this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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A Boring Dystopia
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Is Amazon really your only internet retailer, or have you just not bothered looking for other online alternatives?
It's often the only one where the shipping costs won't be 30% of the item's price. I've had lots of times where I was gonna buy something somewhere only to find the shipping would double the price. Etsy is the worst for this. Lots of stuff where the price tag is just barely what I can justify paying, but the shipping (and often duties) would make it comically expensive. Those things I would buy locally for sure, but finding them locally is hard.
Ok, so it is not about amazon being the only player on the market, but of you not wanting to pay the actual cost of things.
In a lot of cases, not even that. Look at stuff like a "raspberry Pi CM4".
Pretty much EVERY single retailer I've checked in Canada is waiting on stock. You can't get them from anyone here, period, and I've been on a bunch of wait lists.
Even Amazon's stuff is coming from overseas but they do help handle logistics, currency conversion, and have some guarantee of a real product. Throw in shipping AND duties+fees and you could be paying 3x from an OOC store.
Other choice would be AliExpress, but if I receive a lump of metal with a chip glued to it at least Amazon makes it easier to get my money back.