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Comment by _dw7s | Hacker News Reader

I have mixed feelings when I see these articles popping up recently along with the general consensus on hackernews about the fact that Amazon shopping should be avoided. On one side I'm glad, considering Amazon has gotten too big and is in need of a readjustment. But on the other side, I feel that this is an echo chamber, considering the continuing growth of the company.

I am privileged enough to actively reject everything that has anything to do with Amazon. I buy most things locally and sometimes I pay a premium for that. No regrets, I consider this the capitalist democracy of voting with your wallet in the free market. I have not bought anything from Amazon for the past 4 years, since the first time I heard about the warehouse working conditions. I correlated that with the toxic environment they are cultivating for white-collar workers and just decided that Amazon is a company I never want to deal with.

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>But on the other side, I feel that this is an echo chamber, considering the continuing growth of the company.

It may take a while for Amazon to lose its good will, but eventually people will realize it's not worth shopping on a website full of unvetted cheap garbage, even if it saves a dollar.

It costs a lot of time and effort to re-pack and return items. Even my parents are befuddled by Amazon's website now, where they have to carefully tip toe around a minefield of gibberish to make sure what they are buying is shipped and sold by Amazon.com. They say screw it, and just go to Target/Costco/Best Buy or any other decent website.

I only speak for myself, obviously, but from my perspective if Amazon wants to stay successful they need to focus on reliability over price. I don't buy stuff on Amazon because I want to save a buck, I do it because I can just open up the app, pick what I want, and know that it will be here in a day or two. It's 100% about the convenience. I can tolerate spending a bit more, but I have an extremely low tolerance for counterfeit, low-quality, damaged goods, etc.

If Amazon doesn't address this fairly soon, I'm probably going to look for other options, and once I switch, the odds of coming back are pretty low. It could be as simple as allowing me to opt out of seeing anything that is not "ships from and sold by Amazon" (and guaranteed no commingling).

I worked on eliminating Amazon from my life ( my account is from 2007 and I begrudgingly subscribe to Prime) and it was HARD.

The thing that constantly kept hooking me back in was the the 2 Day shipping. I've ordered from Target, eBay, and the OEM's directly.

MOST of the time, the non-amazon option has a decent fulfillment lead time. But once in a while, they'll take 3 days to ship the package, then they'll ship it with UPS Ground, which is slow a shit. Realistically, that often means it takes upwards of 8 business days, or nearly two weeks, to get your stuff.

I think they understand this very well as they continue to invest in the logistics network and do jack squat to address the real issues facing Amazon.

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