Check gohug.eu/join

Where are you? I can recommend idealo.de & check24.de to find low prices over all the retailers with online store (e.g. mediamarkt, otto, etc.)

I’ve learned to live with less. I don’t need a new gadget or the latest shiny plastic distraction. I buy food, gas, beer. If I just have to have something, Costco or eBay. Closed my amazon, walmart, target accounts. Don’t miss them.

I shop at the bin stores where they have a ton of Amazon and WalMart products. Some are returns but I always test them at the store and have found a ton of stuff for $4 or $10. I just bought a wet suit, 7 head electric shaver, fog machine, 4 smart bulbs, 3 USB plugs, hand warmers, queen sized inflatable mattress, ice bath tub (to wash my dog) and a Dirt Devil all for $72.

Here in Canada I’ve started ordering from the Canadian Tire app instead.

Posted most of this in another thread but I’m glad to help share my tricks. I have managed to nearly eliminate Amazon entirely from our lives for the past two years. I usually find things by searching what I want to buy on DuckDuckGo and then adding “-amazon”, “-etsy”, “-walmart”, “-temu” and “-pinterest” as search modifiers.

A lot of little shops are perfectly legit, but watch out for:

Things being ridiculous bargains. Small shops will almost always be more expensive due to higher overheads and less bulk

Too much variety in product (unless they’re a marketplace with 3rd party vendors). A legit shop will have inventory that makes sense together in its theme. If they sell everything from bubblebath to uranium they’re either probably not actually selling it or drop shipping it.

Pictures that look like they come from lots of different sources, or no consistency in images. If they don’t have their own pictures of products or standards of presentation that’s suspicious

Some general recs:

For anything electronic or computer related: B&H Photo or Microcenter

For music stuff: Sweetwater, but there’s a lot of great small music stores, or you can use a marketplace like Reverb

For clothes: if you have any clothes you already enjoy, go directly to their brand website. If you don’t, go to local secondhand shops and touch, handle and try on some clothes to see them in person. I’ve discovered some brands I like by finding something in a thrift store that was well made but not my size or preferred color.

For house repair and DIY stuff: we order from a local building supply store, but there’s also hardwareandtools.com, 1stoplighting, Waysource, Lightbulbs.com, Timothy’s Toolbox etc.

For food items, local grocery stores often offer online shopping and delivery. If it’s a specialty item or imported the import companies sometimes have their own websites. There’s also Hive or GroveCo for some granola type B Corp goodness

For tea, coffee and spices, Adagio and its sister websites

For super fast, need it now shipping, Target has a lot of the same things Amazon does and even does same day delivery for an extra fee for certain items.

For something hard to find you can’t find another site for, try Ebay.

I do business with all sorts of independent retailers and have only had good experiences with them. These are sites that I’ve personally bought from but there are a lot of smaller sites just trying to make a place for themselves on the internet

You should research regional and local options! This may not help you specifically, but fun thing about Finland and the other Nordic countries is that we seem to have pretty decent local chains selling stuff. I think the last physical book I ordered from Amazon was a mildly obscure out of print one I couldn’t find elsewhere, about 10 years ago. I think the local used book web store situation has gotten better since. All of my recent new physical book purchases have been via AdLibris (a Swedish store). For ebooks it’s been harder, I think Google Play is the most feasible place nowadays when the Finnish ebook store I used to use recently shut down (luckily they were DRM free). We have a couple of good options for stuff like electronics. Even the hypermarket chains have good web stores if I can’t be bothered to visit them in person.

Lately (no doubt due to getting back into prosumer photography stuff) I’ve been using B&H Photo and Video. I kinda-sorta forgot I bought my drone from them several years ago and at the time they were cheaper than Amazon and also offered next day shipping for free for an order of that magnitude. Since I’m not using Amazon anymore I’ve been getting my stuff from there again.

Everything I’ve been interested in has been the same price as on Amazon or cheaper. I think they’re hamstrung by their name by this point since they seem to have a pretty wide swath of general electronics and not just camera gear.

Just don’t try to order on the Shabbat (i.e. Saturday), because you can’t. Their web site literally disables its checkout during that time.

If you specifically need yum-cha generic Chinese garbage (for instance, if you have a particular brand related to bizarre knockoff knives you need to maintain) I find going straight to the source and just getting that crap from Aliexpress is the best plan. It’s the same bullshit that litters most of Amazon and sure, maybe you don’t get it quite as fast. But at least they’re broadly honest about the inherent crappiness of what you’re getting, and the same stuff is significantly less expensive.

i look on amazon, and look on local chains, sometimes it cheaper in the stores, but sometimes it more expensive than on amazon.

Ebay, first party sites, dedicated sites.

1. Search Amazon for product you want.
2. Check reviews
3. Throw out reviews because a) they’re for the wrong product or b) they’re bot written.
4. Use the product numbers to search for the the same product elsewhere, preferably from the company’s own website or brick and mortar.
5. If it’s something you actually need and can’t find it elsewhere, it’s ok to buy Amazon, just don’t pay for a Prime account. No one needs shit that quickly.

Lifes basics are often online at Costco for prices much better than big box or Amazon with same shipping times. eBay is potential alternative. For niche items, directly to the manufacturer. No need giving Amazon a share when it could go directly to the engineers, designers and people who made it.

I barely buy from Amazon nowadays, quit the subscription 3 years ago. Except for very specific items anywhere else is cheaper, better quality or both. Besides trying to search for something on Amazon has become a nightmare.

I use Amazon to find the stuff and then Google the seller. They typically have the same product for sale at the same or similar price on an unaffiliated website. It takes extra effort but it’s worth it if you are seriously trying to boycott Amazon.

If I need something bad enough, I start within my range of locality and then work outwards. Like for instance, I’m currently looking for a full set of seat covers for my car. If I were to use Amazon, wham bam I’d get the cutest ones by tomorrow. But instead Ive been looking up the availability of the auto goods stores nearby for delivery or pickup. That way i can go see the quality with my own eyes.

If there aren’t any cute or affordable seats covers nearby, Ill end up going straight to the websites of the manufacturer qhile cross referencing whatever reviews i can find online. A lot of times the manufacturer or distributor website will have coupon codes at checkout. And yes, the websites can be seedy, but I have in the past gotten some really high quality products from sus websites that like never sent me a confirmation email.

Sometimes there are really specific or niche things that seemingly almost only are on amazon, (like my damn vaccuum filters that dont exist anymore,) about 99% of the time youll find them on ebay too.