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Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

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Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#431

Post by senderista »

cschneid wrote: post #327
Spooky23 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s crazy. Target smokes Amazon for most things these days, especially with pickup. Ditto for NewEgg and Walmart. Amazon is increasingly overrated, they peaked a decade ago and have declined to a warehouse club/flea market.

Newegg and Walmart have fallen to the same thing Amazon has: allowing 3rd party sellers. They're not as far along, but going down that path is what causes so many issues with counterfeits and generally poor experiences. I accidentally bought some thermal paste from a newegg seller who shipped it via slow-boat-from-china, and it took weeks to get to me. It was technically listed, but I hate any shopping experience tha…

AFAIK Amazon is the only online retailer that commingles their own inventory with 3rd-party sellers, making it impossible to avoid counterfeits.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#432

Post by adsljfl3 »

Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

I'm using a CSA which guarantees delivery: https://www.goldengateorganics.com/

There are some CSAs that target south bay that might work for you. These support farms and you get a strong assurance that you will have food every week.

We also have enough rice and beans in our house that we can probably go for about a month without groceries. Make sure you have rice and beans.

Tender greens is also delivering grocery boxes: https://www.tendergreens.com/blog/002020-grocery-boxes

I would also try smaller stores on Instacart.

Finally there are several groups doing shopping for people like you, my Nextdoor feed has them posting regularly.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#433

Post by [deleted] »

larrik wrote: post #47

Right when this all was starting, I had finally chosen a bass guitar I wanted. I decided to try and support a non-Amazon business in GuitarCenter (the local music shops focus a lot more on school band instruments). So, I order online, and pick the "pick up at store" option, since it says they are in stock. I show up, and an hour later they figure out that they don't have it in stock, they only have the floor model (w…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#434

Post by dehrmann »

drivers99 wrote: post #317
larrik wrote: post #47

Right when this all was starting, I had finally chosen a bass guitar I wanted. I decided to try and support a non-Amazon business in GuitarCenter (the local music shops focus a lot more on school band instruments). So, I order online, and pick the "pick up at store" option, since it says they are in stock. I show up, and an hour later they figure out that they don't have it in stock, they only have the floor model (w…

Of all the guitars and basses I've bought at Guitar Center and other places, it was always the "floor model" I bought. That seems pretty normal. I don't think "floor model" is the right term. You're trying out the exact ones you're buying off the floor.

Good point. Unless it's a super generic entry-level guitar. I bet you can find a new Squier Strat in its original box.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#435

Post by alias_neo »

This is an important thing to remember. Just last night, I was ordering an item on Amazon, and pointed out to my wife that it is gonna take a week to delivery on prime.

That's fine, there's more important things going on in the world. But she said; "Why does it have to be from Amazon? If you're not getting it Prime speed, why not buy it elsewhere?"

So I went to the manufacturers website and bought it directly, and it was 15% cheaper than Amazon, and will supposedly arrive a little faster.

I think I may try do this more. I already do this, where possible to support small businesses.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#437

Post by dehrmann »

gwittel wrote: post #113
Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

I am in MV. Unfortunately most online things are overwhelmed. They don't have enough shoppers. You can keep checking for a slot opening up, but its a challenge and hard to plan for. Are you specifically looking for fresh items, or are there particular things you need? Staples are usually available, and you can sometimes get them from smaller vendors online. At least those you can plan ahead for a future delivery. For…

> early hours for senior and/or immunocompromised

I get why stores would do this, but unless there are significantly fewer people in the store, could putting these people in one place actually be a bad idea? Is there any good data backing this up?

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#439

Post by ipsum2 »

ipsum2 wrote: post #112
Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

I'm happy to purchase groceries for you, I'm in the same area. Email is in the profile. For other people who are also in a similar scenario: NextDoor and local FB groups are great for this.

update: got groceries for Diederich.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#440

Post by TylerE »

lkbm wrote: post #131
croshan wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but they handle it well. I placed an order for a pair of 35lb dumbbells, and only one came, and the cardboard box around it was falling apart. I called customer support, probably for the first time in my life, to ask wtf happened. And they explained the logistics issue (the dumbbells were shipped separately for some reason), and ended up crediting me half the cost of the dumbbells, even though the first wasn't…

> (the dumbbells were shipped separately for some reason) USPS limits packages to 70 LBs. There's probably some special option to get around this, but for the "normal" shipping, that's the limit.

If there is, it will cost 5x as much. They really don’t like special handling.
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