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Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

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Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#11

Post by corytheboyd »

This is a really good idea! I love my small businesses but being coddled by the internet is so real, you get used to immediately finding exactly what you want. With local stores, you have to put in some work sometimes, and ghasp talk to real people, potentially a few, at different stores, to get what you need. It sounds like a lot written out like that, but the important bits are that the people you talk to, you learn things from, and that makes you better at finding things.

This tool is kind of like that effect, or an easing into it from someone who may have just bought the first-worst thing on Amazon.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#12

Post by lukifer »

guerrilla wrote: post #6
drcongo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvotes suggest some people failed to understand the comment. A browser extension for avoiding Amazon, that only works in Google's browser. I'm baffled why one tax-avoider is fine while the other is to be avoided.

I don't think that's implied, is it? A lot of people already use Chrome to access Amazon and eBay, so they wrote the extension for Chrome. Maybe they'll port the extension to less popular browsers later and they're just prioritizing or maybe they don't think it's worth it. I'd like to try it on Firefox and I'm not installing Chrome just for this but I don't blame them either...

Also worth noting that this extension works on other Chrome-derived browsers, like Brave, or the pure-OSS flavor Chromium.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#15

Post by ______- »

I can see the reasoning behind this. People don't want to help Bezos get another holiday home; they would rather funnel money into local businesses for obvious reasons (like helping a little boy buy his team jersey or a little girl get dance lessons for example).

One caveat to the local alternatives is the friction involved if it's an e-commerce store where users have to register their details. Most will happily register, but some will find the friction unbearable.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#16

Post by Kalium »

corytheboyd wrote: post #11

This is a really good idea! I love my small businesses but being coddled by the internet is so real, you get used to immediately finding exactly what you want. With local stores, you have to put in some work sometimes, and ghasp talk to real people, potentially a few, at different stores, to get what you need. It sounds like a lot written out like that, but the important bits are that the people you talk to, you lear…

Last weekend, I went looking for a particular kind of garment. I wasn't hopeful, but I thought I would give local shops a chance. I did it by going around, looking in various local stores, and talking to people. I did this in four or so different spots. I spent probably three to four hours at it.

After that process, I was no closer to the garment I sought than I had been when I woke up. What I had learned from my efforts to shop local and talk to people was that the things I sought weren't carried by anyone nearby.

I went online, and found exactly what I wanted in under ten minutes. It arrived two days later and fit perfectly.

Speaking only and solely for myself, and narrowly about that experience last weekend, I fail to see what I gained. I already knew how to search for what I want. I talked to a few people and mostly learned that none of them could help me.

This raises the question of why I bothered with attempting to buy local when I correctly guessed that it would be fruitless.

I understand that for some people this experience of traipsing from store to store searching for what is not to be found is the most enjoyable part of the whole experience. Sometimes I'm not that person.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#17

Post by turbinerneiter »

______- wrote: post #15

I can see the reasoning behind this. People don't want to help Bezos get another holiday home; they would rather funnel money into local businesses for obvious reasons (like helping a little boy buy his team jersey or a little girl get dance lessons for example). One caveat to the local alternatives is the friction involved if it's an e-commerce store where users have to register their details. Most will happily regi…

I used to default to Amazon because of this. But nowadays many shops don't need an account anymore, the browser can autofill that data and credit cards with 3d secure (basically 2fa) seem safe enough. Finding those shops to me is now the "hardest" part.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#18

Post by jonplackett »

I’m trying so hard to shop non-Amazon at the moment. But man they don’t make it easy. Deliveries not showing up for weeks after due date, shipping costing more than the item itself, painful payment solutions (at least take PayPal so I don’t have to go find my credit card!)

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#19

Post by f6v »

______- wrote: post #15

I can see the reasoning behind this. People don't want to help Bezos get another holiday home; they would rather funnel money into local businesses for obvious reasons (like helping a little boy buy his team jersey or a little girl get dance lessons for example). One caveat to the local alternatives is the friction involved if it's an e-commerce store where users have to register their details. Most will happily regi…

I don't think Bezos(or Gates, Musk, Zucker) reason in terms of holiday homes anymore. I'm absolutely sure they have a positive impact. They build spaceships, fight disease, and finance science.

Whether the net outcome for humanity as a whole is better or worse with Amazon is highly debatable. By writing

> like helping a little boy buy his team jersey or a little girl get dance lessons for example

you appeal to feelings and divert the discussion in the direction of "But evil billionaires rob children to buy a new yacht!" which is simply not true.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#20

Post by patrickmcnamara »

______- wrote: post #15

I can see the reasoning behind this. People don't want to help Bezos get another holiday home; they would rather funnel money into local businesses for obvious reasons (like helping a little boy buy his team jersey or a little girl get dance lessons for example). One caveat to the local alternatives is the friction involved if it's an e-commerce store where users have to register their details. Most will happily regi…

Apple Pay on the web has made this very convenient. Being able to buy something with just a single button is amazing. Unfortunately it's not available for large swathes of potential customers since it's iOS/macOS only.
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