AIBU to please ask you not to plough even more money into Amazon over this lockdown?

[schitter]

I know, it's cheap and easy.
I know you probably need to find the lowest price you can.
I know it being delivered straight to your door is win win on non essential trips out.

But pleeeasssssse let's not make the richest man in the world any richer than he is already if you have any other option.
Even shopping online with the big high street retailers is better than lining JBs pockets.
Look at those little individual eBay shops that'll no doubt have exactly what you're looking for and you only have to wait a couple of days extra, it's not the end of the world.

Please look around you, please look what else is available.
Lots of your local shops have diversified into offering home delivery because their livelihoods depend on it.

My livelihood depends on it! My little business did 3% (yes, three percent) of its usual sales in April. I permanently laid off 4 staff and haven't made a penny personally since.
I feel sick at the thought.

I buy most of my things from Amazon, excellent service and delivery, also get quite a few offers so I am certainly not going to stop now

@JamSarnie like I say, maybe I just don't shop very much. I just can't imagine a scenario where I need e.g. blu tack urgently. I'm not talking about a weekly big delivery - I'm just not sure I ever need a single item. I just do without if I haven't got something, and get it next time.

It's less polluting for me. As I said up thread, I live miles away from the nearest shopping town, so I'm 20 miles from Town A, which is then relatively close (a few miles by motorway) to Town B, and in the middle there's a rapidly expanding area of new build estates and a retail park. So say you have Sainsburys in town A, M&S in Town B, and Tesco in the retail park. My mum doesn't shop online at all, and she will usually drive up to our nearest town, A, then go along to town B via the retail park to pick up something else or something she can't get in the first town. I'd say she could easily do 60 miles in a round trip, and that's usually once a week and her friends will do the same. This isn't for anything specific either, just normal shop stuff. Meanwhile I do the same trip maybe once every 6 weeks if even, and I usually combine it with a day trip with the kids. I also use our local village shops far more as a result, because there's not the same pressure to get everything at once from the shopping town

Most people still also go out to shop as well

I don’t. Just shop online. Especially now, with all the masks and black and yellow tape and stress!

Do people drive round shops? Don't people go to town/shopping centre (in whatever way) then walk round shops?

Yes people drive, take the bus, then walk round the shops.
However, Shops don’t get their stock by magic!

Shops buy their stock from a warehouse and it’s delivered in big vans/lorries.
Workers in the shop drive or get the bus to work. Customers drive or get the bus to the town centre to do their shopping.

Lots of journeys there.

I buy pretty much everything apart from fresh food on Amazon, I pay prime and get deliveries free although with a couple of days delay, whereas with other online store always having to deal with Highland and Islands charges, bought off a small business online recently, got charged extra then it arrived by royal mail . Could never give up Amazon, total lifeline for me.

@ILiveNearby

With regards to Bookshop, my local independent bookseller just posted this on Facebook...doesn’t look great for small businesses!

Well, says something that the very week after bookshop.org launches, your local bookshop gets an online presence that actually sells books (rather than what they have at present). One can only imagine that bookshop.org has given them the push to drag their behinds into the 21st century. It's taken them long enough! Perhaps that's why the owner can't see what a good idea it is. It is another channel to sell books, yes they won't get as much margin as on their own e-commerce site (which they apparently had not had before) , but they also don't get to benefit from either a bookseller pool of profits, or indeed discoverability. By joining, they don't have to push that site over their own, so are not sending customers there, it's giving customers an option that competes on delivery speed, price and familiarity (customers might not want to have multiple different indy bookshop accounts). It's a great additional revenue stream for local bookshops, from a B Corp initiative, that is trying to preserve the bookselling ecosystem as a whole. I don't think your local bookshop gets it, or indeed modern bookselling.

To add, I just got a message from a friend who works for an independent bookshop and they way they are treating the staff is appalling. So no all is black and white.

Amazon is the only company I have used and not had any customer service issues with. I order something, it arrives - simple. Well you would think it is simple, unfortunately other sellers don't seem to be able to consistently manage this.

However I have had issues with many other companies and also sellers on Amazon, so rightly or wrongly, I tend now to stick with Amazon directly. For example I ordered a tablet through a seller, it didn't work. Their communication was ridiculous, they just didn't care. I had to go through Amazon to sort it. It was very upsetting as cost ££.

I also have had items not turn up, arrive broken or wrong item sent, when using Amazon sellers or Ebay. So I have given up, sorry!

Since sheilding we have prime as its quick delivery and good availability.

We will continue to use that if it works out cheaper than other sites.

We use Amazon smiles so at least the tiniest bit of our payment goes to charity.

Yes interesting about the deliveries vs the customers' journeys.

To those saying that Amazon provide thousands of jobs - they do now, but as they automate more and more of the process, those jobs will dwindle and by then it will be far too late to opine that the High Street is dead and all the small businesses which employ millions in this country have gone. It's like Uber complaining when they had their London licence removed that their drivers were going to be out of work and how would they feed their families, while simultaneously being one of the biggest investors in driverless car technology.

