We buy practically everything but groceries from Amazon, and even then there might be some specialty wheat or other weird food product my wife wants that we can get from them.
The 5% discount from my Amazon card is nice, plus my car insurance company gives me Amazon credits for not driving like an idiot.
All that said, in January we’re gonna let Prime lapse and see how that works out… more bulk ordering, less impromptu ordering.
My apologies, that’s mostly my adult children. On the bright side, they aren’t breaking the phones themselves.
Really, this, plus items that are substantially cheaper, especially electronic accessories. Long before Amazon became the default, big box electronic stores (Best Buy) killed the small, local competitors and smaller chains. So if I want a new keyboard, it’s Best Buy, Walmart, or Amazon, and of the three, Amazon will give me the best price and selection.
My orders in the last 6 months include:
Replacement N95 masks before the cold season (1/3 the price of Target)
Power button flip top covers (for the UPS the cats always manage to step on)
One additional note. I -do- buy a considerable amount of non-digital music and dvds/BR for two reasons. I’ve been burned by lost licenses as an early iTunes adopter (2 movies disappeared, and a few shows), but more importantly, it’s easier to rip and store such things on my NAS for custom playlists and in house network sharing rather than downloading / steaming to individual devices.
The FTC is going to lose this case. Amazon doesn’t make any money from its retail business. That’s hardly the profile of a monopoly exploiting its position to jack up prices and harm consumers.
Clothes, bath towels, sheets, blankets, pillows, some canned food, nuts and bolts, metal stock, plastic stock, plumbing fixtures and fittings, dog food and whatever else my wife and I order as needed. There’s at least 2 deliveries every week. If the shipping wasn’t free that would be the end of it.
I hope they do. I value Amazon as a reliable supplier, and from my very limited experience I admire the competence and integrity of their customer service. Perhaps the most telling example is that my experience with customer service is so limited because I’ve hardly ever had to use it despite being an Amazon customer for decades.
I hate to see Amazon harassed, except maybe for the dishonest ripoff pricing practices that they let their third-party resellers get away with. Example: about a year or so ago I bought a bunch of quality men’s briefs from HBC (Hudson’s Bay Company), the last surviving department store chain in Canada. Unless you count Walmart, which I do not. HBC survives because it mostly caters to a niche market of high-quality, high-priced goods. The point being that these weren’t purchased from some deep-discount dollar store, but from a premium upscale retailer. When I got home it occurred to me that it might have been much simpler to just purchase them from Amazon. I did a search and was shocked at what it turned up – the exact same product was being offered by a third-party Amazon seller for something close to three times the fair price I had paid at an upscale luxury department store. I’ve seen the same pricing scam on things like computer cables and adapters.
Back when Amazon was mostly a bookstore, I bought maybe half a dozen books from there. Since then, in the past 20 years, I haven’t bought anything off Amazon. Specialty online retailers fill my needs, for the maybe 50% of purchases outside of food I can’t get locally from brick and mortar type establishments.
The best thing about Amazon is the wide variety of options, all in one place, making them relatively easy to compare against each other, something my local stores can’t compete with.
Most of what I get are mundane domestic items for the kitchen and bathroom, but it’s nice to know I can find things that are exactly what I’m after, no compromises due to lack of availability.
I live pretty remote. There is a Target about 45 minutes away. Otherwise, Denver is two hours away. I buy pretty much everything but food on Amazon.
I have a box at a UPS store about a half hour away. I don’t make the poor drivers deliver to my house.That would be really mean (if not impossible) in the winter.
Last Purchases.
Rocket Book. It’s a sort reusable note book that you take a picture of the pages and send it to their app where it becomes searchable. Then wipe the pages clean.
Maui Jim Sun glasses. I’m particular about my sunglasses
Charger for my laptop. A generic one won’t work.
Electric tooth brush (could have bought that at Target I suppose)
Filters for a vacuum. Have to be a specific type.
