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It’s Surprisingly Easy to Live Without an Amazon Prime Subscription (slate.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/frugal@lemmy.world
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[–] 19 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Now granted, I don't live in America, but I have never even considered using Amazon, and I don't understand why anyone would..

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago

    Amazon was really great when it started out, you'd find what you were looking for, at correct/very good prices, fast shipping and good service if something was lost or broken. The whole experience was top notch.

    But that was over ten years ago.

    I did stop using it when it was still very good but all the abuse popped up on media.

    I'm in the EU BTW.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Mail order has historically been a large part of US consumer buying. This is due to the number of people that lived in remote rural areas for most of this countries history. Access to goods was severely restricted due to that problem. And didn't really start changing much until post WW2 and the growth of urbanization. Mailing a cheap catalog to everyone was the best way to show off your goods and get necessary goods to those who wanted them and would have no access otherwise.

    Amazon is merely the latest in a very long line of those businesses that developed that marketing stratagem. And since I live in one of those remote areas, Amazon does provide me with easy, fast, and generally competitive priced goods that I would simply never be able to access without making a 600 mile round trip to get. But if you live a large dense city, there is little need for Amazon. But then, people order uber eats or whatever it's called to get supper when they could cook something to eat cheaper instead.

    I could spend hours googling for items from small and possibly sketchy websites and wait times than can stretch to several weeks or more, and sometimes I do out of boredom, but time is money as they say, and I do have other things to do.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    As someone else who lives in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, I use Amazon for stuff I can't find locally. Our local (and family owned) grocery & hardware stores are not much more expensive, so I tend to buy essentials there and save Amazon as a last resort. Amazon's pricing isn't anything special, and being able to talk to a knowledgeable shop owner is more than worth the extra few cents in price.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    I seldom need to talk to a shop owner unless I want to talk about the fishing or weather. The price difference between items in local stores and amazon is generally measured in whole dollars. And I always balance the cost to buy on line vs the cost of gas money, (when the nearest real grocery store is a 100 mile round trip and still is limited in choice and availability and the local one sells milk, some bread, a few canned goods and such), also gets considered. Amazon almost always wins on price if I can wait the week it takes to get an item.

    This next week I need to pull and test some ice cube relays in my tractor. I hope the blower fans stopped working because of a bad relay. If not, I will need to pull to roof off the cab to get at the blower motors. I already know I will need to order any parts. I could have the local John Deere dealer get them for me, but the price will be outrageous. The relays should be available from amazon, not sure about the blower motors though.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    As someone who lives in a major US metro, I order online because I'd rather have a truck that's already on the road make an extra stop at my house than drive a single passenger vehicle 20 minutes each way to get it. Put stuff in the shopping cart, wait for it to hit the free shipping threshold, order. May cost slightly more than stores, but I save on gas and CO2. Groceries, definite go to the store.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Same here. Never ordered anything off Amazon. Not sure about the U.S., but I've never had trouble finding anything in other places, so I never had to resort to Amazon. Maybe certain things are harder to get in the U.S. except on Amazon? Some kind of monopoly thing?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Sort of. For me, it is the trouble finding things elsewhere part, but maybe not quite how you’re thinking.

    There are all sorts of stores, way too many stores, stores in all directions, stores of all sizes, but especially really big. If I want to get something, I need to go to one of these stores, more likely multiple of these stores. Even the biggest store will only have a limited selection and only at a specific price. Back in the old days, I might spend a day shopping to find what I wanted, I might look for it many weekends in a row, I might pay attention to sales so I can get a better price, then go in as the store opened so I could get it before it sold out. Why do that to myself? Why waste so much of my time and attention? Why drive around so much? It doesn’t make sense. Meanwhile Amazon has it, every brand and variation (even if most are identical), usually to be delivered in a couple days. If it’s not a good price point, I don’t have to click on it.

    Amazon has made my life much easier by reducing the time and travel I spend on various necessities. Now in a typical week, my only “chore” driving might be to goto the grocery

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Oh, right. I completely understand. Shopping sucks. I always order everything online too, because I hate shopping. But I've just never needed Amazon for it. Pretty much every store delivers and if you don't want to pay for delivery, you can just order and pick up at the store. This way you don't have to physically 'shop around' and you don't run the risk of something being sold out. Kinda like take-out.

    Absolutely not against ordering stuff online, it's a time-saver. It's just.. Amazon in particular. I prefer not condoning their terrible employee treatment.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I can order stuff from Amazon and ship them to my house for cheaper than walking 100m to a store. During COVID this was a game-changer, post-covid it's still super convenient.

    I'm not even talking about the Amazon drop point that's across the street from the store. I mean to the 24-hour BlueBox drop in my building for no-contact deliveries I can pick up any time.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The only reason is not having to register to thousands of crappy webshops that don't know shit about itsec and get data leaks all the time. There are other platforms than Amazon but I don't think their business practices are significantly more ethical.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I miss those Sears outlets, mere kiosk windows on the sides of warehouses where you pick up your catalogue selections.

    If Sears could have held on for just a bit and gotten on that Internet ordering wave, its presence in every town across 5 time zones would give it a massive head start.

    Maybe they woulda had to up-armour the wickets like a NJ white castle drive-through but even a "go pick it up" workflow would have been great.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    There was a time in the long ago times when it was a really good, customer focused service that didn't have all of the issues it has today. It then of course got worse every year like everything else but now many people use it out of habit or addiction.

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