- The author canceled their Amazon Prime subscription on a whim and realized they didn’t really need it.
- Leaving Prime meant slower shipping but the author was happy to wait and still found the selection and delivery speed satisfactory.
- Many people love Prime for its fast shipping and convenience, but some readers expressed ambivalence and considered canceling.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/3M27c
Some of us have been living without an Amazon account since 2007 and we’re still alive. Go figure.
I started boycotting Amazon back in 1999 when they pulled the 1-click patent bullshit. I loved them before that.
i have reverted to this lifestyle, and i love it. creating the 5-6 accounts for local platforms was a slight hassle, but now i can enjoy the benefits of a “small” company which still cares about what the customer thinks.
Can you please expound on this?
I gave up on Amazon last year. I do without many things which is fine, but there are some things that are more difficult to find without them. I am still doing without as I’d like to figure it out for the long term.
Can you give examples of the vendors that supplant Amazon for you?
Not the person you asked, but generally I just go to the manufacturer website. Amazon is useful for it’s pictures and an aggregate of similar products, but now it’s usually just a catalog of stuff so I know what to look for
Plus then you can be far more certain you are not receiving a Chinese knockoff of your desired product
Home Depot, Staples, B&HPhoto (decent selection of general tech merch, but tons of photo/video)
As much as I dislike it, google shopping helps me find where I can pick things up locally.
There are things that I’ve been unsatisfied with the alternative options, or particular brands that only sell on Amazon, so I use it occasionally. But I don’t have a subscription to prevent the compulsion to use it.
You’re kidding right? Are there actually people thinking they just can’t live without Amazon Prime? Seriously? Fuck even if you HAVE to order something off of Amazon, which you absolutely don’t HAVE to do, you don’t fuckin need prime just for… what… slightly faster shipping?
Buying anything on Amazon hardly seems viable anymore. There’s so much counterfeit crap there, and a million low-effort rebrandings of the same stuff you can get on AliExpress for cheaper.
Shop local when you can, and at least shop not-Amazon for the rest.
I’ve never really understood what prime actually is. They nag me about it on the occasion I might buy something from amazon. weird to think someone perhaps couldn’t live without it.
Free two day delivery and access to prime video
One thing I’ve noticed is that it pretty much always takes two days to deliver your items. The only difference is that Amazon will let your order sit in their warehouse for a few extra days if you don’t have Prime.
Yep I think that they optimized so much for 2 day delivery that it is cheaper to give to everyone. They just let the order sit around for a few days to make it take longer.
That’s what I don’t understand. The item is using up warehouse space, marked for me, for five days. Surely they’d make more money just mailing it and restocking the item to sell more during those five days.
