I’ve been trying to avoid shopping on Amazon for several years. For computer parts, I look at Newegg. For pet stuff, Chewy.
But what about all the miscellaneous stuff? What other websites do you trust when it comes to shopping online?
I’m not an Amazon fan either. But you may want to know that Newegg is owned by a Chinese company these days.
Federated Amazon alternative coming soon?
This isn’t really an answer to the question, but I just saw a Mastodon post about an online store that’s opening this October called Artisans.coop
It seems to be a cooperatively owned Etsy alternative, (and I can only assume it’s a response to whatever shenanigans went on between Etsy and Silicon Valley Bank.)
Fun side story. My first job as a developer, I was working in a small porn company in downtown Chicago. We had just hired a few people, so being the only techy in the company it was on me to order a bunch of hardware from NewEgg.
It was supposed to be delivered days later. But no, they had an employee, just like a regular dude, hop in his car and deliver the order on the same day. This was probably 2006, so same day delivery way NOT a normal thing.
I rarely get to tell this story because I don’t want people to know I started off my (somewhat long) software engineering career in porn and because who cares about this in today’s world.
However, OP mentioned NewEgg, so it fits here.
I know it’s not feasible for everyone, or even most people, but I just generally avoid shopping online as much as possible.
That’s fine if you’re not a geek nor a tinkerer (or a musician), but unfortunately my hobbies aren’t sold in stores anymore.
I miss RadioShack, Fry’s Electronics, and music stores that don’t charge a 30% markup.
I do a lot of tinkering, I just spend months trying to find parts out of random thrift store electronics. It’s much more efficient than spending 30 seconds placing a mouser order.
I’ve come to the conclusion that buying things online is really not better than shopping in person most of the time.
It is if you live in Tasmania
All of Tasmania has about the same population as my city. I’m in the process of moving somewhere a little more rural so we’ll see if I can keep up with shopping in person.
