Looks like I’m spoiled for choice. Temu has exactly the same for 11.29. Not that I’d be purchasing from either place; it’s just another example of Amazon’s enshittification.
Honestly, my strategy for buying goods online is to look up the relevant wikipedia article, read the list of manufacturers, look at their own wikipedia pages or read customer reviews, then finally go to the company site and ordering directly.
For used items or niche items not widely produced, ebay or craigslist.
Amazon always had funky shit with how they recommended things - now people just know how to game it more, so winning move is not to play there.
I’m not going into such depth (unless it’s technology I don’t understand), but I usually shop on Amazon after I figured out what exactly I wanted, and what price below other stores I was willing to pay. I found that only two categories I still overwhelmingly purchase from Amazon are books and branded art supplies.
I don’t know where you are located so this may not apply to you, but in the US for branded art supplies I always go with DickBlick or Jerry’s Artorama, because in addition to the usual “stick it in a bubble bag and see how damaged we can make it before it arrives” Amazon shipping policy, branded art supplies are now being counterfeited on Amazon, like so many other things.
I already could not safely buy liquids (Gamsol, OMS, etc) or soft supplies (paper or canvas pads, single watercolors) because of careless shipping, but now I won’t even try because of counterfeits. If you want the branded version of something that already has budget knockoffs, say an item like Holbein or Caran d’Ache colored pencils where the real thing is vastly more expensive than others in its category, you’re taking your chances on Amazon. Amazon has been selling counterfeit fountain pens for years, even low end pens like Lamy Safaris which always blew my mind, but now it’s a lot of things in the art supply world.
So now I only get cheap knockoffs there, anything under $50. Anything over that, or anything liquid or bendable/breakable, I go with a real art supply store. It’s absolutely worth it, they pack it all very carefully, excellent return service when I’ve needed it, and I can still pick up deals better than Amazon without ever having to worry about the possibility it’s a counterfeit and I just wasted hundreds on a scam.
If you’re not in the US you may be having a markedly better experience, so disregard. But in the US, Amazon for branded art supplies is a big NO for me.
I’m in Ireland, shopping mainly in the UK Amazon. I buy there mainly mid-range supplies, and I have a few physical stores in continental Europe where I get the more expensive stuff. But flying with anything liquid or large paper pads is almost as risky as having them shipped from Amazon, with the added bonus of my wife complaining that I take up too much weight in the suitcase with my “useless toys”.
Check out an app called Karrot. It’s basically craigslist but you periodically have to confirm your location, so you know all items are local. It also has a shockingly accurate photo identification and pricing feature.
I usually start with a google image search, find ones that look good and then try to track down where I can get them from.
Ah, I degoogled my life, so I use Wikipedia instead. Although considering that google images may be flooded with AI slop now that strategy might not work for much longer. Creative tho!
Try https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ – it really cuts down on the slop, even for images.
I do use noai ddg, but I never tried the images function. Guess it’s worth a shot.
Well yes to be honest it’s DDG image search usually
I deleted my Amazon account last month. No more Goodreads and IMDb is just another plus.
Extracted my ebooks from my Kindle with Calibre, so I am fine.
Feeling good and less targeted and bombarded.
Freedom To Choose
just went through this myself
needed a gooseneck phone mount for tomorrow morning. nothing local has something suitable, so damnit amazon it is
oh look, it’s dozens of the same product, using the exact same photo often even, from random shit brands
I’ve been doing pretty good at avoiding amazon for the past year or two, but every two or three months there’s something that I just can’t get somewhere else on the timeline I need or at a reasonable price
A lot of it is done by hustle bros.
I hate to say it, but I almost appreciate the honesty that comes from multiple different alphabet soup brands selling the exact same item often with the exact same photos. Additionally, unbranded items aren’t always poor quality.
I’ve actually got some unbranded Christmas light strings I bought because I just wanted to put some lights on some columns at my wedding and wanted to spend less than $100 doing so, and those light strings have outlasted every commercial Christmas light string I’ve purchased. Heck I have a couple of those strings which have been on for 3+ years straight.
Most unbranded items are made by factories that do OEM and ODM work for actual brands that we’ve all heard of, so they know how to make quality products and they can get more ongoing orders if they make products that are worth restocking. Sometimes you get burned but far more often than not I end up with something that’s relatively decent quality and fullfills the need I have for the item
I agree with the quality aspect. We got some solar lights for the garden that are brighter and last longer than those you buy in local stores for a much higher price. That said, I prefer to buy such no-brand items from Ali Express, which charges a third or half the price Amazon does for the same item.
