Amazon is already just AliExpress with a middlebezos, I'm not sure what this realistically changes
hell AliEx can get stuff to me in Colombia faster than Amazon can these days
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
57 points (100.0% liked)
technology
23306 readers
219 users here now
On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020
- Ways to run Microsoft/Adobe and more on Linux
- The Ultimate FOSS Guide For Android
- Great libre software on Windows
- Hey you, the lib still using Chrome. Read this post!
Rules:
- 1. Obviously abide by the sitewide code of conduct. Bigotry will be met with an immediate ban
- 2. This community is about technology. Offtopic is permitted as long as it is kept in the comment sections
- 3. Although this is not /c/libre, FOSS related posting is tolerated, and even welcome in the case of effort posts
- 4. We believe technology should be liberating. As such, avoid promoting proprietary and/or bourgeois technology
- 5. Explanatory posts to correct the potential mistakes a comrade made in a post of their own are allowed, as long as they remain respectful
- 6. No crypto (Bitcoin, NFT, etc.) speculation, unless it is purely informative and not too cringe
- 7. Absolutely no tech bro shit. If you have a good opinion of Silicon Valley billionaires please manifest yourself so we can ban you.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Yeh. I've swapped over to Ali unless it's stuff i absolutely need or short order.
Fucking Amazon. I can't even find basic crap in brick stores anymore.
Yeah its rough. I sold my car a couple years ago so now I only take public transit, and now there is no stores near me that ever have anything I want. Like I can't just go to a target or some shit without having to pay for an uber
I love aliexpress for electronic components, it's literally the same shit the western retailers sell but for a tenth of the price
Half the products I see on Amazon nowadays are clearly being sold by Chinese companies who have set up an American storage location for Prime shipping speeds and is literally either the exact same price or maybe 10-20% more expensive than AliExpress
I bought an 80Watt soldering iron for 9 bucks recently on Amazon with a stand, rosin, paste, etc. and came in 2 days lol
If you shop on Chinese websites often, it's super obvious which products on Amazon are sold direct from Chinese companies because their graphic design style is distinctly different from Western styles
my favorite part about shopping for shit on Amazon is the gamble. is it going to be a total piece of shit? are parts going to be missing? is it the completely wrong item?
the stakes are my time spent looking at reviews and customer photos and the purchase price, which is somewhat related to how much of a turd the item is.
it's so obvious Amazon is all about AWS and has totally hollowed out their fulfillment processes.
I also moved outside of Amazon's targeted geography this year, and the prime ship times have all gone from 1-3 days to like 1-2 weeks.
I have been looking at ali express a little, but my question is... do you typically find what you're looking for on it or do you specifically buy certain things from it?
China is famous for cheaply produced junk. But most of the good stuff on the market these days is also made in China, and those factories are probably also on AliExpress. You have to do a lot of the same research you'd have to do with Amazon purchases (a lot of it is just the same stuff) but you can almost always find cheaper prices at AliEx.
Will you find a specific brand-name thing you're looking for? No (unless it's a Chinese or AliExpress-native brand, which is a thing these days). Will you find something in a product category that will probably solve the problem you're having? Yeah, good chance (again, pretty much the same way that Amazon works now).
I've had good luck with: t-shirts, costume pieces, USB cables, audio cables, watches and watch accessories (bands, boxes, etc.), guitar pedals and other guitar accessories, sunglasses, photo accessories.
I got my (very good) thunderbolt eGPU dock from AliEx.
yeah I haven't personally looked into computer components on aliex but considering where they're all made I'm sure there are good sellers with good stuff.
Ali express is a complete gamble, but I usually get more or less what I ordered. Be sure to read the descriptions, especially relating to the size of whatever you're ordering.
But, mostly, I get what I ordered. Mostly beads, craft supplies, tools, and workshop consumables.
The problem with aliexpress is that the descriptions are too sparse. Kinda gotta kn9w your shit or be willing to dig and research.
The problem with amazon is that everything is a forgery. Fine for t shirt, less fine for fancy skin creme.
Amazon is only good for large heavy items that would be too expensive to ship directly from China. For example, this summer I ordered a patio umbrella from amazon, but ordered the cover from aliexpress.
That or random stuff you need within a few days but isn't feasible to get commuting in real life either because you live in a car hellscape or Amazon killed the business viability of stocking said item
See, I don't trust them with most things. I use the temu rule of "I cannot think of a way to fuck this up" or I don't order it off amazon; I know I'll get fake trash.
cheap slop 
Will it get the same demonization as Temu or Shein? No