Where to Shop Instead of Amazon

Interestingly, James Wesley Rawles and I started blogging around the same time.  He was certainly more focused in his blog topic than I was.  At the time, the purpose of my blog was going to be to promote the work-at-home lifestyle.  Funny where we ended up.  

Mr. Rawles has made a very comfortable living with his blog.  He has over a third a million regular readers.  I am awed.  Frankly, I'd be happy with 1% of his readership ;).  

A very substantial piece of his income, according to this post, has been his affiliation with Amazon, and so it's actually pretty amazing that he has decided to quit them.

Like Rawles and most bloggers, I was an Amazon affiliate in the early days, but Amazon and I split more than a decade ago.  Frankly, as a Mainer, Amazon didn't really treat me very well. I was an affiliate for many years, when the whole sales tax issue came up, and Amazon decided that they would no longer support affiliates from the States that were suddenly requiring taxes be paid. Amazon was already big enough that they didn't want or need us Mainer affiliates. They were influential enough that they decided they didn't have to pay taxes.

They dropped me as a link affiliate. Then, I decided that I was no longer interested in being a Marketplace vendor, and I closed my account with them. I haven't been a regular customer of theirs for years (even though my family still uses the service). Even during the pandemic, I found other online retailers from which to order things I could not find locally.

Deus Ex Machina has still used the service, but his more recent experiences have been very poor. Some of the products are really not what he expected. That's been interesting. I'm hoping for a straw, soon, that will prompt him to seek other online vendors.

For me, Amazon has become the new Wal-Mart, and I have been boycotting Wal-Mart for more than a decade. I've taken a lot of flack and heard all of the excuses from my friends and family who still patronize Wal-Mart, because:

1. They don't have another choice (there's ALWAYS another choice).

2. They can't find what they need anywhere except Wal-Mart (seriously? See above. I haven't shopped there in a decade, and I have never wanted for something I needed).

3. They have the best prices (I challenge this assumption. Some things, perhaps, but I think it all balances out in the end).

Usually the truth is that Wal-Mart is just easier and more convenient, and that is a truth I can understand, even if I don't agree with being a lazy consumer. It's only through very conscience choices that we can make change.

Margaret Mead is credited with having said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  

We all talk about wanting to affect positive change. Taking Margaret Mead's words to heart and being that "small group" who does something different - even if it is just not shopping at a particular store, can make a small difference. And that's what counts, right?

Amazon has the same reputation. It's easier just to find it on Amazon, because they have everything. Ten years ago there were a lot of us small-time independent sellers on Amazon's Marketplace. We depended on Amazon's much larger customer base, hoping that folks would weed through the myriad of choices and find our little store fronts.

I sold used books for a while, but Amazon would only allow me to charge $3.95 for postage - regardless of what it cost me to send the book, and there were so many of us selling books that many titles ended up selling for a penny. The short of it is that if I sent the book media mail, I might earn $2.50 on the book, but if I sent it media mail, and it took too long to arrive in the buyer's hands, I would get dinged as a seller.

One time I sold a transcriber.  It worked just fine when I sent it.  The mail service didn't treat it kindly, and when it arrived at its destination, it was no longer working.  Not only did I have to refund the buyer, but I also lost the postage - both ways.  

Suffice it to say that I didn't earn even a fraction of what Rawles earns on Amazon - not as a link affiliate, nor as a Marketplace seller.  Quitting them as a vendor was easy, for me.

Quitting them as a customer has been just as easy.

So where do I go?

I have found a number of alternatives, and please note that I am not an affiliate of any business.  This is an ad-free blog, and any links provided are for information purposes only.  I don't get a dime (except the Thrive Market link - and only if you use my link - which you don't have to - and place an order).

GO STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE

There are a number of companies and individuals who sell through Amazon, but the fact is that they often have online sales of their own.  

I am a fan of Dr. Bonner's soaps.  I use the bar soap for an all over wash, including my shampoo.  I like peppermint in the summer, because it's cooling, but I prefer almond in the winter.  Unfortunately, my local grocery either stopped carrying almond scent or they have just always run out before I got there.  So, several months ago, I went online and I found the Dr. Bonner's website.  They had plenty of the scent I wanted.  I ordered 10 bars for about the same price per bar that I would have paid at the grocery store. 

