Amazon’s now-legendary “Prime Day” is July 8-11. Much like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, this means sales on lots of items on Amazon’s vast marketplace, and as such many people flock to the giant’s website to get sweet deals on everything from computers to small kitchen appliances and more. While many of us are feeling the financial crunch more than ever, I urge you, dear reader, to resist the allure. I don’t typically have strong opinions about where people chose to shop or how they decide to spend their heard-earned money, but in this post I hope to lay out a convincing case for why Amazon is full-stop evil, no caveats, and is undeserving of your money on a moral and ethical level no matter what your values are. Amazon needs to be stopped, and legislation will not do so. Only its loyal consumers – who keep the beast alive – can do that by taking their money elsewhere. No matter your political or personal beliefs, I’m certain Amazon violates them in one way or another, and you should vote with your dollar by buying from other places whenever possible. Here’s why.
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I try to use local stores or other websites, and only use Amazon if I can’t find what I need there. But at least half the time I end up having to use Amazon because I can’t find what I need.
It’s probably a kind of vicious cycle: as Amazon eats further into profits of other companies they are more limited in what they can offer.
I have yet to see a single item have a significant discount on prime day, it’s not even a sale.
www.Camelcamelcamel.com for all your Amazon price comp needs.
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I can’t seem to find evidence of that. All I see is they’re Amazon affiliates, which pretty much anybody can be.
Do you have a source?
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Fair enough. Honestly it was probably a safe bet too considering how much they have their hands in.
Not owned by Amazon, but there’s a big but.
Their source of income is from Amazon affiliates link. Whenever you follow the price of a product, if you click on the links on their websites or in their emails, they will earn a commission from Amazon.
Amazon recently started vetting their affiliates more. I’m 100% sure that camelcamelcamel now shows data in a way that doesn’t hurt Amazon (e.g. they won’t show sudden drops in prices, i.e. pricing mistakes) or even themselves (commissions are a percentage of the price paid by the user).
Oh no way
It’s not.
I didn’t look into it yet but that would seem a bit… Against its own interests.
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Prices mysteriously go up about a week before prime day sales, then drop to a few dollars below normal, scream “39% off” and you feel like you beat the system.
Not the stores don’t use this trick during sales… This is probably the only thing Amazon has in common with everyoen else…
I’ve gone 3 years without ordering a single thing from amazon. I never intend to give them anymore money.
anymore money.
- any more money
- money anymore
You can’t straddle the lanes: you have to pick one.
Amazon is a parasite. That’s all the reason I need.
Amazon is already dead to us. Just like Tesla, Target, Starbucks, and Meta.
They will never be purchased from, or supported in any way- ever again.
I avoid buying from Amazon as much as possible, but good luck doing anything online and avoiding AWS.
good luck doing anything online and avoiding AWS.
Don’t let perfect stand in the way of good.
It’s not possible in most cases to even know if a given online resource is using AWS behind the scenes, so it’s not something you can really control.
On the other hand, if you happen to be a web developer, that is a different story, but for normal users it’s not something you can do much about.
Yeah, not a choice any of us who work in tech can make. But the small choices we CAN make do add up significantly.
I dont agree with every point made, but agree with the overall sentinent. My problem is that the same thing can be said about other retailers, especially the brick and mortar ones. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, …whoever. They’ve all done it, and continue to do it.
Small business? Yeah, those essentially don’t exist in this context.
I have always said, ecommerce isn’t killing brick and mortar retail. They are killing themselves. Why? Because I’ve never felt like a valued customer at any of the retailers out there. I’ve been absolutely shit on by all the big retailers out there. And that’s not even getting into their policies, politics, and other behind the scenes stuff that I do care about, but it doesn’t directly impact my shopping experience.
So then I can buy something online, from a wide selection, with competitive prices, have it delivered to my door quickly, and if there’s any issues have zero problem with returns? That works for me.
Now in modern times I can argue that they don’t always have great customer service, don’t always have great pricing (for what you get), and its not all sunshine and roses. But I don’t see a viable alternative.
Find me another retailer online or brick and mortar that can supply me well and treat me well and I’ll go. But small business cant compete. And big retailers when they had all the money and power they didn’t do that so now that they are the underdogs why would they do it? So it’s just not happening.
I’ve never felt like a valued customer
I only have once, and it’s made all the other ones seem so much worse by comparison.
Thank you Ace Hardware. You fucking ruined me.
ACE is more like a franchise than other retailers. Most are locally-owned. Some are employee-owned.
Story time?
The staff was friendly and helpful without being overbearing. They also knew what they were doing and could advise on projects. They weren’t understaffed, and they generally all seemed to enjoy working there.
It was strange.
That sounds so pleasant! Here, you go to Rona / Lowe’s, you ask them a question and you’re met with an “iunnodude”. Maybe home hardware is comparable.
Not OC, but here’s no single story. Any time I pop into my local Ace I can instantly get help getting what I need, which is not always what I think I want when I enter the store. Consistently knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly staff, combined with my money staying in the neighborhood, makes it worth it.
That’s because Ace Hardware is franchised. It’s essentially a bunch of small businesses that use the same branding.
The only reason you need - it’s a monopoly. Fuck its all.
And I also hate with passion that 5 years ago you’d need AWS in your CV.
Also, AWS is so much more expensive than going with your own server.
How does Temu compare to Crapazon?
If you love the Chinese low quality drop shipped items on Amazon, and wish that was the only thing they stocked, then Temu is great!
It’s worse than Amazon. It’s just cheap crap that will break in two weeks without any of the quality products that Amazon sometimes has.
I have never bought anything from Amazon and I don’t plan on it. I do understand that sometimes it’s the only place to find something that a person might NEED though - and at a price they can afford, so I don’t hate on the people on tight budgets that can’t find an item anywhere else. (It’s like when people buy stuff from Walmart, Target, etc. sometimes it’s the only place where you can get necessities.) However, if you can afford to get it somewhere else then do it…or if you can only find it on Amazon maybe reassess if you ACTUALLY need it.
Enshittification.
full-stop
Instantly distrust.
Today, you learned that not everyone on the Internet is from the USA or Canada.
