So do you just assume everyone lives within convenient travel distance of a wide variety of shops that would supply everything that they could possibly want, or are you claiming moral superiority because you shop at Walmart instead of online at Amazon?
Really? I had no idea! /s
Seriously, though… just because there are other vendors that sell online does mean that each and every thing someone may want/need is available from other vendors online. Amazon has spent decades forcing competitors either out of business or to work through Amazon. They also leverage volume and loss leaders to drastically undercut prices of competitors they can’t eliminate.
Even if you can find someone else that has what you’re looking for and are willing to pay more (and for the record, I absolutely pay extra to avoid Amazon whenever possible), there are a lot of small businesses that provide even shittier service (or are outright scams) than Amazon. You may or may not actually get what you ordered, and if something is wrong with it, good luck getting a replacement or refund short of a formal dispute with your bank. Many require credit cards for online transactions, and you have no idea how they’re handling that data. Plenty exist that store CC info on local servers with nonexistent security precautions.
“Just shop online elsewhere” is just as lazy and undeservedly self-righteous as assuming everyone can just walk to a physical store to buy whatever they want.
And why do you think you have no other choice than Amazon and Walmart in America? It’s not a natural state of things.
So did you just skip the first half of my comment, or did you not understand the words?
Newsflash: not everyone in America lives in a major urban area where a wide variety of shops are available, let alone small independent shops. I live 30 minutes from the nearest city, which is a small city. There’s a huge amount of products that are not available in either my immediate area or even in the closes city. I don’t mind paying extra to avoid major chains, and I typically look elsewhere before resorting to Amazon, but paying extra and spending 2+ hours in a car to avoid Amazon is not a viable alternative.
If you’re going to talk about the “natural state of things”, then I assume you simply go out into the nearest forest, cut down a tree, and build whatever you need using the assortment of stone tools you’ve hand crafted?
ya thats my problem too. at least an 1.5 hr drive one way to get to “shops” that are not ace hardware or safeway. i live in a town of about 2k up a steep mountain pass. i would love to ditch amazon but its really really hard to
You obviously didn’t understand my comment. I may not have been clear, sorry if that was the case.
