'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.

[–] Veltoss@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Spot on. The OP doesn't need to make up reasons Amazon are shit and should be avoided. There are plenty of legitimate reasons

[–] Squids@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 year ago

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

[–] Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] PeleSpirit@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] collegefurtrader@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] zout@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then their product isn't good, so you don't buy from them next round? Doesn't make it false.

[–] PeleSpirit@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] zout@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

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.