Moving Away From Amazon

MaizieD

Allira

M0nica

It would never occur to me to use Amazon to buy stuff. It is an intermediary that offers nothing in return except a higher price to cover the comission the business involved has to pay them.

I prefer ebay or just googling direct, you can always check a company you do not recognise on Trustpilot.

I have only ever bought books from Amazon and stopped that years ago. I now buy books from Waterstones. However I always check every book on Amazon because it lets you look inside the book. When I have done that I buy from Waterstones, regardless of whether Amazon is cheaper.

I'm trying to think where my nearest Waterstones is

It's all very well for those with easy access to shops.

Your nearest Waterstones is at your fingertips on line. As are other bookshops.

Has Amazon fried people’s brains?

Do Amazon users seriously think that the only choice is between purchasing on line from them or going to a real life physical shop?

Do Amazon users seriously think that the only choice is between purchasing on line from them or going to a real life physical shop?

No. Other shops available online as well as in those out-of-town shopping centres which also killed the High Street.

Your nearest Waterstones is at your fingertips on line. As are other bookshops.
Waterstones is owned by a US Investment firm, Elliott Investment Managenent.

^ Do Amazon users seriously think that the only choice is between purchasing on line from them or going to a real life physical shop?^

Probably no more than anybody seriously thinks that what you just posted is true.

Despite having a new kindle (my third in 16 years) which I use on holidays and under the covers at night so as not to disturb DH I love a physical book and a proper bookshop.

We have an excellent local bookshop.
No need to use Waterstones which is owned by a US investment group!

Best to do some homework methinks.

If you want to support your local bookshop and support independent in general, you might consider buying through bookshop.org.

How it works here:

uk-support.bookshop.org/en/support/home

uk.bookshop.org/pages/about

As more and more people buy their books online, we wanted to create an easy, convenient way for you to get your books and support independent bookshops at the same time. If you want to choose a specific bookshop to support, choose them from our map and they’ll receive 30% of the cover price (or almost all of the profit) on your orders for a year. Otherwise, 10% of the cover price of your order will contribute to an earnings pool that will be evenly distributed among participating independent bookshops each month. Either way, your order is sent straight to your address, and all in-stock items arrive in 2-3 days.

I have no financial interest in the business - just a customer.

I don't bother with Amazon now except to print at home vouchers if asked for them for birthdays.
I have found some lovely items on Etsy. Small, independent businesses which I prefer to support.
I have only had 1 issue with a seller but Etsy stepped in and settled it within a day.

Allira

M0nica

It would never occur to me to use Amazon to buy stuff. It is an intermediary that offers nothing in return except a higher price to cover the comission the business involved has to pay them.

I prefer ebay or just googling direct, you can always check a company you do not recognise on Trustpilot.

I have only ever bought books from Amazon and stopped that years ago. I now buy books from Waterstones. However I always check every book on Amazon because it lets you look inside the book. When I have done that I buy from Waterstones, regardless of whether Amazon is cheaper.

I'm trying to think where my nearest Waterstones is

It's all very well for those with easy access to shops.

I buy from Waterstones online and they post my books to me just as Amazon would.

Allira

M0nica

It would never occur to me to use Amazon to buy stuff. It is an intermediary that offers nothing in return except a higher price to cover the comission the business involved has to pay them.

I prefer ebay or just googling direct, you can always check a company you do not recognise on Trustpilot.

I have only ever bought books from Amazon and stopped that years ago. I now buy books from Waterstones. However I always check every book on Amazon because it lets you look inside the book. When I have done that I buy from Waterstones, regardless of whether Amazon is cheaper.

I'm trying to think where my nearest Waterstones is

It's all very well for those with easy access to shops.

Your nearest Waterstones is at your fingertips on line. As are other bookshops.

Has Amazon fried people’s brains?

Do Amazon users seriously think that the only choice is between purchasing on line from them or going to a real life physical shop?

Allira
It's all very well for those with easy access to shops.

Or those who are not worried about the extra cost of P&P or the cost of bus fare to the nearest shops or the cost of fuel and parking if they’re driving there.
I do look at other sources, but it would be better to focus on getting the tax due.

M0nica

It would never occur to me to use Amazon to buy stuff. It is an intermediary that offers nothing in return except a higher price to cover the comission the business involved has to pay them.

I prefer ebay or just googling direct, you can always check a company you do not recognise on Trustpilot.