I will go to a building center for stuff for around the house. I do a fair amount of handyman type stuff. There are three of those that I can visit, and I often need stuff NOW not in a week.
I work from home and am pretty low maintenance. I buy maybe two pairs of jeans and one pair of shoes a year.
I just bought some yellow blackout curtains for my guest bedroom, along with the rod and tie backs. They had all of the colors I was considering, but the main reason I chose to buy on Amazon was that I hate going shopping for this type of stuff because it takes several boring hours to find what I want.
I sometimes want grocery items I simply can not find in local stores - either particular ethnic ingredients or something like loose-leaf tea. That doesn’t come up very often, but it does happen.
I do order my work shoes on line, but not from Amazon. I order directly from New Balance and since I know my shoe size and I’m ordering the same model of shoe each time I don’t have to try them on.
A big problem around here is finding a knowledgeable employee, but if you can find one yes, I agree, that’s wonderful. Meanwhile, when I need an electronic item that either isn’t available in local stores (I don’t live completely in the sticks, but I’m not, apparently, in an area that stocks everything, just some things) or has to be ordered anyway for pickup why not use Amazon? Well, sometimes I’ll have a local store order it, but more often I get a hard-sell to “upgrade” or buy something other than what I want. I may have to do more research to be able to select something on Amazon but at least I get what I want without arguing with a salesperson.
I think there is some sort of prescription drug offering from Amazon but since I don’t take anything daily it’s a moot point. The occasional prescriptions I need for short-term problems I get from the pharmacy where I work so yeah, not for me, but for some folks getting their meds delivered to their homes is a big deal.
Looking over my past couple years of ordering on Amazon:
Electronic items purchased on one of those deep discount days, two of which were not available in local stores. Also, I got a better price on cartridges for my printer and I didn’t have to worry about whether or not they were in stock at local stores.
Clothing: workpants and jeans - I know the brand and size I want so I don’t need to try them on or spend hours at stores trying to find my size in whatever pile of trousers they happen to stock at the moment. Also bras - again, I know my size for a particular brand and don’t have to spend hours at stores sorting through whatever they happen to stock that day. For those items I can get the size, style, and color I want without headache. I also wear compression socks at work (I do a lot of standing) and I can get nice-looking (meaning, not medical looking) ones six at a time on Amazon for less than buying the old-lady looking ones by the pair at local stores. The rain jacket was a bit of a gamble but it’s a nice, sturdy rain jacket which, apparently, stores around here don’t bother to stock.
Food: loose leaf tea and a couple varieties we don’t have available locally. Also a bag of bonito flakes which are just not available around here, no, not even at Whole Foods (I asked why they discontinued them and apparently I was the only one buying them in the entire county or something).
Miscellaneous: A box of N95 masks at a better price than the slim pickin’s at local stores, from a business in my home state rather than from China. (I’ve used N95 and other respirator masks for years due to allergies and some of the craft materials I’ve worked with). A box of desiccant packets. Some 1 ounce “portion cups” with lids so I can take things like home made salad dressing with my lunch to work, also came in handy for setting up daily food rations when I board my parrot or have someone feed him if I’m away over night which I simply could not find at local stores. A set of tatting needles which, again, are not available at local stores. Quilling paper in specific colors - always out of stock at the local craft stores, when they stock it at all.
You may have noticed a common phrase of not available in local stores, also not stocked (or reliably stocked) at local stores. I prefer to patronize my local businesses, but if they don’t have what I want, or don’t stock my size, then I’ll go on line. It’s not constant, but it happens often enough over the course of a year that my Amazon Prime membership is worth it to me not because I need next day shipping (I don’t, actually) but because it’s the least annoying/inconvenient way to get what I want/need. For many items the alternative would either be driving around to a lot of different stores on different days or driving very long distances, both of which I would find not only inconvenient but costly in terms of my time and gas for the car, and those two factors are also important to me. The video streaming is a nice addition to the package. As is the ability to buy e-books. So… overall I feel Prime is still a good value for me although at the end of the year, like every year, I’ll re-evaluate to decided if I’ll renew or not.
