Amazon gives non-Prime members free shipping at $35 or more of eligible items. Instead of simply letting users get the product with free shipping, they’ve added a discount that prices it exactly one cent below the $35 limit, while only subsidizing the price with $3.38, which is about half of what they’ll then charge you for shipping.
Easy fix, don’t buy from Amazon.
I try to when I can, but I tend to have major difficulties doing so.
I tried Ebay, they restricted my account and said the only way for me to get it un-restricted was to buy a product from a limited set of brand-new partner suppliers (e.g. Logitech, HP, etc) that were all over $100, and nothing I actually needed.
I tried buying some chargers from Anker and they also restricted me and said they wouldn’t let me make a purchase because my email seemed suspicious (I don’t use Gmail), so I had to go back to Amazon and buy it there instead for practically the same price, even though it would have actually been cheaper on Anker’s own website since they had a discount code that would have worked for my order.
I bought something on Target because I’d been given a Target gift card, Target cancelled my order 3 times and made me contact customer service to remove an invisible hold on my account.
I frequently try checking third-party sites for the same products, and the prices are way higher (e.g. A product I plan on purchasing is $80 on the manufacturer’s site, and $58 on Amazon, with the price frequently dropping to $38) because Amazon literally mandates that the cheapest price must be on Amazon. Often times, these price differences are so drastic that I could end up paying double for the same product.
I also tend to get Amazon gift cards from relatives even though they already know I dislike using Amazon when I don’t have to, so it’s often somewhat unavoidable.
Don’t get me wrong, those are just the worst instances so far. I’ve bought quite a few items from elsewhere before without issues, it’s just that I tend to have the occasional issue that makes it practically impossible to buy elsewhere.
Believe me, I do my best to not have to spend money on Amazon, but it’s either so drastically more expensive that it’s simply not reasonable to buy elsewhere, or for various reasons I mentioned before, I’m not even capable of placing an order in the first place.
Sounds like you need to make a boring Gmail account just for buying online.
iFixit has their own store.
I know, I only took this specific screenshot because it happened to show up as a recommendation within Amazon’s interface and I noticed the price and discount seemed odd. I intend to try buying it (or at least, a similar set made by iFixit) on their own site when I end up actually needing it.
What’s the alternative? The other places I can order a big box of cheap stuff from (Walmart, Target) are run by even worse people and have even worse service.
I once ordered porcelain plates from target and they arrived with no packaging. I don’t mean insufficient packaging, I mean four plates just thrown in a giant box with absolutely nothing else. Somehow 3 were not broken.
Right now I want 1) creatine and 2) cheap t-shirts and I don’t wanna pay for shipping them separately. I can’t find any place where I can get both at a reasonable price besides one of the above. I’m actually considering a costco membership but I’m only going to ever order online from them so I doubt it’s worth their stupid membership.
Generally, I believe the convenience of cheap shit delivered to your door comes at the invisible cost of exploitative labor practices and/or excessive consumerism by the means of low quality crap that will need to be replaced regularly or through “buy more and save” deals. If you want to avoid supporting that, you’re probably going to have to spend a few extra bucks buying from a smaller business or buying secondhand.
Convenience isn’t free and if we want to reduce our dependence on harmful institutions we’re going to have to make some sacrifices.
I do this. But, I’m also lucky to live in a city with second hand shit everywhere. Not everyone lives in a city.
But, google shopping will tell you an alternative store to buy most things online. And compare costs for you. This gets tricky if you’re also trying to cut google out of your life though. There really is no ethical consumption under capitalism ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well, in the case of the OP, the alternative is the manufacturer: https://www.ifixit.com/Tools
Shop for shit on amazon then buy it from the manufacturers website.
I recently discovered dupe.com , which works quite well by giving it an Amazon link and finding it on potentially cheaper, definitely non-Bezos websites.
Either buy more expensive shirts or stop buying creatine if you want to stop ripping them
This comment should be higher lol
Go into debt on those t-shirts if you have to
Walmart and Target aren’t run by worse people. I’ve never heard of Target or even Walmart employees being forced to piss in bottles or a robot will fire them.
They said, they are still bad people, as retail capitalists, but are you ready to have that conversation?
Retail capitalists are fine, but Amazon, Walmart, and Target all did the maga loyalty thing after Trump’s win. I don’t need to buy from someone who shares my politics or even doesn’t disagree with me, I just need them to not be outright oligarchs using my money to support dictators.
Good luck finding that unicorn.
there is no ethical consumption under capitalism
Target also have free 2 day shipping and 5% discount if you use their “Red Card”, which is free. It’s available as a debit or credit card. I’m using the debit card version which doesn’t require a credit check or impact your credit score.
