How to avoid buying stuff online from Amazon - a list of alternative retailers

[hash tag]

Tesco's poor labout relations overseas

Dennis Skinner's not a fan of Tesco

Tesco age and gender discrimination

Tesco race discrimination

Tesco's terrible chicken welfare

Tesco negligence towards customers (there are lots of these)

.... and on, and on, and on ...

But they don't strikebreak and their parent company don't sell guns in the US.

They are however, headed up by John Allan, also boss of the CBI and Chairman of property developers Barrat Homes. A charming fellow who he thinks that "white males are an endangered species" in British business.

Nice company you prefer to keep.

Would be more impressive if it was a giraffe.

You missed one or two there spy...
Landbanking
Putting local business's out of business
When opening new shops they boast about how many jobs they create, whilst destroying others and then making staff redundant with use of scab tills

Paying farmers less than cost of production for produce and monopolising the purchase of their produce

 

[hash tag]

A quick plug for the Guardian bookshop The Guardian Bookshop home page

 

[hash tag]

Tesco must be really bad, they even have their own wiki page about it Criticism of Tesco - Wikipedia

 

[WouldBe]

You missed one or two there spy...
Landbanking
Putting local business's out of business
When opening new shops they boast about how many jobs they create, whilst destroying others and then making staff redundant with use of scab tills

Paying farmers less than cost of production for produce and monopolising the purchase of their produce

Didn't know you could get giraffe cock tattoos from Amazon.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Tesco must be really bad, they even have their own wiki page about it Criticism of Tesco - Wikipedia

They're the worst of he worst.

 

[Spymaster]

Spymaster does it concern you any that Amazon are running away with online retail at an eye watering speed whilst trampling on workers?

Kind of. But not enough for it to overturn my buy-in of the convenience offered.

I could swap it for shopping at more local providers owned by a couple of racists. or a selection of others. one of whom is on a sex offenders list

That would be ok with ddraig though because none of them have ever scabbed.

 

[Spymaster]

.

 

[Raheem]

Tesco must be really bad, they even have their own wiki page about it Criticism of Tesco - Wikipedia

That probably just means they've been successful in having PR people edit Wikipedia to take criticism of Tesco out of the main Tesco article and dumped into a much less visited article.

 

[Marty1]

Kind of. But not enough for it to overturn my buy-in of the convenience offered.

I could swap it for shopping at more local providers owned by a couple of racists. or a selection of others. one of whom is on a sex offenders list

That would be ok with ddraig though because none of them have ever scabbed.

And it’s the convenience factor which is a major attribute to Amazons success. But that convenience comes with a heavy price for Amazon workers.

Jeff Bezos recently spent $165 million on the most expensive home ever sold in Beverly Hills, acres of land, golf course, cinema - you name it. All very nice but it’s hard to understand how someone can enjoy such spoils of success when he has Amazon warehouse workers on £9 per hour passing out with exhaustion due to the inhuman pace of work Amazon demand. I’ve seen ambulances many a time at the depot I pick parcels up from.

But I think you’re right that boycotting Amazon is a personal choice and will have little impact on them - it’s going to take state intervention to curb Amazons poor working rights and conditions, or/and:

The one thing that Amazon does pay very close attention to is it’s customers - if some sort of social media campaign could get traction to get people to message Amazon via their account every time they received an order with something along the lines of ‘STOP EXPLOITING YOUR WORKERS’ - then that could have quite an impact - but it would have to be done on a big scale/gain traction for it to have a chance.

 

[hash tag]

Maybe the lockdown will help people think they do not need to consume quite so much.
Despite not have bought any news clothes (pair of emergency shorts excepted), I still don't feel the need to buy any and now expect to make it 2 years + before I buy more. In fact, I have some bags filling up with yet more stuff to go to the charity shops. But I am just a mean old git.

 

[8115]

I just got a book I wanted off Foyles, worth considering for fiction at least. Same price as Amazon, not sure about delivery costs.

 

[8115]

A wide range of books from a wide range of genres, FREE delivery to all Foyles stores & in the UK, specialist books, sheet music, signed copies and events.

Books, Fiction, Childrens & lots more | Foyles Bookstore

www.foyles.co.uk

 

[hash tag]

Vice president resigns as Amazon staff sacked for protesting about conditions

Amazon executive resigns over company’s ‘chickenshit’ firings of employee activists

Tim Bray’s departure comes as company faces increased scrutiny and employee activism around its Covid-19 response

www.theguardian.com

 

[Looby]

No disrespect intended, so please don't be offended, but gift vouchers are the worst present anyone could possibly give. The receiver may not (usually won't) want anything from the place you bought the vouchers from. Just because you buy stuff from there, doesn't mean there's something there for everyone.
Please, can we ban gift vouchers?

I like them for me and also buy them for others. My friend’s daughter usually gets new look because I know she shops there, my godson gets Xbox or Playstation. They’ve been really handy for lockdown birthdays.

 

[hash tag]

Vouchers are the present of choice for the in laws. They are difficult to buy for and they enjoy going out spending them.

