Shopping on Amazon

Jerryc41

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Amazon is "my store." If I want something, I look there first. To make it even better, I use https://smile.amazon.com. A portion of the money I spend there goes to the charity of my choice. I just received the message below from Amazon. There is no downside or extra cost to me.

"This is your quarterly AmazonSmile donation notification. Your charity, ASPCA, recently received a quarterly donation of $477,482.69 thanks to customers shopping at smile.amazon.com.

To date, AmazonSmile has donated a total of:
$5,922,559.03 to ASPCA
$134,890,393.33 to all charities"
 
Amazon are a pariah, useful but a pariah.

I buy the least possible off them.

They pay the minimum of Tax in all their business so we all have to make up the difference with our Taxes.

So I am very sceptical about them paying $5.9M to charity, it is you the customers who are paying.

Why not buy local and support your own local Charities via donations or even by helping to fund raise?

Online retailers are killing off High Street shops because those shops cannot compete with the scale of Amazon.

So yeah I for one avoid buying of Amazon.
 
Amazon are also my first choice for most things. The 'high street' are more expensive, often have prehistoric return policies and are just not enjoyable places to shop even when they are open (which on Sundays is just for a few measly hours in the UK even though Sundays are the most practical time to shop in the 21st century). For electrical goods, clothes, books and quite a lot of foods, I would not miss them if they disappeared. Ukulele shops are sacrosanct however. I have not bought one without seeing it in person first so they can stay as bricks and mortar ;)

As for charitable contributions, Amazon are free to do so. It doesn't matter that they can write it off against the very limited tax they do pay. I do not have a problem with that either. I have not heard of Amazon smile before but having a quick look, there doesn't seem to be as much on offer there.
 
As for charitable contributions, Amazon are free to do so. It doesn't matter that they can write it off against the very limited tax they do pay. I do not have a problem with that either. I have not heard of Amazon smile before but having a quick look, there doesn't seem to be as much on offer there.

There is no limitation to the smile.amazon site. That's where I buy everything from Amazon.
 
Not to get into the Amazon argument, which, sadly, I agree that they are as destructive as Walmart, the banking industry, and most other aspects of capitalism--while being nearly unable to avoid shopping there--you can request that they add small and/or local charities. I did, and they did. It may have been one they planned to add, but it's worth a try.
 
I look on ebay first, probably not any better, but I also look for buy it now and make sure it has free shipping.
 
Yeah, I wouldn't know. I shop on Amazon.ca and the prices are sometimes decent, sometimes ridiculously expensive. I prefer local, but some things you just can't find locally. For online, there's often better deals to be had than Amazon Canada.
 
In the 20 years I've lived at my present address, there have been no local retailers here that carry well over half of what I'm interested in, and can readily find on Amazon, so yeah, I shop there quite a bit. I check out the online competition, too, and some are great for some specialized things, but for shopping in general, Amazon usually has everyone beat, even eBay (unless I'm looking for obscure and/or vintage). And with shopping online, there is also the nice added feature of not having to drive around on wild goose chases anymore.

bratsche
 
I'll only buy ukes from Amazon if there has been some unbelievable price glitch. I doubt the best instruments (for the most reputable brands) are going to Amazon, you can bet the instruments aren't stored in properly humidified (possibly not even temperature-controlled) facilities, and the company uses its gorilla size to stomp out competition and evade taxes. The charity angle is just a ploy to try to make people feel warm and fuzzy about being used: if you really care, donate yourself, not pennies but dollars (or pounds, etc.).

My sentiments, exactly.
I won't say more.
 
I'm pretty much in bed with Amazon. I mean, I have no choice. They sell more of my books that all the other distributors combined. They treat me pretty good and they've never tried to undercut me in any way. What else can I say.
 
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When I first experienced Amazon like ten years ago, I was amazed.
The money I could save on the books I needed for my study was significant for a student.
I could get books that I couldnt find in Denmark otherwise.
And the assortment of other stuff is also impressive.

Now when the tax evation strategies, poor employee conditions etc., I am not that proud of shopping there.
Also I am not that fond of not dealing with the vendor directly. You fill your basket and then discovery that the items are from two or three different vendors, with multiple shipping fees. It is difficult to ask the vendors questions, and you don't know if you can trust their quality.

