> 1. Average American spends THREE THOUSAND DOLLAR year at Amazon.

Where else would americans be getting home goods like soap, appliances, electronics? Vitamins, perscriptions, etc?

The answer to almost every one of those, for the vast majority of Americans, is one of like 5 megacorps. Target, Walmart, Kroger, CVS, Amazon. Things have largely stopped being available retail because of all this consolidation. If I want to go buy a multivitamin, its no joke like $25 a bottle at my grocery store, and $8 on amazon. It is just kinda... a part of people's lives now, and the alternatives all involve either spending more money or time.

▲

abnercoimbre 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It’s funny: a loved one gifted me a book knowing I’m opposed to Amazon’s practices. They let me know they bought it elsewhere and the act of paying more was part of the gift’s charm (they’ll use Amazon otherwise.)

▲

rationalist 37 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I have found eBay to be cheaper for books than Amazon.

▲

bombcar 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I've found that books of all things are usually something you can get for Amazon prices elsewhere.

▲

aucisson_masque 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You can buy used books, they sell extremely cheap and are perfectly readable. There is a lot of seller, at least in France, but I guess it must be similar in usa.

	▲	kreco 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not invalidating your comment, but sometimes paying "new goods" means to support the creator.

▲

sfn42 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I just Google the book name followed by the word epub and generally find what I'm looking for pretty quickly.

▲

4gotunameagain 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Apples and oranges. Both fruits, some don't enjoy one as much.

▲

tene80i 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Books are staggeringly affordable (aside from hardback), and if even they seem too expensive, libraries exist and offer ebooks. I would honestly be embarrassed to announce this – it reveals something very unflattering.

▲

sfn42 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Staggeringly affordable? Last time I checked ebooks were roughly the same price as physical books. That's ridiculous. If they were like 20% of the price I'd buy them.

I don't care man. It doesn't matter to the world whether I spend money on books or not. It only matters to me. Or I guess it's more correct to say it matters much more to me than to the rest of the world.

So yeah, I'm not worried about it. I don't tip either, by the way, unless I see a very good reason to. Given the choice, I prefer to keep my money rather than give it away. Couldn't care less what you or anyone else thinks about it.

▲

tene80i an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Sure, ebooks could be cheaper, but they’re still cheap as hell. $5-10 for what, ten hours of entertainment? A fraction of what you pay to dine out. I mean, you can be as cheap as you like, but this thread exists because you’re promoting your cheapness tactics for others to emulate, which, at scale, actively harms the very things you are enjoying. You can be cheap! It’s just parasitical, which is why I suggested it was a shameful thing to announce.

	▲	sfn42 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I looked up the price for Project Hail Mary which I read recently, it's like $20 and the physical book is the same price. Think about that. Imagine all the work involved in producing and transporting the physical book, compared to just infinitely copying a single epub file that's probably generated automatically from a word document or whatever they use to write books. The fact that those are the same price is outrageous. It's completely unreasonable. I wouldn't say I'm cheap, I'd say I'm frugal. I'll happily spend money on things, just not when I don't need to. And especially not when it's completely unreasonable like ebook prices. I can get it for free so I'll take that deal. You can say it's parasitical, I guess I don't disagree with that. Personally I think there's a lot bigger fish to fry in that department like insanely rich people who hardly pay any taxes, but sure I'm slightly parasitical in some minor and insignificant(to everyone except me) ways. I also don't really think it matters that much. Most authors don't make enough money to live off it. The ones who do, make a fortune. I generally read books written by those lucky few who make a fortune, and I don't feel the slightest bit guilty about not paying money to Andy Weir, who's worth about $55 million according to a quick Google search. He'll be fine. And all the middle men like Amazon and publishers etc can pound sand as far as I'm concerned.

▲

titanomachy 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Maybe you should care a little bit what the people spitting in your food think about it.

▲

sfn42 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Oh yeah because I definitely want to be giving money to entitled shits who'll spit in my food. That makes all the sense. Tipping happens after anyway.

And for the record I'm not American, we don't have the insane tipping culture you guys do. I know you're American because only an American would say what you just did.

	▲	titanomachy 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not American, but I assumed you were American because you were defiantly declaring that you don't tip, whereas in Europe (for example) it would not be worthy of comment :P Guess we both assumed. Also, you're right that the tip comes after, so not tipping is safe... until you go to the same restaurant twice (in America).

▲

carlosjobim 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Are you going to give an epub as a present to somebody?

	▲	sfn42 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No, I don't mind giving physical books as gifts to people who want them. In fact I don't mind physical books at all. I just prefer ebooks because an ebook reader is 100 times better. It has backlight so I can read in the dark, it's compact so I can put it in my pocket, it's light and ergonomic so I can easily hold it and flip pages in one hand, and it can fit literally a whole library worth of books in my pocket. It's not even a competition, as far as I'm concerned physical books are furniture at this point.

▲

troyvit 8 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'll add to the chorus who ditched Amazon years ago because of their predatory practices. I do recognize though that I'm a relatively rich American so I can afford to, but if everybody who did, could, the market might look different.

That said, how much of that $3k/year is spent on things they need vs things they bought through Amazon's upselling algorithms? I drive past the giant warehouses and I wonder, how much useful stuff is actually in there? Because when I do find myself on amazon.com most of what I see is just trash wrapped in plastic.

And it proves a point: Things are still available at retail. Sometimes it is a box store but just as often it's a smaller shop. Does it take more time? Sure! But seriously, what is everybody using all that time they saved by shopping at Amazon for? From what I see it's more shopping online.

▲

indecisive_user 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

For vitamins/supplements specifically, there's Costco, iHerb, nootropics depot.

While they might not be the absolute cheapest options, they're usually a pretty good price and at least with those sources I'm not too concerned with counterfeit or tainted supplements, unlike Amazon [0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20499808

▲

themafia 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There used to be 6 Walgreen's in my city. Now there are 2. I've used Amazon to fill some of that gap because the 30 minute drive is bonkers for toothpaste. COVID hit this economy like a Mack truck and helped the monopolists grab even more of a share.

▲

qup 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Toothpaste is in basically every store. Dollar stores, grocery stores. Probably most convenience stations.

	▲	throwaway173738 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It might surprise you to know that there are different kinds of toothpaste and even toothbrushes, all with differing levels of effectiveness. Some people get advised to use specific kinds by their dentist.

▲

dboreham 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Soap comes from Costco.

	▲	troyvit 7 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Soap comes from everywhere. It's in the grocery store, drug stores. Hell it's in every hotel you stay in. Just grab it before you go and you've got a few weeks' supply.
	▲	taurath 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Add Costco to the 5 and that’s pretty much it for options.

▲

wiredpancake 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]