 

[Marty1]

Vice president resigns as Amazon staff sacked for protesting about conditions

Amazon executive resigns over company’s ‘chickenshit’ firings of employee activists

Tim Bray’s departure comes as company faces increased scrutiny and employee activism around its Covid-19 response

www.theguardian.com

Yeah, FridgeMagnet linked Tim Bray’s blog yesterday on the Gig Economy thread.

The blog can take a little time to load so I’ve screen shot it below:

Spoiler

But, well done Tim Bray for speaking out - the most senior position from Amazon person to do so to date.

It’s important to maintain pressure on Amazon cunts who imo represent the very worst of de-humanising exploitative capitalism.

 

[hash tag]

I'm sorry he didn't speak up for workers rights before, but good on him for walking, out on a well paid job Now. How easy will it be for him to get an equally well paid job after what he has done and in the current climate, though I guess he is not in the breadline.
Puts all those nice touchy feel adverts and charm offensives into perspective. In the meantime the company continues to grow on the back of slave labour and tax avoidance.
Would you want your loved one working in one of those warehouses?

 

[hash tag]

As unaccustomed as I am to making online purchases, I made 4 at the weekend.....
Wine from offlicence chain (it will be quicker on line they said) - delivery one week from ordering
wine and beer from major supermarket by click and collect - ready in 48 hours
a few books from major book chain - non committal, they say about 7-10 days
bits and bobs (including a new oven light0 from hardware chain - 3 weeks!

Interesting how these people get round to things. thats all.

 

[krtek a houby]

Quite shocked (or just naive) to find that they sell this kind of shit

 

[SpookyFrank]

Quite shocked (or just naive) to find that they sell this kind of shit

View attachment 221599

Amazon is full of products generated by algorithms. They don't actually exist until someone orders one and then a robot prints it onto a t-shirt and sends it out.

They've previously listed stuff like 'keep calm and rape lots' t-shirts. No doubt there's a site T&Cs somewhere that make it clear Amazon cannot be held responsible for the products of their partner retailers but reserve the right to keep cashing their cheques blah blah blah.

 

[MickiQ]

Amazon is full of products generated by algorithms. They don't actually exist until someone orders one and then a robot prints it onto a t-shirt and sends it out.

They've previously listed stuff like 'keep calm and rape lots' t-shirts. No doubt there's a site T&Cs somewhere that make it clear Amazon cannot be held responsible for the products of their partner retailers but reserve the right to keep cashing their cheques blah blah blah.

I'm sure I saw somewhere (probably on the wasting the bandwidth thread) a picture of a woman wearing a T-Shirt with "I don't want any writing, just leave the T-Shirt blank" printed on it. The first human to get involved in this process is probably the delivery driver. Robots don't pass judgements or make decisions, you can probably get a T-Shirt printed with anything on it and have no-one notice it until you wear it.

 

[Doodler]

Abebooks for old books. Discogs for old records.

Those plus a diet of Complan and a source of dietary fibre should meet at least 90% of your physical and emotional needs.

 

[strung out]

Abebooks for old books. Discogs for old records.

Those plus a diet of Complan and supermarket own-brand multivitamin tablets should meet at least 90% of your physical and emotional needs.

Abebooks has been a subsidiary of Amazon since 2008.

 

[Doodler]

Abebooks has been a subsidiary of Amazon since 2008.

You sadden me.

 

[NoXion]

Why would anyone use eBay? I don't see what is added to the shopping experience by being outbid by cunts with too much money, or by being ripped off with stuff that's bought on Amazon anyway and then resold on eBay for a higher price.

That probably just means they've been successful in having PR people edit Wikipedia to take criticism of Tesco out of the main Tesco article and dumped into a much less visited article.

Except that there's quite a lengthy section in Tesco's main article about the criticism they have faced. Similar situation with the Amazon article, there's a lengthy "Controversies" section, including a link to a more detailed article detailing criticism of the company. Not even BezosBucks could shift the Wikipedians, it seems.

 

[BristolEcho]

I'm sure I saw somewhere (probably on the wasting the bandwidth thread) a picture of a woman wearing a T-Shirt with "I don't want any writing, just leave the T-Shirt blank" printed on it. The first human to get involved in this process is probably the delivery driver. Robots don't pass judgements or make decisions, you can probably get a T-Shirt printed with anything on it and have no-one notice it until you wear it.

.I kind of like that as a t-shirt I reckon!

 

[two sheds]

Interesting question and answer on reddit:

Q: Is there a website that lets me search for a product on Amazon, then suggests a different site to buy it from?

A1: If you go to the product page for a given product on Amazon, you can usually find the manufacturer/seller and their respective website on the right and buy directly from them.

A2: Many places are giving free shipping now, too. So Amazon discounts generally aren’t that big of a deal anymore.

A3: Currently work for Amazon. On the pay front it’s not that bad. Every other aspect is, working for them has put me off buying through them. Thanks for this.

A4: I worked as a picker in the Amazon warehouse for 3 days. I can say without doubt that it was the most horrible place i have ever worked. 3 days and I quit.

 

[hash tag]

I guess more people than ever will be using Amazon right now

 

[two sheds]

I do try to avoid them - mind you I'm not sure e-bay will be any better.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

For books, there's now Bookshop to support independent book stores.