Memes

My neighborhood stores have huge markups and bad customer service. I don't love Amazon but they are a better alternative for most things.

Europe:

1. '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.
2. Packages are delivered to me personally. If I'm not there, they don't deliver and are forced to try another time.
3. 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.
4. Amazon prime is entirely unnecessary. You simply have to wait a bit longer.
5. You can find independent sellers on amazon, then if their product is good, you buy from them directly next time around.
6. 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.

I wish Amazon didn’t treat their employees so shittily. But I really don’t want to find out which of the stores around me have the thing I want and go there by bus. Even without prime the tickets are more expensive than shipping.

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

Depends on the area. Where I live I’ve never had a package stolen, Amazon or otherwise.

Who the absolute hell is doing this? I've had very few packages stolen in my decades of experience. Maybe, 1 or 2 out of hundreds?...

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.

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!

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.

I mean this buisness model is a dream for introverts

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.

Never had anything stolen. Guess living in a European village is nice after all.

To be fair, the delivery really is handy if you're shopping for something niche enough that it isn't sold locally, or if you don't have a car and are trying to buy something not sold within walking distance/within easy access to transit if available, or which is too heavy to carry without a vehicle. There's definitely a point here about local stores not being able to compete or with Amazon's monopolistic business practices though. The ideal thing I suppose would be some sort of website that local stores could sign up with to let people order stuff from to be delivered by the store or by a service the store uses, run as a non-profiting venture just at breakeven to avoid a motive to exploit stores that use it and have less individual power, combined with some kind of law against averaging shipping costs into the base costs of products and making shipping seem free, so as to ensure that local items are generally cheaper due to less needed transportation. In such a scenario, the central online shopping area wouldn't end up as a competitor to smaller local stores since it wouldn't actually sell anything itself, customers would be encouraged to buy items that take less transportation and thus fewer carbon emissions, and the convenience of having an online space in which almost everything for sale can be found and delivered can be preserved.

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.

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.

Same jar of fish food at my local pet store is $24 and on Amazon it's $12.

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.

USPS has lost a dozen or so of my checks and packages but I have never had any of the hundreds of packages delivered stolen.

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.

Lol, I never thought of it that way. I will admit, though, that package theft was already a thing. It's really bad if you live in an apartment.

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.

Ditched Amazon altogether when they started pushing Prime at every corner. Nobody needs to buy and get instant shipping for tons of useless crap

I'm in the middle of downtown in a small city shops are heavily weighed towards convenience or kick nacks. EG 2 different gift stores and no hardware store. Lots of convenience stores and two specialty markets but only one grocery store and that at least double the cost and 1/100th the selection of the chain stores with the floor space of 7-11.

Looking back small shops always had shitty prices and selection