I have only ever bought books from Amazon and stopped that years ago. I now buy books from Waterstones. However I always check every book on Amazon because it lets you look inside the book. When I have done that I buy from Waterstones, regardless of whether Amazon is cheaper.

I'm trying to think where my nearest Waterstones is

It's all very well for those with easy access to shops.

The only social media site I’m on is Gransnet. I don’t feel I’m missing out. I use Amazon very occasionally. I live in a city, so can access some shops, so no need to shop online very often.

Well done you. I'm gradually doing the same. Consumer power is almost all we have left but it does work.

petra

DeeAitch56

Rockgran are you saying Amazon doesn’t take Pay-Pal! Because I frequently pay them using PayPal

You don’t have a PayPal payment option on Amazon but you can pay with a PayPal debit card or PayPal business debit Mastercard.

Or you could boycott PayPal too, that's one of Musk's companies (or was) and its other founder is one of Trumps backers, too.

I threw a real strop with Amazon about 20 years ago. I used to send vouchers to my friends children in the US, I needed to a have a US account to do so. They must have changed access rights as I couldn't use the American account and the UK account wouldn't let me send them to the US. After much toing and froing I gave up and sent a joint present to the whole family. Customer services was extremely rude and unhelpful and I have never used Amazon since. Not my favourite company!

DeeAitch56

Rockgran are you saying Amazon doesn’t take Pay-Pal! Because I frequently pay them using PayPal

You don’t have a PayPal payment option on Amazon but you can pay with a PayPal debit card or PayPal business debit Mastercard.

It would never occur to me NOT to use Amazon to buy stuff!

It would never occur to me to use Amazon to buy stuff. It is an intermediary that offers nothing in return except a higher price to cover the comission the business involved has to pay them.

I prefer ebay or just googling direct, you can always check a company you do not recognise on Trustpilot.

I have only ever bought books from Amazon and stopped that years ago. I now buy books from Waterstones. However I always check every book on Amazon because it lets you look inside the book. When I have done that I buy from Waterstones, regardless of whether Amazon is cheaper.

I use Amazon a lot now, because popping out to the shops is a thing of the past. I boycotted lots of things when I was younger, to avoid putting money into the wrong pockets, but I'd have to think about how to edit Amazon out of my life at the moment. I applaud your decision!

I need to order some things at the moment and the trouble is -they are all available on Amazon .
I've googled and looked around and I can't improve on the choice on Amazon .

It has also been instrumental in impoverishing our high streets.

It is the online shoppers, whether via Amazon or other sources who have impoverished our high streets.
We certainly need a way to make Amazon et al pay the correct taxes in the UK, but online shopping, credit cards users and ATM have all contributed to the death of high street facilities.

I live pretty much out in the sticks in Germany and use Amazon a lot. If I'm buying from the UK they deal with the customs and I don't need to do anything. In contrast, I once ordered directly from a UK firm and it was a horrendous hassle, sitting in the local Customs Office for half an hour or more and having to pay the extra customs duty to the officers there, after waiting weeks for the delivery to actually arrjve and sending e-mails back and forth to the sellers.

However neither I nor any of my family use facebook, Twitter, Instagram or the like, and some of us are on WhatsApp but only because of various groups we need to be in.

Living in the Capital of Madrid, Spain, I have never used Amazon. We have over 2.000 retail shops and I do not see the need for online especially for anything needed to be tried on.

Amazon could be useful for books however, there are so many book shops in Madrid in both Spanish and also English bookshops ( Booksellers and Pasajes and Casa de Libro ) ..

I do not trust shopping online too much .. One must be extremely careful ..

I have dropped X , Amazon Prime and Streaming music. I am already £20 per month better off but I need to use kindle so am stuck tbh.

I am trying to wean myself off Amazon too and am using British owned OnBuy to buy the things that I would buy from Amazon. OnBuy may not be as quick as Amazon but if I think ahead, I get goods when I need them. They are based in Bournemouth and London.
Now to extract myself from Audible and Kindle…

MaggsMcG

Amazon employ 1000s if not 100s of 1000s of people in the UK. Plus they get supplies from other companies in the UK. By refusing g to use them yiu are putting people's jobs at risk in your own country.

Amazon employs 75,000 people directly and hundreds of thousands indirectly.

All their employees pay tax and NI, and no doubt the businesses who sell through Amazon also pay their dues.

Amazon pays VAT.

The Government of the day needs to crack down on the loopholes which prevent Amazon and the like paying the full amount of corporation tax.