Fortunately, the choice is not between Amazon and physical stores. There are many specialized online stores with good assortment and costumer service. Of course, to find them you depend on who paid enough money to Google to get in your search results. And you don't really know how they treat their employees either. But you would think a smaller shop had less gap between the bosses and the employees. They might charge slightly more than an Amazon suppler, but still way less than a physical shop. And assortment is more important to me unless I am shopping for something expensive.

I can't say that I never shop on Amazon, but I will usually try to find a specialized online shop first.
 
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Most Ukulele accessories - cases, straps, stands, some strings etc are almost always cheaper on Amazon so I would look there first. I was looking at mini amps there yesterday - much cheaper than the high street and with free next day delivery too. I'd be nuts to get on a bus and go to the high street to see if they even had one available and then pay more for it.
 
Most Ukulele accessories - cases, straps, stands, some strings etc are almost always cheaper on Amazon so I would look there first. I was looking at mini amps there yesterday - much cheaper than the high street and with free next day delivery too. I'd be nuts to get on a bus and go to the high street to see if they even had one available and then pay more for it.

The alternative is not necessarily to get on a bus and go to high street.
Most people on this forum buy their ukuleles online, due to the better assortment than on "high street". But not always from Amazon, usually from a reputable ukulele shop.
And yes, strings and straps don't require setup, and if you know the brand it should be safe to buy from anything but a bogus site. But rather than buying through Amazon, not knowing the vendor and not knowing if the pictures cheat a little on how the strap looks etc - I would look to a big shop like Thomann in the EU, perhaps Guitar Center i the US (I hear those mentioned a lot), or another big box music shop rather than through Amazon. That is, if they are significantly cheaper than the small ukulele shops on these accessories, which is not always the case.
 
Well most online dealers don't offer free next day or sometimes even same day delivery and don't have as simple and pain free a returns policy as Amazon. There are plenty of online musical equipment dealers of course but very few offer as complete a service.
 
Now when the tax evation strategies, poor employee conditions etc., I am not that proud of shopping there.

As a general rule, businesses do all they can to avoid paying taxes, and they see no reason to treat their employees well. Employees are a necessary evil, and they must tolerate them. On the other hand, those few businesses that pay well and treat their employees right also make a profit.
 
Well most online dealers don't offer free next day or sometimes even same day delivery and don't have as simple and pain free a returns policy as Amazon. There are plenty of online musical equipment dealers of course but very few offer as complete a service.

I've never bought a ukulele from them, but for other music related items, Sweetwater offers the best customer service I've ever experienced. Something as minor as buying a tuner from them has you treated you just spent a million dollars there and you're their favorite customer. They recently tried to help me when I contacted them about something that it turns out they don't even sell. That didn't stop them from trying to help me figure out what I needed and finding another place to get it.
 
That's good to know. I haven't found anywhere like that in the UK. I only have negative experiences with big online musical instrument shops here. The dealer I go to for actual ukuleles has an amazing online and bricks and mortor venue and offer unsurpassed service but for accessories they are not so good and can only offer a limited range.
 
I've never bought a ukulele from them, but for other music related items, Sweetwater offers the best customer service I've ever experienced. Something as minor as buying a tuner from them has you treated you just spent a million dollars there and you're their favorite customer. They recently tried to help me when I contacted them about something that it turns out they don't even sell. That didn't stop them from trying to help me figure out what I needed and finding another place to get it.

We deal with Sweetwater a lot. In fact, almost all of our sound equipment comes from them. Their customer service is par excellence, on a level with Mim's Ukes.
I'll admit, if I can't check out a certain book from our library, and can't find it at Barnes and Noble, I'll buy it off Amazon. That's about it.
Wish I had known about them for nursing school. When I tried to sell my books back after graduation, the college store would only buy back one. GRRR.
 
As a general rule, businesses do all they can to avoid paying taxes, and they see no reason to treat their employees well. Employees are a necessary evil, and they must tolerate them. On the other hand, those few businesses that pay well and treat their employees right also make a profit.

Yes, I worked off and on for a number of years with a local business like that. I worked for him part time which was convenient for me.
 
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