No Longer an Amazon.com Customer
dan.bulwinkle.net
dan.bulwinkle.net
I'm also disillusioned with Amazon.com, but not sure about the alternatives. The author suggests eBay, but I'd worry about flaky sellers and counterfeit product just as much (if not more) than on Amazon. And switching to something like Walmart.com trades one force for bad for another. Even some of my old solid choices for certain things, like NewEgg for computer hardware, have devolved into a mess of unreliable third-party seller marketplaces. When making larger purchases, I'll gravitate toward manufacturer websites, but they often have worse pricing for the same product on Amazon, or with bizarrely long shipping timelines (like 3+ weeks).
I'm torn, because while I want an "everything store" like Amazon for convenience and predictable, consistent, fast shipping, I recognize that kind of store is really bad for competition, and for avoiding monopolists and big conglomerates.