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.
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.
ITT: “I agree they’re systematically fucking us over (and don’t get me started on their horrible politics!) but will continue to enable them because it’s convenient and saves me a few bucks” this defense doesn’t make you look reasonable it makes you look like a clown
The thing is, it doesn’t save money to shop there, either. 90% of what you see is Amazon Marketplace, where you’re just paying people to dropship you trash from Aliexpress
I only use Amazon/Aliexpress/Temu etc if I don’t have a choice. Things that are so god damn specific that the normal retailers I have access to in Europe don’t have it. Specific cables or things for modding that are in gray area so retailers here don’t want to sell it etc.
But I hate everything surrounding Amazon
AliExpress at least lets you buy close to the source of a lot of goods that you won’t find made elsewhere than China. Some stuff I find there exists from European makers, latest example, trim clips for cars: you can buy Restagraf but you need to live near a car body shop supplier that will be willing to sell you a few clips without insane markups.
I hope aliexpress is better. I buy a lot of stuff from there like electronics components which aren’t really sold locally anymore. Also tools and arduino related things…
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.
People also use it a ton in Europe where they do not have a monopoly.
Heck even in the US they don’t have a monopoly come to think about it, Aliexpress is selling the same crap
Also, AWS is so much more expensive than going with your own server.
Amazon basically solved this problem for me: they locked me out.
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.
Shut up! If you don’t use Amazon how will the rich people go to space?
I don’t mind them going into space. It’s the coming back I have a problem with.
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.
Not a fan of Amazon in any way shape or form, but for some purchases here in the UK they are simply miles ahead of other firms. Latest purchase by me, though not paid for by me is 2 x batteries for my wifes mobility scooter. 20% cheaper than anywhere else, took 1 week to arrive (not bad, not the best) but was so easy to order without all the hassle other solutions involve. We have a prime account still as there is some streaming stuff we also like to watch. Still (just) more pros than cons
True. I ordered a book from them last week; it arrived in 2 days. Everywhere else, including Waterstones, was “oh we might be able to get it out the door sometime next year, if we can be arsed” so Amazon got the order.
It’s time to admit that any of the commentators here would dream of being at the helm of Amazon, but simply aren’t talented enough to build such an empire.
I accepted a position at Amazon as a finance director for one of their many divisions, and it was hands down the most toxic work environment I have ever experienced-- and I’ve worked in public accounting for other a decade, so that’s saying something.
I resigned within a couple weeks and found myself a much better job elsewhere.
This matches every account I’ve heard from friends in Seattle that have worked for the HQ.
Precisely where I was.
I was the third finance director for that division in two years, which is a terrible sign.
When interviewing, always ask about those who last filled the position and for how long.
Not your business, so you’re getting annoyed, which means the problem is with you…
If a company’s culture causes a high turnover rate, that is a company problem.
I’d argue most people just aren’t parasitic enough to willingly exploit both their sellers, workers and customers in the scale of how Amazon did and still does.
Projection is a hell of a drug, dude…
if you ever been a manager, admin or even a developer, you wouldnt be saying that. they are worked to being burnt out comparatively to other tech companies.
I would dream of coming up with a solution to existence of such monopolies, which is not exactly the same.
In any case, no. I suppose you are simply incapable of understanding it, but no, not everyone wants to be the biggest turd in the room. There are people who want there to not be turds in human habitats outside of intended compartments and environments.
Amazon makes the majority of its money from AWS. Literally using the Internet makes them buckets of money.
People can boycott it all they want. I just don’t use them, but none of that really hurts Amazon in the end.
If people want to actually hurt Amazon they need to call on the Government to break up AWS, Ma Bell style.
Hell, I guarantee there are Lemmy instances running on AWS.
17% is not “the majority”.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-amazon-makes-its-billions/
Your looking at gross income not net. By net income, AWS is over 50%.
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.
Know the struggle, just keep trying local stores or other sites first, maybe we can be a small part of change for the better ;)
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.
Owned by Amazon, FYI.Turns out I’m full of shit.
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).
What’s the source for this? Can’t seem to find details about this online.
Oops I was wrong… My bad. Not sure where I got that from.
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?
Looks like I was wrong! Consider it a human hallucination.
Fair enough. Honestly it was probably a safe bet too considering how much they have their hands in.
Oh no way
It’s not.
I didn’t look into it yet but that would seem a bit… Against its own interests.
Yeah turns out I was wrong about that… Must’ve been thinking of some other company! My bad.
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.
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.
Gladly this practice is illegal in Finland at lest. Here companies having sales have to show the lowest price of that product within the last 30 days just for this very reason.
i usually find the good deals randomly outside of any holidays, i mostly ignore prime deals.
Not the stores don’t use this trick during sales… This is probably the only thing Amazon has in common with everyoen else…
Or sometimes they remove a 25% off coupon that usually shows all the time and for the “sale” they just reduce the price of the item to that same amount without and then remove the coupon from the page. It will then look like it has gone on sale from camelcamelcamel because it wasn’t accounting for the price after the coupon it was only showing the item price.
i use another tracker, KEEPA.
I remember at my first job in high school in a store on Main Street. We had a sidewalk sale with other business owners.
My innocence was lost when my boss instructed me to place higher prices using our ordinary white stickers and then cover them with ‘discounted’ orange sales stickers at slightly higher prices than normal.
These dicks just do it at scale. Amazon is a tawdry crime organization. We all know it.
Amazon is a parasite. That’s all the reason I need.
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.
Or you can accept that it’s a typo… and not freak out about a simple error that didn’t diminish your understanding of their comment.
Oh my god, yes.
