| ▲ | Intermernet 7 hours ago |
| Buying online direct from the manufacturer? Almost everyone sells direct. Use Amazon to find the seller and then contact them directly. |
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| ▲ | TFNA 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| What if you want to buy simple Chinese plastic stuff (e.g. someone elsewhere mentioned zip ties)? The manufacturer is somewhere in China with a minimum order of 10,000, so no, you can't go to them. Amazon is often the cheapest source for this, cheaper than any local retail. |
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| ▲ | Intermernet 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Honestly? AliExpress wins for this stuff. The shipping is always much more expensive than the actual items, so I batch purchase stuff like this. Funnily enough, sometimes, despite paying only one shipping cost, it arrives in multiple shipments. | |
| ▲ | bluefirebrand 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Personally I buy that stuff locally anyways to support my local economy. Even if it does cost me a bit extra, continuing to have local businesses is worth it to me | | |
| ▲ | mark_something 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I prefer online retailers because there is a lot more choice there. I can't find an inflatable knee pillow in local stores. The supermarket close to me even stopped selling batteries. | | |
| ▲ | Intermernet 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | This is true. Many "weird" purchases that used to be available from someone local are now impossible to get. Not sure about the supermarket not stocking batteries though... That's just insane. |
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| ▲ | bix6 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | You have a small shop that sells zip ties? The only place I would expect to find something like that is a big box store or a hardware store (which are all chains now). | | |
| ▲ | HelloImSteven an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Lots of art stores (not just chains) have them. Not as much variety as Amazon, but still. | |
| ▲ | bluefirebrand 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Buying from a big box store still does support local jobs though Like yeah, Walmart isn't really much better than Amazon in the grand scheme of things, but I would rather people be able to get stable employment at a Walmart store than have to fight it out as gig workers delivering for Amazon. Maybe I'm overthinking it though | | |
| ▲ | bix6 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Walmart employees are historically on food stamps. Neither is sufficiently better than the other imo | | |
| ▲ | bluefirebrand 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I'm not saying that Walmart is great, but maybe that Walmart+food stamps is better than just food stamps? It's not like being a delivery gig worker is great income either |
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| ▲ | tosapple 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | yup |
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| ▲ | reliabilityguy 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Amazon delivers next day or the same day many of the items if you have Prime. I tried many times to order something directly, and most of the time it’s the same price and longer shipping. So, for me in terms of convenience Amazon wins. |
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| ▲ | bix6 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Why would I do that? Now I’m spending time verifying individual random brands all to get the same price (plus shipping)? |
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| ▲ | Intermernet 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | I'm not sure about where you are from, but in Australia I've recently had just as reliable service, shipping costs and delivery times from individual brands as from Amazon. Amazon used to be better, and they still have the logistics network to be better, but they've dropped the ball. If this downward trend hasn't hit you yet, it's only a matter of time. | | |
| ▲ | bix6 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | I’m in the US and they continue to beat competitors. The logistics network is unparalleled. |
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