There's a similar situation regarding the big OTAs and accommodation providers like Premier Inn and Travelodge - Posters on MN usually cry, book a Premier Inn, 'cos they're cheap, perhaps not realising that other hotels can be just as cheap if you book them direct rather than going through the likes of Booking.com which can charge huge (up to 35%) commissions on some hotel rooms.

These mega companies are not out to 'help' small businesses. In fact there was an article which I'm trying to find and will post when I do, that for an average $7 odd purchase from a small business on Amazon's platform, Amazon will take half that amount in fees and charges.

So, yes, you can carry on buying from Amazon, but don't complain when it all goes horribly wrong.
moneyinc.com/20-facts-amazons-business-downright-scary/

I use Amazon for some things but if it comes up with a marketplace seller I tend to look for the seller's own website and buy direct. We've just done this and got the thing we wanted far cheaper and had the reassurance of chatting to the seller about the quality and delivery - he even said we could leave a message if we wanted something different or out of the ordinary! I don't use Amazon as 100% default, to be honest, and prefer to use smaller sellers if possible.

I used to try and avoid amazon then I did a 50 mile round trip and an afternoon of searching for wellies. Gave up bought them on Amazon and haven't shopped in town for three years. I'm skint though so not buying anything anyway.

whereas with other online store always having to deal with Highland and Islands charges, bought off a small business online recently, got charged extra then it arrived by royal mail

Yeah that's always a good one for up here. Some twit down in Birmingham tells you that it's more because we aren't on the mainland. Funny, I don't remember having to get a ferry to my house.

Real life example of why Amazon works:

I have 2 rabbits. They eat lots of hay. I ordered a couple of boxes of hay and a box of straw on a subscription service (not Amazon). I placed the order on 30th October. They've emailed me today to say it will be delivered tomorrow. That's 6 days. 5 days if you don't count the day I ordered it. If I'd ordered on Amazon, it would have been with me 4 days ago.

Sorry but your view is far too simplistic -

1. Amazon employs thousands of people who need a wage too
2. Many small independent businesses use Amazon to sell goods
3. I am unemployed right now and its much cheaper with free delivery
4. Delivery takes half the time of most suppliers
5. Id rather get home delivery than go to town and be much more exposed to Covid
6. Most of the time I go to town they don't have what I want anyway!

I'm not sure what kind of business you have and I'm sorry to hear you're struggling. Have you considered using CRM to try and boost sales from your previous or repeat customers?

I'm sorry you are struggling and other small businesses. However I will continue to use Amazon for the following reasons

1. I don't go out to shop. I rely on online shopping
2. Amazon employ so many people and are helping to sustain families
3. Amazon is a platform for small businesses
4. The delivery turnaround is fantastic
5. Amazon returns and customer service is fantastic

I think rather than to tell us where to shop you could look at how to adapt your business to this new normal we seem to have now. I don't mean that in an unkind way 👍

I agree. Jeff Bezos doesn't treat or pay staff well and he doesn't do anything altruistic with his extreme wealth. He has so much money he would struggle to spend it in his lifetime, but he wants to keep making more and more and sod all the small business that go bust in the meantime.

They employ thousands because they deliver all the purchases we make , almost, so all the employers from the past - shops, market stalls, shopping malls , farmers markets will be gone. And then if Amazon's owner wants to build a rocket for mars he might double all his charges and cut all the pay of staff and to van drivers and we will be stuffed as everything else has gone. But fortunately I was born years a go when people didn't buy stuff on a weekly basis and quite look forward to going back to that.

Ive been thibking about this lately, i see all the please buy your Christmas shopping with small businesses and not Amazon, but i have prime so free next day delivery and when i look for same item its usually always cheaper and free delivery so its really ends up being a no win situation, so dont think i can say i will try not to use Amazon

What i mean is its just not as simple as buy from small businesses and not Amazon

Amazon treat their staff a lot better than a lot of other places.

All this outrage over a company that does its job right. Better conditions than a lot of warehouses, if you want to feel sorry for a warehouse try the ones that have to pack the stock to send into places like studio/Littlewoods etc. Amazon actually manage to take loads of the staff of smaller operations every year for Christmas temps because it’s better pay and conditions.

I didn’t go out to shops even before the pandemic, so there’s not a chance I’m going to start now.

I’m all in favour of buying from small businesses, I’ve found a fishmonger who delivers although I am struggling to find a butcher, but general day to day stuff I buy from amazon, and my DS has prime so he orders it on his account and we get next or same day delivery.

You couldn’t pay me to shop on eBay....

I’d be more inclined to spend with small businesses if the postal charges weren’t so damn high .
I paid £4 postage for 1 bar of charcoal soap smaller than the palm of my hand last week . I could not afford to pay separate delivery charges for everything especially as most if not all of our Christmas shopping will have to be online .
I will try my hardest to support small business when my funds allow but it’s impossible to do this all the time ,especially at the moment .