Sure, it lets them track what you buy, but they can already do that if you pay with credit or debit card. The only way to not get tracked is by paying cash or buying prepaid Visa/Mastercard gift cards and swapping them periodically.
I don’t want to simp for Target too much, but the union DCs I’ve been in seem to treat their employees pretty good. No idea about the stores though, I’ve only seen their distribution centers.
Just a heads up on the Costco online thing, their selection isn’t that expansive, so it can’t replace Amazon for you. You’re at the whims of what item and brand they decide to carry and when.
What’s wrong with Target? Only thing I heard was backlash from putting out certain kinds of lgbtq+ designs and then reacting by pulling those back (and getting backlash again for that).
Support your local businesses. Unless its a super niche product, just buy it local
Normally cheaper on eBay in my experience. Pretty rare that I will use Amazon these days
So you literally never buy from Amazon?
You must live in a very major city.
Ebay, Etsy, and the manufacturer direct are great places to go too
Those have their own issues.
It’s literally not even hard, but yes you have to put some effort into it, and of course it isn’t convenient. You’ll probably save money, though - Amazon hasn’t had the best prices on 95% of items for many years now.
If you aren’t OK with being slightly inconvenienced, you can always keep supporting Nazis 🤷♂️
“Not convenient”? Have you any idea what it’s like to live in the US rural south? It’s Walmart, Amazon, or just fucking die.
Or any other online store? I have seen very few that won’t ship via USPS and USPS delivers everywhere.
For twice the price, triple the wait time, and if you juggle like 40 accounts sure.
Have you ever lived off minimum wage in a poor region?
USPS charges a not insignificant amount for shipping heavy items to Alaska (excluding media mail that frequently takes months and few retailers ever use). If physical stores sold anything at a reasreasonable price (aside from off season fishing /hunting /cold equipment) fewer people would use Amazon.
there are a lot of companies that sell things direct to consumer, using the exact same shipping infrastructure that amazon would otherwise be using, if it doesnt already.
If you live rurally, go campaign for funding the USPS more, trump fucked that one, you can thank him for that.
“If you don’t have access to even remotely consistent alternatives than just go solve the USPS for us” are you for real?
thats the thing though, at that point the USPS is already going to be a problem, in literally every form of online order you make.
Amazon even uses USPS in some places from what i can remember, they mostly use their in house shit when it’s financially competitive.
And yes, the USPS is fundamental infrastructure, it is critically important to the functionality of the US as a whole. It’s the sole reason mail based communication even works. Without the USPS the federal government and most state governments lose a lot of power.
I don’t disagree with any of this but I also dont get the relevance. Amazon is what we have access to. That and Walmart.
yeah, if you’re buying from a single retailer. There are a lot of places that sell products online, and they’re all very accessible. The only thing stopping you from using them is literally your own laziness.
Physical retailers is more of a limit, since there are only ever so many. But that’s part of the utility of something like the postal system.
who are these amazing ethical retailers with a wide selection of available products that can be delivered virtually anywhere in the US in less than a week at a reasonable price?
It’s not lazy. You just have no perspective. Cutting Amazon and Walmart and such out of your life is a privilege. You are privileged. Millions of Americans are not.
Let’s take a look at the products on your desk and on your person. Let’s really parse your alleged ethical consumption. Tell me: what phone and computer do you use?
> why does this large conglomerate mega corp not have any ethical small business competition
you need to reality check yourself, and either pay more for shipping, or just accept that sometimes things arrive a little bit slower than convenient. If you have amazon prime you already know about this.
IDK why people expect services that are entirely separate and different to be the exact same, it’s like they’ve never gone outside before.
As for your ethical reflection into my purchases, i do not care, as i am anti humanist. I simply do not have a leg in the race, whether i die or not is irrelevant. As for my phone, i didn’t pay any money for it, it was free. And my computer, or computers, are built by me, from hardware that i bought, with my own money.
With the exception of my thinkpad collection (entirely secondhand) most of that hardware has been purchased new, as that is generally how people buy computer hardware.
Also to be fully transparent, i don’t believe i ever stated that i am an ethical consumer (i am in some aspects, i just don’t buy very many things, especially useless things, i’m a utilitarian) but for the things i do buy, i don’t spend much time thinking about it for the aforementioned reasons.
Nah, fuck that, you’re just lazy and entitled. Obviously sometimes things come up, but why does everything have to ship in less than a week? Amazon doesn’t even have the best price on 95% of shit anymore, and hasn’t for years - ditching Amazon has saved me money on nearly every single item, I just have to wait slightly longer for them.
You can support nazis if you want - it’s not illegal, despite every rational perspective in the world. But don’t blame your support on bullshit like “I can’t think ahead more than two days.”
I don’t. It’s called Wal-Mart, last hope of democracy
Wait