I’ve given up on Amazon shopping years ago. I much prefer to buy things directly from specific retailers, eg: outdoor gear from an outdoor retailer, clothes directly from the brand, etc.
This has resulted in never having to return anything, not rolling the dice on product legitimacy, and pretty great customer service who is knowledgable of the products.
I hope that others can find a path too. I worry for some friends & family who seem properly addicted to the idea that stuff can magically appear on their doorstep within 24-48 hours. I know some who receive multiple shipments from all 3 major carriers every single day. Just the slightest amount of planning ahead would prevent the need for the kind of retail model they provide.
Everything about Amazon is intended to increase the amount of time you spend with Amazon. The 50% chance of broken crap keeps you coming back to their support center, with all sorts of dark patterns designed to send you right back into their store again.
I would, but it's such a hassle to enter my address and CC info on every manufacturer's site. The last 3 things I bought were shaving cream, toothbrush heads, and a cheap tennis racket.
Do I really want to signup/purchase/unsubscribe-from-spam for a Proraso account, a Philips Sonicare account, and a Wilson account?
I really think Shopify should lean in on their offerings here. The checkout experience across merchants who use Shopify is great. There's a "Shop Pay" button, you click it, and you're either at the "Confirm Purchase" page or maybe get an SMS to enter, then you're at the "Confirm Purchase" page. You've skipped entering your address and credit card number.
Buy from a board game store one week, a tea maker the next, and some niche youtuber the third, all without re-entering your data.
most of the online places I shop at allow account-less purchasing using PayPal. I know PayPal has some negatives as well, but those rarely impact buyers. Probably 95% of my online shopping passes through PayPal, though I do maintain accounts at a few online shops like B&H or KEH and with them I usually use direct CC/DC purchasing.
I buy these kind of smaller value items from my local drug store, grocery store, etc. feels wasteful to ship and add more layers of packaging to small goods like this.
I've gone the opposite way. I lived in a rural area with the closest hardware or big box store nearly an hour way. I'd only go to town at most once a week but more often once every two weeks. Projects took forever to complete because I'd forget to buy some widget, get the wrong widget, or often be unable to find the right widget at a brick & mortar. Amazon to the rescue!
I've since moved to town but still rely on Amazon for a large portion of my shopping. Nowadays, a lot of local retailers don't carry much stock so I'm having to order online anyway but only after I've driven to the brick & mortar and found they don't carry the item or it's out of stock.
It's nice if you have local business that actually know their products. Especially with outdoor/sports equipment. I know I'm paying a premium but I happily do it.
Electronics on the other hand, sure I'll try to go to bestbuy for stuff because that's the only electronics store we have that's close but they have no clue about the products they're selling.
I buy hundreds of items per year and almost never return anything.
If I buy from xiangxiangshenzencorp then I expect the item to be crap, but it's obvious from the listing and the price. If I buy from a reputable brand I also know what to expect.
I honestly don't get how people can get a quality different from what was clear from the listing (well, I've been positively surprised in the past).
My experience is the same as yours. I don't understand all these complaints. I've been using Amazon since 2002, about 30-50 orders per year, and I've had to return maybe 2 things because they were disappointing. And on the rare occasion where a delivery doesn't show up, it's very easy to complain and get my money back.
Driving to a store to buy something has become a waste of time, except for a few things, like shoes and gloves. I no longer need to drive 15 minutes to a store, spend time searching for the thing I want, find out that they don't have it, have someone offer that they can order it for me, and drive home.
Sure, the quality is obvious from one of the fake name generated chinese brands, my issue is more the pollution of the listings with those brands. Going to search for anything turns up hundreds of the top results with these “brands” all 5 stars.
But they're not pollution. Because you can afford the brand name that costs 10x the knock off, doesn't mean everyone can.
Just a few days ago I bought a soldering iron. If I went with Reddit's recommendations it would be at least $100 for a "not terrible one". Instead I bought a $10 one that I'm sure will work perfectly fine for what I will use it for. In this case the results that I didn't care about were the brand names.
This has resulted in never having to return anything, not rolling the dice on product legitimacy, and pretty great customer service who is knowledgable of the products.