I used to spend a fair bit with Amazon on small gadgets and houshold, books etc.
Now the wife has broken her waterflosser (21quid from amazon 3 years ago) and the best we can find locally is 39 quid in superdrug.
The kids have started a no amazon campaign, despite it being the source of goods for them, so where to get equivalent stuff?
I have sussed books, but electronics is tough.

Argos send to be a decent alternative.

Boots?

Depends on what it is you want electronic wise. I recently bought a mini food chopper from John Lewis, it was a couple of quid dearer than Amazon but I’d rather go to JL.

As long as it’s not stupidly more expensive I also tend to go elsewhere for stuff nowadays.

dont know the answer to your query, but want to say I really support what you (your kids) are doing.

Independent local? I try and avoid Amazon but it is hard sometimes.

I avoid Amazon, I refuse to shop there. They are in a large part why High St’s are dying, leading to run down town centres, local umemployment as well as the problematical position regards tax and unfair competition.

We’re already semi reliant on amazon generally because there are no shops and little investment in retail. Once shops are gone, we’ll be wholly reliant. And do you think they’ll still be cheap then?

I support your kids. Pay a little more, to know it goes into your community.

I think I just have to accept that I will pay more and do it.
I saw this quote on twitter the other day “6 billionaires own the same wealth as the poorest 18 million in the UK”

and it made me realise how we all surrender to our base instinct to go for the cheapest and get sucked in by the marketing, without realising how badly that surrender ruins things for all of us.
And how the billionaires have us blaming the immigrants for any percieved inequalities.

So yeah it starts with Bezos the richest man in the world and I aim to follow on and stop spending with anyone who sucks… (I realise how hard this will be)

What a load of horse shit.

Tell your kids to sod off.

Gets xxxxing worse.

They are in a large part why High St’s are dying, leading to run down town centres

Nah. Town centres need to offer what Amazon cannot. Cardiff centre still heaving, busier than it ever was. You may moan that it’s all coffee shops and food, but I can’t see a problem with this. People come to buy shoes, clothes, homewares and other stuff that’s hard to shop for on Amazon. And the food and drink on offer is a large part of the draw. We often go in to have a weekend coffee and cake as a treat and buy whatever we need afterwards. So we spend whatever on clothes plus £20 on food.

I don’t want innovation to be stifled. Amazon and the other online shops do something that high st shops don’t do, and vice versa. I do however want them to pay tax, but that’s an issue of government.

Yep, bricks and mortar shops need to think about what they can offer that on line can’t, immediately available stock, someone to help, tactile experience etc. Unfortunately they seem unable to grasp this, my LBS for example doesn’t open on Sunday, why not close on a Monday, Sunday would be a great day for business, need something quick to get the bike rolling, CRC can’t do that, fancy a leisurely browse and impulse purchase, not a Wiggle strong point, nor is it for the LBS when they aren’t open.

Blaming online for the high street demise is like blaming streaming for killing Blockbuster, pointless. The world changes, embrace the change or get left behind.

TBH for me its not about the high street, I would prefer high streets had independents and all the big boys go on line. I just would rather deal with UK taxpaying firms that treat their workers and suppliers well.

A leisurely browse and impulse purchase would be great for local shops but what actually happens is people go home and search online to get the nice things they’ve seen but cheaper. Also, manufacturers sell their products to Amazon for far less than to the small independent retailers so they can’t compete.

derek_starship
Free Member

What a load of horse shit.

Tell your kids to sod off.

Gets xxxxing worse.

Ok boomer

A leisurely browse and impulse purchase would be great for local shops but what actually happens is people go home and search online to get the nice things they’ve seen but cheaper

Not always, and if you’re not open or opening hours are restricted by law it’ll reduce the chances. Personally I’ll often get in the car and buy something from a shop over the weekend rather than order it and wait until the following week to get it.

Also, manufacturers sell their products to Amazon for far less than to the small independent retailers so they can’t compete.

And your point is? That’s commercial life, high street shops need to offer something more to justify the increased price. If they want to survive they’ve got to do something different, people power and government legislation won’t make Amazon any less a threat.

I just would rather deal with UK taxpaying firms that treat their workers and suppliers well.

