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Comment by iLoveOncall | Hacker News Reader

> I also wonder if that has something to do with where I live

I live in the center of London and out of the 200 non-household goods orders I have on Amazon this year I don't think I would have been able to find even 20% of them in local stores.

Actually even when I do go in a store and find an item I need, I scan the barcode on the Amazon app and saw that it's usually a LOT cheaper on Amazon (like, 30% cheaper for the exact same tool).

Add to that what I mention in my previous comment about return policies, travel time, etc. and there's absolutely no reason not to order on Amazon, even if you're in the ideal place to go to local stores.

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I live in the centre of Copenhagen, and haven't ordered anything from Amazon for a decade — on principle.

I have ordered from online retailers in Denmark, and I've made 2 orders from AliExpress, and a few more from eBay.

Can you give five items you can't buy in central London, but can buy from Amazon?

I have 400 orders on Amazon this year (I think that means I have more than 400 unique items since one order can be more than one items, but it's probably around 450 items total so not far off).

Of those, I probably have a good portion which is household goods as I mentioned, like soap in bulk, soda cans in bulk, etc. which is cheaper than any other option (especially because I don't have a car in London).

Then I have around 170 orders which are items I got for free through the Vine program (https://www.amazon.co.uk/vine/about). And probably around 30 orders that are free books (https://www.amazon.co.uk/firstreads).

If I ignore all of those, and take only recent orders that I paid for, here are 5 items that I can't buy, or at least wouldn't know where to even begin looking for, in central London:

- A luggage and suitcase scale

- A monitor arm

- A good shower filter for hard water (not the crap that doesn't actually filter anything which you can easily find anywhere)

- A label printer

- A moth repellent for wardrobes

I can't imagine the level of consumption that leads to more than one online purchase every day. You must have a constant mountain of cardboard at your home.

But anyway, shops selling luggage are common. They probably sell scales too. Argos, Tesco and Ryman have them.

Electronics shops like Currys have monitor arms, as well as office supply shops.

I won't guess what a good shower filter is.

Office supply and electronics shops also have label printers.

Moth repellent is available from large supermarkets, DIY stores and hardware shops.

All of these are also available online from British companies that pay their fair share of taxes.

I think what shocks me most here is that in a single year, you have placed 200 orders.

What is it that you buy online or offline? I just can't imagine making a purchase every other day, especially if you aren't including groceries...

400 actually, and there are 12 more days to the year.

I just don't buy anything in brick and mortar shops, except food and drinks. Just out of convenience and price, not for ideological reasons or anything.

The number of orders is also inflated by things I listed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42463417 and by the fact that one project can be many orders. I built a NAS, and it was split over 10 orders, basically one per component when the price was right.

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