As I noted - it’s not just Amazon. I also order on-line from New Balance and other places. More and more local stores are only carrying a limited amount of stock, and since covid they can’t always reliably stock some items.
The cables and chargers go without saying. Everyone seems to get them at Amazon.
My wife and I are quilters. Sewing tools and supplies are readily available and shipped soon. For example: rotary cutter blades are about $5.00 each in the fabric stores. I just bought a name brand ten pack for $30.00 and got a three day delivery. (Off brand blades are even cheaper but do last very long)
I order decaf Keurig coffee pods in bulk rather than the twelve pack at the grocery store.
Kindle Unlimited keeps me in reading material for $11.00 a month.
Yeah this is the main thing for me. Shelves I need to fit in the right space, frames or containers. Sheets, towels, curtains. Stuff that you need in specific sizes or colors. Not to say that I don’t buy a shitton of other random stuff at Amazon but I at least give local stores a shot for other stuff.
Before she became mobility challenged, my mom was always trying to go around to multiple stores to find stuff she needed. It was pretty exhausting for her. Then when her mobility got worse she’d try one store and ask me to try to find it at other stores. And I’m like…why are you torturing yourself like this?! You can find it on Amazon!! AND you get 5% cash back on your Amazon Prime Visa.
The two biggest Amazon shoppers I know now are my mom and my bestie, who is also mobility challenged.
Books, flags, clothes (I really like being able to get my size without having to look through an enormous pile of jeans or racks of shirts), and random items like water filters and razor blades.
I buy most of my gifts from Amazon. It sure beats going from store to store looking for a certain item. Also, I can find unique items that I wouldn’t find in a regular store.
I buy a lot of my clothing, shoes, boots, sandals, jackets. There is so much more variety and it’s usually cheaper.
I just purchased a TV from Amazon. It was nice to have it delivered right to my door and not have to TRY and fit it in my car.
I buy sheets, comforters, duvets, curtains, kitchenware from Amazon. There I can find unique prints, the colors I want, etc.
I don’t have to return things very often but when I do, it’s free returns at either a UPS store or Kohl’s both are on my home from work. Most things don’t even have to be packed.
Aside from the fact that they sell everything, I buy from Amazon stuff that I want right now (many items are delivered same day), or that I would have to hunt around for, or which just aren’t worth effort of making a special trip to the shops - packing tape, special diet dog treats, make up brush, beach shoes, travel books, batteries - anything you can imagine.
It’s pretty much always low value stuff that I’m highly unlikely to return though, as that sort of defeats the object of the convenience (other retailers make returning much simpler). I wouldn’t buy clothes or shoes from there.
My wife gets things from amazon on the regular, mostly small stuff from what I can tell, and I assume much of it is laziness versus outdoor shopping but she has a job so whatever.
I do much of the grocery shopping and only buy clothing online under select circumstances (usually a unique sales event or wanting a specific t-shirt). My last slew of Amazon purchases were:
Cellphone (purchased for son who doesn’t feel like having an Amazon account)
School supplies for younger child to prevent having to visit three different places in search of the last remaining yellow cover, wide-ruled spiral notebook
LED Light bulb for stove range (specialized item, not locally available)
Line trimmer replacement adapter (specialized item, not locally available)
Smartwatches (Amazon Warehouse sale)
Cordless screwdriver (Prime sale, lower price than local competition)
Instant Pot (Prime sale, lower price than local competition)
That’s it from June until now. Not a whole lot and only the school supplies were really just “I don’t feel like going out there” which still feels like a valid choice when trying to collect school supplies in August.
I know my sizes, so I do buy clothing, coats, gloves, shoes, etc from Amazon.
If I buy shoes and they are a bit too small or big, I just wear them anyway.