Same here, but that’s a separate issue.

what actually happens is people go home and search online to get the nice things they’ve seen but cheaper

I’m not convinced that always happens. But if it does, why are shops continuing to try and sell the same stuff you can get online cheaper and simply expecting us to pay more? The company I work for is in the middle of what they call ‘pivoting’ to a while new business model, so we don’t get left behind in the modern world. It’s what we all need to do.

government legislation won’t make Amazon any less a threat.

Proper taxation might increase prices.

Argos and John Lewis are my go to for electronics.

A leisurely browse and impulse purchase would be great for local shops but what actually happens is people go home and search online to get the nice things they’ve seen but cheaper

Not always, and if you’re not open or opening hours are restricted by law it’ll reduce the chances. Personally I’ll often get in the car and buy something from a shop over the weekend rather than order it and wait until the following week to get it.

Not always I agree, probably just 90% of the time & shops can’t afford to pay importers the same price as amazon/crc sell stuff for and stock everything on the off chance someone will buy it & pay wages to staff to stay open some someone can buy a £5 part.

This is without the people who go in to try shoes and clothes on for size before buying online.

EBay?

What a load of horse shit. Tell your kids to sod off. Gets xxxxing worse.

What’s wrong with the OP’s kids having principles – or is it OK to have principles, provided they’re the same as yours?
Amazon’s ever-increasing dominance has been destroying high street retail for years; combined with CV19 & WFH that will result in high streets being the domain of wetherspoons, charity shops, bookies and a few coffee shops.

government legislation won’t make Amazon any less a threat

No but it could extract a lot more tax from them – this may make them less competitive, or it may restrict their activity a bit which would allow competitors in.

Amazon is banned in the Netherlands. Of course, being in the EU everyone shops at amazon.de which even has a Dutch language option, but the banning of Amazon created an opportunity for a home-grown equivalent, it’s a bit like Argos/JL in that it sells all sorts. But the point is that people shop at both. We forget that the internet cuts both ways – Amazon can sell lots of stuff to a huge market, but equally the customers can shop anywhere and everywhere else for no hassle. How many of you lot buy bike stuff on Amazon? I don’t, most of us just go to CRC don’t we? What proportion of your online shopping is Amazon?

Love or hate it but Currys is often Ok for electronics and about the only place left where you can actually go and see whether a washing machine feels solid or the oven door isn’t going to fall off without going to an ‘artisan’ kitchen shop where you daren’t ask the price. Staff are not always the best but at least they are there and tax is paid.

Argos is annoyingly handy, especially as you can now click and collect from our local supermarket.

John Lewis may price match Amazon if you ask.

Ebay has a lot of local (maybe not to you) specialist retailers on it and charges a relatively open fee structure to them unlike Amazon who try to undercut anyone making a success of using them as a portal.

How many of you use Amazon data centres or Amazon cloud computing?

Probably everyone. Probably most of you without even realising it, Probably also don’t realise that is where the majority of their income and profits come from.If you think that this is a new and novel problem then you need to check your history (look at the initial use of telegraph, publishing, newspapers, railways, radio, film/cinema, TV/Media, the first big dotcoms, etc…) and remember that the next thing that is invented will will change everything yet again.

Oh and in answer to the OP, try Currys PC world, Asda/Sainsburys/Argos etc and for general media electronics use RicherSounds (who, BTW, are excellent) 🙂

Tandy.

I avoid Amazon, I refuse to shop there. They are in a large part why High St’s are dying, leading to run down town centres, local umemployment as well as the problematical position regards tax and unfair competition.

We’re already semi reliant on amazon generally because there are no shops and little investment in retail. Once shops are gone, we’ll be wholly reliant. And do you think they’ll still be cheap then?

Amazon have a hand but aren’t even close to being the main culprits, you can thank myopic councils that allowed out of town retail parks and mega malls to dominate whilst simultaneously making town/city centre business rates uncompetitive. If I was a more cynical man I’d suggest this was entirely driven by those with vested interests but we all know how likely that is.

Commendable though your childrens principles are, principles are for those who can afford them.

