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Been doing this for a couple of years now. Sometimes I end up paying a bit more or have to pay for shipping but that’s better than using Amazon for me. If I can’t find it I do without.

My family mostly boycotted Amazon after their pullback from diversity initiatives, amongst other things (anti-union behavior). We spend 80% less than we used to. The drop is probably even bigger than that because we had a kid just before we started boycotting and so our spending increased significantly. We will buy from Amazon if we have no other options, but 80% of the time there are plenty of other options and often they are cheaper.

Amazon has Toddleroo products, but you can also buy them direct from the manufacturer at northstatesind.com and with the WELCOME10 coupon code it’s actually cheaper than Amazon, and you can use it more than once.

We also switched to shopping a ton more from Costco. Some products automatically get free shipping, like diaper genie refills. Costco didn’t back down from diversity initiatives so I basically said Take My Money (we already were avid Costco Warehouse shoppers).

The biggest challenge is shipping costs. I either have to order enough to meet the manufacturer’s minimum to get free shipping, or eat the shipping cost. That being said, Prime is like $180 a year? Even if I pay for shipping I think I am still saving money.

Any suggestions on buying lots of cheap random electronic parts for projects and avoiding racking up shipping costs from ordering from multiple sites? E.g. I had to order ~20 different cheap parts (boost converter, charge controller, micro switches, a cheap devboard, USB breakouts, etc) for a personal hobby project recently. I used Amazon unfortunately. Curious about good alternatives for this kind of stuff.

Sadly, I offen see stuff being more expensive on the company website...

Maybe that can work but you can't get rid of Amazon just by shopping elsewhere. It's important to also push for anti-monopoly legislation and enforcement, and of course that labor law be properly enforced so that Amazon has to pay people better wages.

Try to not use google in the process too.

If you can find a unique product or part number for the product, searching that will often bring up a short list of sites that sell that exact product.

I haven't bought a single thing off Amazon in over ten years, since they pissed me off. I don't even comparison shop Amazon to see whether I'm paying more, that's how much I hate them. I'll pay more to not use Amazon. Also, nothing I'm buying online is something I can't do without, and sometimes I just don't buy it--shocking, I know.

$4 XOOMJI sandals do not exist outside of amazon lmao

Edit: this comment is not pro-amazon.

I'm not sure where many people in this thread are from, but I have a question in case some of you who are complaining about, "I don't really have a choice," are from the US. Do you guys not have other online retailers? I thought the US would have Walmart, Target, Costco, etc. so that you could avoid using Amazon.

In Japan we don't have brick and mortar retail stores like the ones I mentioned above that carry all sorts of random products, but we do have Rakuten, which is an online shop/marketplace similar to Amazon. Does Amazon really have a grip on all online retail there?

6. Buy cheap shit on Amazon, that is refundable.
   6a. Select fastest delivery free to you.
   6b. Return item for full refund.
   6c. ???
   6d. Amazon doesn't profit.

Of course we'd need to do this on large scale.

Have issue with product. Return process is abysmal and chargeable. End up wishing you bought from Amazon.

you mean you dont want the same thing from the fuzzdbuadk store?

To be fair, I have found some really cool products on Amazon, but then there is no website for the company and it's all through Amazon exclusively. I tend to avoid those "shops" no matter how cool it is. Thankfully there aren't many like that. I think I ran across only 3 so far.

the only other sites AWOOZY or HIDUWN or CHASIL or whatever random-ass string of characters claiming to be an individual company but are just proxies for manufacturer are on is alibaba or temu. same shit.

The disappearnce of brick-and-mortar stores is one the biggest catastrophes caused by Big Tech. The 'free to return if dissatisfied' option creates higher prices for everything you'd have avoided purchasing at the store, along with the added environmental costs of two wasted trips, and the product possibly being disposed-of.

The brick-and-mortar loss also means that consumers of necessities have far fewer options to buy locally.

I've tried that a few times, most of the time they don't have their own store or charge significantly more or have significantly reduced choices on their own site.

half of you wouldn't have survived the pre-internet world, "oh no i have to shop locally??"

Company sign contracts with Amazon saying they will not sell it for anywhere less than the Amazon price.

Order from them and it ends up being fulfilled by Amazon anywhere.

I wanted a good coffee grinder.

• Looked up the top reviewed by Consumer Reports.
• Searched for retailers
• Amazon suggestion seemed like a knock-off
• Walmart suggestion seemed like a knock-off
• Found in Dillards (the mall store) website
• Ordered
• Delivery took three weeks because a store clerk literally looked for one within the physical stores
• Received and it is perfect

Yes, it took forever, but I got a quality product that I am sure is the real thing and not a knock-off