, which is a small city. There’s a huge amount of products that are not available in either my immediate area or even in the closes city. I don’t mind paying extra to avoid major chains, and I typically look elsewhere before resorting to Amazon, but paying extra and spending 2+ hours in a car to avoid Amazon is not a viable alternative.
If you’re going to talk about the “natural state of things”, then I assume you simply go out into the nearest forest, cut down a tree, and build whatever you need using the assortment of stone tools you’ve hand crafted?
ya thats my problem too. at least an 1.5 hr drive one way to get to “shops” that are not ace hardware or safeway. i live in a town of about 2k up a steep mountain pass. i would love to ditch amazon but its really really hard to
Yeah, I’ve been making a real effort to look for alternatives to Amazon whenever possible. It’s hard, though, depending on what you want. Sure, there’s a ton of stuff on Amazon that I can get local if I’m willing to put up with some inconvenience. I don’t buy books off of Amazon anymore, for example, because I’d rather call the small independent book shop that’s about 35 minutes drive from my house, have them order the book for me, and then drive out and pick it up.
But the sheer volume of things Amazon sells means there’s going to be LOTS of things that they have that just aren’t available around me. A new fan for my specific model of laptop? A replacement knob for my specific washing machine (for less than a dollar)? Amazon it is.
No, your comment was clear: anyone who doesn’t make whatever level of effort it takes to never shop at Amazon infuriates you. Furthermore, you assume that there are always other choices besides Amazon and Walmart. What you obviously still aren’t getting is that those other choices besides Amazon and Walmart may not be practical for everyone.
Amazon is bad. No one is disagreeing. But if I need a left-handed monkey wrench and my choices are either buy from Amazon or drive 2 hours to the closest major city, go to a big box store that let’s be honest, isn’t really much better than Amazon in terms of economic impact, and then drive 2 hours back, you being infuriated by my choosing to not waste half a day to choose the slightly-lesser-of-two-evils is a lovely demonstration of privilege.
And why do you think you have no other choice than Amazon and Walmart in America?
That’s what you said, which is somewhat ambiguous phrasing. It could mean “why do you believe that there are no other choices, because there are?” or it could mean “yes, you have no other choices than those two, but how do you think that happened?”
Given that you started off by arguing that it was infuriating that anyone would ever shop at Amazon, and have been pretty consistent in your other comments that the solution is to just go to “an actual shop”, the first interpretation is much more appropriate to the context.
If you really meant “yes, you have no other choices than those two”, then sure, I’ll accept the back pedaling. It doesn’t change that you are infuriated that anyone would shop at Amazon, and accuse those that do of personally destroying the climate because we are lazy. The fact that you are aware that many people simply don’t have a better option, and yet you still judge them so harshly, only makes you look worse.
LOL the state of buying discs in brick and mortar store is abysmal now. I used to like buying discs from Walmart but the one near me has relegated everything to a bargain bin of kids’ movies, basically. Practically the only way to buy discs now is to do so online, or at a Best Buy or Barnes & Noble if you have one near you
Dang, I feel lucky to have a chain that is basically the modern equivalent of Blockbuster with several stores near me. It’s so much fun being able to physically browse through movies.
What’s a better alternative? All I know of is eBay, but I used Amazon to buy DVDs and Blu-Rays to support films, and eBay sales don’t count as disc sales the same way that Amazon sales do.
This is completely unrelated but I love your instance name lol!!
Thanks! This actually is a Lotide instance! We’re kinda like Lemmy and Kbin but we have more of a Hacker News type feel
An actual shop?
So drive around from store to store in 104°F (40°C) heat looking for the thing that I want, but everyone seems to be out of, just to go home and order it online anyway (for less money, too) because no one had it?
With Fry’s and Radio Shack gone, I can’t even find electronics anymore. Best Buy is fucking useless, and they just closed the one nearest to me (not surprised. They were always out of stock of everything).
If I need electronics, I’m honestly not sure what my choice is.
B&h photo is a good alternative for electronics. Non electronics I’m not sure there is anything close to the selection and prices of Amazon.
I would have said Newegg for electronics but that too got enshittified a few years ago. A shame, because their offerings were pretty competitive and I could build a computer at a reasonable price.
Costco would cover some of that. I live in a small place and try to buy local, then Costco, Best Buy, Staples, etc., before Amazon as a last resort.
I try to do Best Buy but often times they don’t have what I want. I have HEB for groceries luckily
Sure, but the OP is talking about groceries…
truuu
I wish microcenter opened more locations. From what I’ve seen it’s essentially a modern day radio shack, but they have only 25 locations (in only 16 states!), and none of them are in my state. They do sell things online I guess, but they just aren’t as competitive online compared to their physical stores.
So do you just assume everyone lives within convenient travel distance of a wide variety of shops that would supply everything that they could possibly want, or are you claiming moral superiority because you shop at Walmart instead of online at Amazon?