Used Argos for some electrical stuff recently. Prices were competitive with Amazon but they also accept voucher schemes like Perkpal so cheaper.

Amazon, IME, have been brilliant at warranty-ing electricals. No experience of Argos.

Blaming Amazon for the demise of the high Street is weird. Sort of like blaming L&NWRailways for the failure of the canal freight industry. High Street shopping in your average dull UK town for day to day stuff is a crap and unproductive use of time. No idea why we’re trying to revive it – kids today are not going to shop like their parents and grand parents when they’re older.

You can bypass Amazon and get better prices though the direct-from-china sites like dx.com or taobao.com but YMMV.

I avoid Amazon, I refuse to shop there. They are in a large part why High St’s are dying, leading to run down town centres, local umemployment as well as the problematical position regards tax and unfair competition.

IMHO the High Street is dying because fewer and fewer people want to use it, they used to blame the big out of town places, then it was the Super Markets, now Amazon, in reality, people don’t want to shop local.

The out of town places are doing well, the ‘Shopping Resorts’ (as I’ve just called them) like the Cardiff Arcades Molegrips mentioned at doing well as of course on-line.

If you don’t want to use Amazon, then I doff my cap, I don’t use them for personal stuff, although I buy quite a few things for work, the sell loads of IT odds and sods, even if they’re a bit of a pain with their direct an indirect VAT invoice / No Vat invoice thing.

When they were selling Brexit to us, they along with all the xenophobic shit, said it would allow us to force them to pay a proper amount of tax in the UK, let’s see how that pans out…

I think Amazon will become a big problem for us, they’ve become to big to manage, too powerful and too greedy.

I think Amazon will become a big problem for us, they’ve become to big to manage, too powerful and too greedy.

Agree with this. There’s a huge anti-trust/mononoply issue with most of the big tech companies. Facebook in particular, but Amazon/Google/Apple as well. We should be jumping up and down at our government for allowing the monopolistic behaviour. I don’t think individual boycotts will do anything, the product they offer is too compelling.

Amazon have nothing much to do with the demise of the high street for me. I dont go there because its awkward, time consuming and customer service is often poor, out of town shopping is no better, and I’m sorry but I don’t much care about ‘small independent retailers’. It makes little difference to me if retail is run by one big company or 100 small ones. I’d like them to pay fair tax and treat staff well but there’s a much bigger threat to that happening.

I just would rather deal with UK taxpaying firms that treat their workers and suppliers well.

of course:
– no independents are avoiding tax in any way they can?
– no independent has even treated their workforce unfairly?
– no independent has even been crap at payign suppliers, gone bust and left suppliers in the lurch etc?

my view would be controversial but – in lockdown when shops were closed, locally the roads were quiet, the local high street was passable, one vehicle delivered to hundreds of doors. now we have reverted to people driving 1/2 mile to a shop, parking badly, congesting the high st, making like hard for cyclists and drivers, to pick up one or two things and drive it home. Potentially the Amazons of the world (and it would be better if they had a credible competitor) driving shoppers off the high street is not a bad thing for society… its not even necessarily a bad think for small retailers: if they engage with the global reach these platforms provide.

it would be better if they had a credible competitor

So a question for those who shop at Amazon – what kind of things do you buy there and what don’t you buy? What about your recent purchases?

We’ve recently replaced main appliances because they all finally broke beyond my inclination or ability to repair them yet again. Dishwasher, washing machine and microwave. The dishwasher we bought at Curry’s because we got a work discount and we wanted to be able to look at them all – after all, loading configurations are crucial to a dishwasher. The other two we bought direct from Samsung again because of a discount. In all three cases the experience was pretty good in fact, we got proper delivery drivers who kept in touch with us and brought the stuff in.

We’ve bought numerous odds and sods on Amazon. My wife bought some shoes and clothes; but we got my daughter’s school shoes from Sports Direct (yeah I know). They have a huge choice of gadgets – a couple of battery packs, and also my youngest found a clock and night light in the shape of a bunny. You can get these kind of electro-basics easily in physical shops now but the range is huge on Amazon. I haven’t seen the bunny clock anywhere else. I bought a goose-neck stand for my webcam, and also a nice long USB-C cable for my work Mac. And a vertical stand so it can sit folded up at the edge of my desk. The cables are widely available in real life, odd widgets like the stand are not. And this is a key benefit of a large online retailer – the sheer range of stuff is enormous and impossible to replicate in a traditional supply chain.

