I just sign up for Prime free trials. You can cancel them immediately but still get the full month. I only use Amazon sporadically, though - a half-dozen times a year at most - when I just can't find the thing I need anywhere else for a sensible price.
Just make sure anything you order is either "fulfilled by Amazon" or "Ships from Amazon" and you should avoid that. I personally don't order anything that isn't shipped by Amazon (either through fulfillment or otherwise).
i only shop there when they give us prime for free. sometimes (more frequently the last couple years) it's only a discounted shorter-term trial--so we don't bother, but the last time it was a full month--free. yea, we used it a little. and binged most everything worth watching off video, too.
Canceling Prime was a great decision for us after they raised the cost. Since then, we order about twice a month. The shipping date is notoriously wrong on the free shipping selection, packages arrive sooner.
My Prime subscription is due to renew in the next few months, and I’m going to let it lapse. It’s getting hard to find genuine, trustworthy products on Amazon. If I wanted no-name crap drop-shipped from China, I could probably get it on Alibaba cheaper. For everything else, I’ll buy locally when possible, and buy from the manufacturer otherwise.
You can't just let it lapse, you have to hunt out that cancellation option three to six pages deep and be determined. Then you need to carefully swerve the highlighted get it fast option and find the free delivery one instead. Don't get standard delivery, free delivery comes sooner than they claim because whilst the courier isn't being paid to hurry it, they're coming to your area soon anyway and may as well.
Might I ask where you buy from? I'd like to make the switch, but since I live in another country and get my items here through courier, getting everything I need in one or two packages is significantly cheaper for me.
Good because I won't buy from amazon anymore(actually stopped 2 years ago)! I always search local and I pick up, faster, easier and cheaper most of the time.
I'm trying to move in this direction. I used to use Amazon mostly out of convenience and because they could get uncommon, hard to find stuff to me within 2 days when buying anywhere else would take 1-2 weeks. Now that they regularly fail to even get stuff to me when they say they will, and they are as generally evil as they are, I'm trying to get into the habit of buying from anywhere else.
I know ebay is fairly evil too, but I try to buy them from them if I need something oddly specific. If not, I go local.
Not me fam, the less I have to do, the better. Amazon shipments literally save me 2-3 hours a week from not having to go to the store.
Prime membership ftw!!!
Its not 2-3 hours, It works well if you order online with pickup option. And to be fair, its useful when I'm about to go home and the store its on my way.
I had Amazon Prime for nearly 10 years, and in the beginning it was great, but I got tired of spending ~$120/year for 6 day shipping. I don't use Prime Video, because so much of what's on there I am not interested in, and when I cancelled my yearly subscription, in the explanation field, I said that if anyone could reach out to me and explain Sauron's motivations and arc in the Rings of Power, I would renew. Nobody reached out. If they killed the billion dollar crap TV shows and brought back 2 day shipping, I'd return, but instead, we'll get another season of Wheel of Time.
Who do you buy from then that you know has better warehouse worker conditions?
I've been reading first hand comments since the Digg days, and can be summed up consistently as:
No prior warehouse experience - doom and gloom unfair work conditions, Amazon evil
Prior warehouse experience - pretty typical, better than average, but metrics are annoying mental overhead.
So I ask with sincerity - do you know that the places you shop app are actually better, or are you just anti Amazon because you have heard bad things, but don't know about others?
I've heard Costco is decent to workers and the prices are good, so I try that when I can. There are a few other places that I like for specific items (Chapman's Icecream)
Besos could easily have the best paid workers, with the best conditions, the best customer service, require delivery that cares, ensure the best quality goods, and still be over a hundred thousand times richer than a millionaire, but he doesn't. He wants the extra money more. So much power, so much money, so much squeezing the normal folk just a bit harder for a bit more profit.
I assume that person is simply making it up. They did not learn about the working conditions in ~2007. I assume the first articles about that came many years later. Google seems to have removed the custom date range, so I can't check. Feels like that came up around 2015. wiki names 2011
I'm anti Amazon because of bad things. I buy stuff through smaller retailer from my country, even if they cost a bit more/shipping is delayed one or two days.
I can't obviously know "how much evil" other companies are, but in the meanwhile I can pretty much avoid those that are definitely "very evil".
You don't have to buy more, just buy the same things you bought 2 years ago that'll put you over the new limit. Keep those treasury printers going brrrrrr.