With all of the sketchy products Amazon has and their bad practices, I’m really considering getting rid of Amazon. The only thing I will really miss is the fast shipping.
My reasoning is that I don’t use Prime benefits outside of shipping because I don’t play live service games anymore, and lots of local stores price match.
For those of you who have ditched Amazon(or not), what’s your reasoning and advice?
Any input is appreciated, thank you.
Cancel Prime
Add ‘Personal Blocklist’ to your browser, block Amazon from search results (although ‘Google Hit Hider’ for Greasemonkey works better)
Amazon hasn’t managed to get any of my orders to me in fewer than 3 days for over a year. I just put together some computer parts using PCPartsPicker, and Amazon wasn’t the cheapest option on anything. There’s no advantage to using them anymore. They treat their employees like shit, they treat their suppliers like shit, and they force anyone selling through Amazon Marketplace to agree to some seriously fucked up shit.
I do everything I can to avoid Amazon, for exactly this reason. I don’t want to be one of those people in the 1800s wearing slave-picked and processed cotton (which, living in the US, I basically am, but every little step back upwards helps I guess).
Cancel it and see how it goes. You won’t miss it, especially when you look at the price to sign back up.
I’ve started buying more stuff from eBay. eBay can also be a total mess, but depending on what you’re buying the sellers are usually quick to ship.
Sign up again when they offer free month. Then cancel. I used to do it, however I didn’t even order anything when it was free. Too much garbage. I’d rather see the garbage before buying it so I went back to malls and stores.
I didltched amazon for multiple reasons.
The horrible working conditions of the people that actually package and ship the products I purchased, the anti-competitive nature of their platform, and the insane amount of shit that you find combined with the impossibility of searching or browsing their website for any product whatsoever.
I still have to use it for work because it’s the only one that our corporate overseers have approved and I fucking hate it.
It’s impossible to have any amount of ethics and shop online any more.
It’s also very fucking difficult to shop in person and have ethics.
It’s nearly impossible to have ethics and exist in America.
Fuck
I’ve worked in shipping for a couple months and I can only say this: People should order way less stuff online or make sure they are using an ethical shipping company (if they even exist).
the industry prays on young people (often minorities) who have trouble getting other jobs. they almost exclusively hire people with short term contracts (because your body can’t take the work for more than a few months). I’ve been part of a union for a long time and I know a lot about work safety. These companies teach people nothing and they can only meet their deadlines if people actively break their backs twisting around, doing unsafe lifts and generally working to fast.
I get that shipping is sometimes necessary, but it can only be as fast and cheap as it is, because poor people pay with their bodies.
I thought so, and also because of that try not to buy overseas and generally buy second Hand and local, but still its terrible to hear that it is indeed this way. :/
I got rid of Amazon Prime and I don’t miss it. I only really signed up for the faster shipping. But then they started raising their prices and I started questioning why I even pay for this. I never pay for faster shipping on other sites. Pair that with the sketchy or poor quality products and bad practices and the decision was a no-brainer for me.
Yes I was thinking about the fast shipping and most things that I would need I can get locally. To offset shipping times I can just order earlier, and it’s not like any emergency items that I trust would be on Amazon
I ditched Amazon because I worked for them for almost two years and saw how they treat people. They care about nothing other than making as much money as they can and spending as little as possible to do it. They work people to the bone because it’s cheaper to have them quit and just hire someone else than it is to keep ‘em around and have ‘em eventually ask for a raise.
I unsubscribed from Prime over a year ago. Just like you, the only reason I subscribed was for the fast and free shipping. Without Prime, if you place an order over $35, it’s free shipping. It’s not as fast as it was but honestly the fast shipping wasn’t as fast as it used to be either.
The instant gratification technology has afforded us is something I think we should ponder. Are we not being manipulated to pay increasingly higher fees just to get something in our hands a day or two sooner? I know local businesses often don’t carry what we can get online, if they exist at all (RIP RadioShack), but some places like Target can have things available for pickup in a day or two. I’m all for getting off ours asses and contributing a few pennies to our local economies. Nothing against Amazon workers, but I rather keep even big box stores that are operating locally open and employing people in my community.
Also, now without Prime, I’m finding better deals from other sources across the web - especially eBay for things like used books.
Just shop AliExpress. It’s the same garbage that is sold on Amazon, but without Amazon’s large markup.
stopped using Amazon years ago, i try to shop local/used and go to dept stores for everything else. reasoning is cuz it was the right thing for the economy and my wallet. Amazon destroys local businesses worldwide and pays international workers a slave wage
I dropped Amazon like … I dunno, 15 years ago? I just couldn’t stand them. Stuff that I have to buy online, I try to get from their original manufacturers or a trusted reseller (like, I dunno, if I was trying to buy a baby thermometer, I might get it from a reputable drug store, that kind of thing).
For stuff that I absolutely can’t find a match for, I’ll put it in my cart and just leave it there. A lot of times, I’ll find that I don’t actually need that item, it was either seen impulse buy or I can get something similar elsewhere. Eventually, once every year or two, my basket fills up over the limit that gets me free shipping. I’ll still wait, but eventually I’ll buy the whatever they are. But it means that I’m buying from Amazon like once every year or two, and it’s stuff that I’ve researched and waited on.
I never had prime. The rare times where Amazon is the only reasonable source for something, I either don’t need fast shipping or just pay for it.