I reckon 75% of our deliveries are from Amazon, and about 25% of the money.

I bought an induction job from JL. Double the amazon price but they arranged installation. I think this type of thing is where local shops can add value.

Good on your kids. Amazon is a horrible company run by a man completely devoid of empathy.

A leisurely browse and impulse purchase would be great for local shops but what actually happens is people go home and search online to get the nice things they’ve seen but cheaper. Also, manufacturers sell their products to Amazon for far less than to the small independent retailers so they can’t compete.

I’ve actually been doing the opposite, Amazon is great for reviews so I go there for info then shop around. Latest purchase (ten minutes ago) was a lawnmower sharpener that was actually cheaper at our local hardware chain. Whilst we were at it we got some secateurs, pickup will probably be tomorrow or Wednesday.

A lot of smaller chains may have bigger postage prices but if they are local you can pick up at your leisure. Amazon aren’t the be all and end all.

I think Molgrips makes a good point as well, they’re good for buying random crap. Also second curry’s and PC world as actually being decent. JL are good too.

Amazon is great for reviews

You think so? A company offered me free stuff to give their products 5* reviews and more if I added photos etc!! Now I don’t trust reviews that much.

Aah- I take that back – I was just about to buy a fancy corkscrew but a reviewer noted that it had that black rubber coating that always ends up sticky, so I bought a different one.

I buy loads from Amazon – little things both work & personal and the bulk of my bigger (electronics mainly) purchases as often they have the best (or at least matching) prices. Very convenient obviously, quick delivery & hassle-free returns/warranty. I also buy loads of smaller bits off eBay but generally if I need/want something next day I’ll just use Amazon. For bigger purchases I’ll have a look round online to see if there’s another reputable retailer with the best price, but often the Amazon price-matching algorithm will mean I end back there anyway!

Don’t have a problem with the ethics of the company or the boss. He does come across fairly robot-like but that’s probably why he’s been able to build such an efficient, successful business. Yeah it’s be better if they paid more tax, that’s not down to them though, that’s the UK government allowing the loopholes etc.

Also don’t blame them for the “demise” of the High St. That’s down to changing habits/technology, sky-high rents/rates, and bad management from bosses.
Don’t even agree the High St is dying tbh, just changing. Local one is bustling, very few vacant shops… but there are few chain stores, and lots of indie cafes/restaurants/pubs. Local non-chain hardware stores & other specialist stores doing well.
Nearest city has lots of empty shops but almost exclusively these are big chains that have failed due to poor management & failing to adapt. “Top end” of town is now looking very shabby and ironically the “bottom end” which is exclusively smaller indie businesses is doing really well.
I still spend loads of money locally but it’s all indie pubs/restaurants/cafes/greengrocer/local galleries, crafts etc. (I hope no-one who’s refusing to shop Amazon eats out in chains like Pizza Express, etc!) Never enjoyed shopping in person anyway & much rather do it online anyway!
Interesting to know if OP’s kids are happy to have less toys, gadgets, bday/chrimbo presents etc from now on!!

Amazon are on my boycott list, along with Asda (Walmart), Nestle, Unilever, all high street coffee chains and a few others I won’t list here b/c I wouldn’t like to raise Derek_Starship & the other boomers’ blood pressure any higher. My partner and I have shopped this way for years (actually she opened my eyes to it).

How many of you use Amazon data centres or Amazon cloud computing?

Probably everyone. Probably most of you without even realising it

It’s better to give a corporate entity you don’t want to support a small amount of your money unknowingly, than loads of your custom willingly.

This is a decent resource but – and I can only imagine the consternation this will cause 😉 – you do have to pay for it…

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/retailers/shopping-guide/ethical-online-retailers

Amazon is banned in the Netherlands.

Y’wot?
Amazon.nl
It’s been there for 6+ years but only started selling physical goods directly this year, Amazon’s business decision, nothing to do with being banned.