I use Mercado Libre because in my country we no longer have easy access to dollars to buy in Amazon and they don't accept our currency (I'm Venezuelan)
this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
65 points (94.5% liked)
Asklemmy
43371 readers
1405 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Foreign shopping websites have a hard time settling in Poland as we have a very strong local competition - Allegro.
eBay tried some years ago and failed miserably. It exists but I never thought of shopping there.
When Amazon entered Poland with a dedicated regional store, they had to introduce a very attractive offer to bring customers. Hence I pay an equivalent of about $13 per year and for that I get Prime Video, Prime Delivery and Prime Gaming. However I find Amazon store itself pretty lame. The app UI feels inconsistent and unintuitive, like someone took a different app and decided to build something else on top of it. Offers don't have regular titles but instead there's a waterfall of search keywords. Both titles and descriptions seem auto-translated from other languages. Prices are often higher or much higher than in other web stores. Basically a lot of them look scammy.
So to answer the question, I made a few purchases on Amazon but it's not my go-to place. There's a lot of online stores and there are websites that compare prices between them so in the end I will buy at a store that gives me the best bargain (good price, fast free delivery to a parcel locker, seller credibility).
Just a bit. I live in Slovakia and we don't have Amazon. However, I sometimes use UK Amazon to import DVDs. But BluRays are usually cheap too. Especially if you get them used.
I really hate to admit it, but I do use amazon quite a bit. It's not "like me" to use a company or service I despise, despite the truth of "no ethical consumption under capitalism," some businesses are just so evil that I feel it is wrong to support them in any way, even at the cost of convenience.
Here's the situation though. I rely on foodstamp benefits to be able to afford food. Amazon allows me to buy food in bulk online with my ebt card. I also have a disability that makes it prohibitively difficult to go to the grocery store as often as I would need to, and bulk buying online also stretches the benefits I get much further than regular grocery visits. Walmart and Target also now allow ebt cards for online food shopping, but they didn't used to, and they are evil as well!
I rationalize using amazon by telling myself that since mostly the only thing I get from them is food via ebt card, then it's really just money going straight from my state government to amazon, and my state government (just like most others) gives amazon free money anyway, so I may as well get something out of their capitalist sweetheart deal too.
Despite trying to avoid it I end up using Amazon occasionally, for maybe 10% of my non-recurring purchases. Small electronics, accessories, and dietary supplements mostly. The convenience of pick-up lockers is hard to beat, and not all delivery companies offer it.
I like to buy local but when the people in the local stores donβt care or even say hello to me and I have driven there to specifically shop local with them, then I think about saving gas and shopping Amazon with no sales clerk smart attitude.