Bruh I live in a place like the one you mentioned but even then I can’t find everything I want so online it is.
You are aware that there are other online vendors than amazon, right?
Really? I had no idea! /s
Seriously, though… just because there are other vendors that sell online does mean that each and every thing someone may want/need is available from other vendors online. Amazon has spent decades forcing competitors either out of business or to work through Amazon. They also leverage volume and loss leaders to drastically undercut prices of competitors they can’t eliminate.
Even if you can find someone else that has what you’re looking for and are willing to pay more (and for the record, I absolutely pay extra to avoid Amazon whenever possible), there are a lot of small businesses that provide even shittier service (or are outright scams) than Amazon. You may or may not actually get what you ordered, and if something is wrong with it, good luck getting a replacement or refund short of a formal dispute with your bank. Many require credit cards for online transactions, and you have no idea how they’re handling that data. Plenty exist that store CC info on local servers with nonexistent security precautions.
“Just shop online elsewhere” is just as lazy and undeservedly self-righteous as assuming everyone can just walk to a physical store to buy whatever they want.
And why do you think you have no other choice than Amazon and Walmart in America? It’s not a natural state of things.
So did you just skip the first half of my comment, or did you not understand the words?
Newsflash: not everyone in America lives in a major urban area where a wide variety of shops are available, let alone small independent shops. I live 30 minutes from the nearest city, which is a small city. There’s a huge amount of products that are not available in either my immediate area or even in the closes city. I don’t mind paying extra to avoid major chains, and I typically look elsewhere before resorting to Amazon, but paying extra and spending 2+ hours in a car to avoid Amazon is not a viable alternative.
If you’re going to talk about the “natural state of things”, then I assume you simply go out into the nearest forest, cut down a tree, and build whatever you need using the assortment of stone tools you’ve hand crafted?
ya thats my problem too. at least an 1.5 hr drive one way to get to “shops” that are not ace hardware or safeway. i live in a town of about 2k up a steep mountain pass. i would love to ditch amazon but its really really hard to
Yeah, I’ve been making a real effort to look for alternatives to Amazon whenever possible. It’s hard, though, depending on what you want. Sure, there’s a ton of stuff on Amazon that I can get local if I’m willing to put up with some inconvenience. I don’t buy books off of Amazon anymore, for example, because I’d rather call the small independent book shop that’s about 35 minutes drive from my house, have them order the book for me, and then drive out and pick it up.
But the sheer volume of things Amazon sells means there’s going to be LOTS of things that they have that just aren’t available around me. A new fan for my specific model of laptop? A replacement knob for my specific washing machine (for less than a dollar)? Amazon it is.
You obviously didn’t understand my comment. I may not have been clear, sorry if that was the case.
No, your comment was clear: anyone who doesn’t make whatever level of effort it takes to never shop at Amazon infuriates you. Furthermore, you assume that there are always other choices besides Amazon and Walmart. What you obviously still aren’t getting is that those other choices besides Amazon and Walmart may not be practical for everyone.
Amazon is bad. No one is disagreeing. But if I need a left-handed monkey wrench and my choices are either buy from Amazon or drive 2 hours to the closest major city, go to a big box store that let’s be honest, isn’t really much better than Amazon in terms of economic impact, and then drive 2 hours back, you being infuriated by my choosing to not waste half a day to choose the slightly-lesser-of-two-evils is a lovely demonstration of privilege.
I said explicitly the contrary…
That’s what you said, which is somewhat ambiguous phrasing. It could mean “why do you believe that there are no other choices, because there are?” or it could mean “yes, you have no other choices than those two, but how do you think that happened?”
Given that you started off by arguing that it was infuriating that anyone would ever shop at Amazon, and have been pretty consistent in your other comments that the solution is to just go to “an actual shop”, the first interpretation is much more appropriate to the context.
If you really meant “yes, you have no other choices than those two”, then sure, I’ll accept the back pedaling. It doesn’t change that you are infuriated that anyone would shop at Amazon, and accuse those that do of personally destroying the climate because we are lazy. The fact that you are aware that many people simply don’t have a better option, and yet you still judge them so harshly, only makes you look worse.
LOL the state of buying discs in brick and mortar store is abysmal now. I used to like buying discs from Walmart but the one near me has relegated everything to a bargain bin of kids’ movies, basically. Practically the only way to buy discs now is to do so online, or at a Best Buy or Barnes & Noble if you have one near you
Dang, I feel lucky to have a chain that is basically the modern equivalent of Blockbuster with several stores near me. It’s so much fun being able to physically browse through movies.
That sounds awesome, what’s the chain called? I’ll be traveling in about a month and I’d like to stop by if I come across one
Vintage Stock or Movie Trading Company depending on the location. They’re mostly in Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas.
Ah, I won’t be going through any of those states unfortunately
lol at actual shop… Those were put out of business a LONGGGGGGGGGGGG time ago…
Shops these days are home depot, walmart, best buy, academy, etc…