We’ve become ridiculously dependent on Amazon. Want to buy a shoehorn (for example) but don’t know what brick & mortar store would even carry one? No problem. Amazon.
But we want to disconnect ourselves (for reasons that aren’t appropriate in IMHO but I’m sure you can guess.) Is there an online alternative? or should I just google “where can I buy a shoehorn” every time we want something?
I order my books now from a Black-owned business in DC, Mahogany Books.
eBay.com walmart.com target.com temu.com
Depends on what you want to buy.
Both the Walmart and Target websites list stuff for sale, both from the companies themselves and from third party sellers. (Many may be the same third party sellers that sell through Amazon.) And of course there are dozens of other sellers; wayfair.com (for furniture and accessories), homedepot.com, lowes.com, etc.
I rarely buy anything from Amazon. There’s almost always a way around it. See something on Amazon? Notice the seller, or manufacturer? They almost always sell it without Amazon too. You may get it slower and you may have to pay shipping and you may pay a little more for it. The seller gets to keep your money, instead of Amazon taking a bite taken out of it. And you have the consciousness of virtue. Depending of course on what you buy.
I’ve been pulling my spending dollars away from Amazon for a few years now. Funny thing is, often, by the time I find the item I’m looking for elsewhere I’ve decided I really don’t need it. I’m saving a fortune as well as a few square feet of landfill every year.
I haven’t gone this route yet. Is there a thread somewhere about why we should be doing this? (p.s. I don’t think politics is verboten in IMHO, is it?)
Walgreens.com. CVS.com. For health/beauty items.
Bookshop.org for books. It supports local bookstores.
And yes, you can Google or DuckDuckGo where to buy a shoehorn.
The reality is if you are buying stuff online, or from pretty much any company, you’re supporting sociopathic corporations.
But the best alternatives I’ve seen are
ebay
aliexpress
walmart (walmart has a lot of independent 3rd sellers for online orders).
Aliexpress many times has the same items as amazon for a lower price.
Google the sellers and you will often find they have their own website. Walmart isn’t any less evil than Amazon.
I’ve seen shoehorns for sale at shoe stores, usually by the checkout desk. Pretty sure they have them at Walmart, too. Heck, I’d bet CVS sells shoehorns.
Personally, I’ve ordered about ten things from Amazon in my life… it’s not cheap to have things delivered and I’ve never been able to afford Prime. But I did use it a lot for a previous job, because the prices were often cheaper than OfficeDepot &etc.
~Max
I wonder how many shoehorns I could thrift?
I can’t imagine there’s not dozens.
Or use a spoon, a metal ruler or a plastic bag.
I know this isn’t about shoehorns. Just musing.
But you really don’t wanna plop your bucks down at giant retailers? Thrift, reuse, use alternatives.
I buy a lot of my DVD’s and Blu-Rays from Movies Unlimited and other sellers rather than Amazon.
I want a shoehorn. The kind with teeth.
I can answer this without modern politics (which is mainly related to the founder/executive chairman): I have seriously curtailed my Amazon use due to specific practices on this specific website’s part. You cannot avoid Amazon as a company because AWS runs everything.
its a bunch of Temu-level crap now, you’ll find multiple variations of some product under multiple randomly generated name, directly dropshipped from a factory in China. If you look up the product in a year or so, the product page will be gone like it’s never existed, and there will be multiple other randomly generated companies in its place.
Amazon does nothing to deter counterfeit products on their platform, and clearly know its a problem. Aside from shady sellers, buying direct from a legitimate manufacturer does not guarantee quality as the co-mingle goods. Best bet is to find something you want and buy it elsewhere, convenience aside.
On the google search page there are tabs for what type of search you want to do. i.e. image, video, news, all.
One of them is “shopping”. If you search “shoe horn” and limit the search to shopping it’ll give you a variety of online places to buy one from.
There’s an app called Goods Unite Us that some of my friends have been using, and I downloaded as well. It lets you search stores to find out their political stances, at least by way of their corporate (and sometimes employee) political donations. They’re rated red/blue.
I had to buy some home DIY stuff the other day that wasn’t in stock at my local Home Depot so I used the Goods Unite Us app to help me decide whether to buy from THD, Lowes, Ace or Menard’s. I found out that Lowe’s is the least red amongst them that had what I wanted, so I went with them. They’re still red tho. Ace would have been a similarly acceptable choice if they had what I needed.
I do still shop in person at Home Depot, because they are in my city. Local brick-and-mortar does support the local economy, even if the top is siphoned off for nefarious deeds.
Walgreens and CVS are even worse than Amazon, regarding the way they treat their employees. Use another platform for health and beauty products.
As for books, use Alibris, Biblio, Bonanza, World of Books, and for everything, there’s still eBay.
People should get beat up for stating their beliefs!
(Oops, wrong forum!)
For example, when you visit this website your computer has to translate straightdope.com into a numeric IP address. It does this by asking your DNS provider (usually the internet service provider eg. Comcast), who in turn asks* the Straight Dope’s DNS provider, Amazon, on your behalf.
~Max
* The ISP will keep a record so they only have to ask Amazon once every couple days.