Amazon has the liquid castille soap, peppermint scented, for $32.49 for 2 quarts.  It's $18.48/quart on Dr. Bonner's website.  So, yes, it's cheaper at Amazon, but sometimes saving a couple of dollars shouldn't be the ultimate goal.  If cheaper is the primary motivator, there are other options, still.  This company sells Dr. Bonner's liquid soap for $16.99/quart.  Their mission statement includes: "working to increase ... sustainability and social responsibility."  They only sell "natural" products.  Giving back to a company that strives to give back could be a better option and make that extra dollar per quart a bit more palatable.  

Personally, I prefer to go to the source, because, unless they discontinue the scent I like, the official website of whatever retailer is absolutely more likely to have what I want than one of their affiliates. 

FIND A LOCAL ALTERNATIVE

When Amazon first started, they were an online bookseller.  Over the years, their business has expanded to the point that sales really are for them secondary to what they really offer.  According to Rawles' website, Amazon is primarily focused these days on their server farm.  Seems the intent is to control what we buy and sell and think and do on the Internet.  Interesting.

I haven't bought books on Amazon for a long time, and even in the midst of the Pandemic, when all of the local stores were closed, I found an alternative to ordering books online.  There are half a dozen locally owned bookstores in my area.  Most of them have an online catalog and online ordering, and started curbside pick-up.

Even better, my local library offered borrowing services, and they would ship it to me, at no charge.  I just had to drop the books back off in their drop box.    

Amazon wouldn't have offered better service.

I know a lot of folks think that Amazon is easier, but what I've found is that they have so many choices and so many vendors, I get bogged down trying to find what I want.  Reading through all of the fine-print is also time-consuming, and then, too often, when the product arrives, it's not what I thought I ordered.  

What I've found is that I prefer online shops that specialize in what they do, and the following are some other online shops I have visited that helped me avoid Amazon. 

Battery Depot - My laptop battery completely died. I ordered a replacement from these folks.  I received my order within a week of ordering it, and it works exactly like it should.  

Wild Berry Incense - I really love my Patchouli incense, but finding it locally is always a challenge.  A lot of places that sell incense have started selling blends, which I usually don't like.  I'm very sensitive to smell and the wrong scent will give me a headache and/or make me nauseous.  I ordered (probably way too much) incense from this company. It's exactly the scent I want without the headache and nausea, and the price was pretty decent, too. 

Thrive Market (if you sign up for Thrive with this link, I will actually get a referral bonus - just FYI).  Amazon now owns Whole Foods.  I've never been a Whole Foods shopper, but in the midst of the pandemic, when our local grocery store was out of the Seventh Generation 100% post consumer recycled materials TP that we usually buy, we started looking around for places we could order it online.  Whole Foods claimed to have it.  So, we ordered.  Then, it turns out that they didn't have it and our order was cancelled - not once, but twice.  The first time, it took them a day and a half to tell us that we couldn't get the next day delivery they promised.  WTF?

So, I started looking for alternatives.  Thrive is an online purveyor of organic foods.  Like Trader Joe's, they have their own brand, but they also carry a lot of familiar organic and natural brands of groceries and other goods (including the above mentioned TP).    

Royal Silk is a place to purchase high-end men's undergarments.  And we all know that we can get lady's garments from Victoria's Secret, which often has pretty decent sales.  My daughter has her own account with VS Pink.   My friend recently posted a link to this online shop, where I can procure materials and patterns to make my own.   Making them myself is the ultimate in happy-making consumerism.

L. L. Bean - This past Christmas, Deus Ex Machina got a fresh wardrobe both underwear and outerwear :D.  I may have saved money if I'd gone through Amazon, but I trust the commitment to service and quality from L. L. Bean, and if he didn't like it, we could take it to Freeport and exchange it.

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A lot of people give a lot of lip service to wanting to do better, to save the environment, to whatever catch-phrase they're reciting, but the bottom line is action, not words, is where it's at, and there's no greater revolutionary act in a Corptocracy than telling the corporations to pound sand and spending your dollars someplace else.

My point is that if we just look, we can probably find everything we want with very few exceptions someplace other than Amazon.