“Hoement” immediately stuck out to me and sounds like a portmanteau of “hoe” and “moment”
Sounds cool enough to be used as slang
Once again capitalism has bred all sorts of innovation in the space!
More and more I’m finding things I want either aren’t on amazon or are buried under so many inferior products that they are hard to find. Earlier I was looking for geek themed ugly Christmas sweaters, and the ones on the first few pages of amazon results were absolute garbage. Found several viable suppliers elsewhere in no time.
If you’re in canada just go on the shop app. Forget this Amazon bullshit. Buy local.
Or hit up the thrift stores. Eventually you’ll find something. I have to go because it’s the best place to buy fat man clothes.
Shopify is American
The app itself just collects retail storefronts into one tool so you don’t need an app for each store.
Are you looking for something which can actually take a beating? I have bought like four of these cheaper bags on Amazon and they all fall apart in a year or two. And before then they all have shitty strap adjustments which slowly slip over time.
I’d strongly suggest getting something like a chrome or timbuk2 bag which will be like 5x more expensive up front but will actually last decades instead of years. I have been dailying the OG chrome citizen messenger bag for five years now and it’s barely broken in.
"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."
GNU Terry Pratchett
Timbuk2 isn’t as good as they used to be. If you can find a used one it’s worth it, I’ve had mine for like twenty years, but I wouldn’t gamble on one made in the last five years. (They closed all their physical stores and cut costs on manufacturing by moving offshore)
I second this. I am currently still using the waxed canvas bag from the distilled collection and all I’ve had to do is replace the strap from wear. Its seen rain, snow, and shitloads of abuse that would cause these cheaper bags to just disintegrate. Its old as shit by now but aside from being well worn - is still perfectly functional.
I agree. I have several timbuk2 bags and the only one with significant damage is the pet carrier that my cat clawed the shit out of. The company repaired it for like $10 to cover the shipping
Do Amazon companies count in Scrabble?
If hoement wasn’t a word then now it is.
About to have a ho moment with my Business Messenger Bag. 💅
We are totally making hoement happen
This shit frustrates me to no end. These days I just look on Aliexpress first, just so I’m aware what the usual drop shipping item actually goes for.
It’s very annoying that platforms like Amazon tolerate this. Because it’s actively driving me away from them. I want to see good quality items, not the same Aliexpress shit priced ten times higher. But I can’t FIND the good stuff because the platform is literally full of garbage.
That’s what’s driving you away from Amazon?!!
People have no morals. Most people only care about the cheapest price, and after that getting the best item for the cheapest price
It’s also a question of availability. Looking at my last ten purchases, simply none of those were available locally here. We don’t HAVE a camera store here to buy things like lens caps. The stationary store where I went didn’t HAVE large elastic bands, only small ones. Nor did they have the specific Pentel gel pen that I use for work. The shoes I bought (US size 17) are not available, since stores don’t stock past size 13.
I did buy a laptop stand, so technically I could’ve bought say, a plastic box or some books locally to do the same thing. But the stand is nicer.
For me, it’s not about the price. I’d rather spend 10 for something great than 1 for something that sort of works. I am by no means cheap. But I do have specific needs and tastes that my local stores don’t cater to.
And hey, if they won’t sell me what I need, I’m not going to feel bad about buying it somewhere that will 🤷♂️
Exactly my philosophy.
I try to buy in this order (time and money is of no concern):
Local shops -> domestic Online shops -> AliExpress (electronics) or Amazon (branded electronics like storage) -> Amazon (anything else).If it aint available for a decent price and I don’t need it, I won’t buy it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Local vs amazon are not the only 2 options. And let me be very clear. I am not simply saying “Buy local”. Conflating that with ethical shopping is wrong.
Take a step back for a second. They’re complaining about Amazon, and your response is “that’s the wrong complaint”.
“You’re not complaining right! Why are to complaining that way, you should be complaining this way!”
Typical Linux user
Are these linux users in the room right now?
Linux user here. I want to read dramatic complaints. Any kind, if it’s dramatic. Or write a boring one and I’ll move on. Starting a flame war for complaint style is boring. Better topics for flame wars exist.
I use arch btw
Just get a used Filson off eBay. I’m not even sure why you would consider anything else
Just a guess but, I wouldn’t consider anything that was an order of magnitude more expensive than what I was looking to spend.
I looked them up now, and they look very good, but for my purposes I’d like a bag that costs less than the contents.
It turns out that I was looking at the wrong type of bags. What I really needed (and got) was a thin, lightweight laptop bag, which holds my notebook (of paper variety), a few pens, and some odds and ends. For anything that’s capable of carrying significant bulk and weight, I prefer a backpack.
