Amazon gives non-Prime members free shipping at $35 or more of eligible items. Instead of simply letting users get the product with free shipping, they’ve added a discount that prices it exactly one cent below the $35 limit, while only subsidizing the price with $3.38, which is about half of what they’ll then charge you for shipping.

  • rational_lib@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    2 天前

    What’s the alternative? The other places I can order a big box of cheap stuff from (Walmart, Target) are run by even worse people and have even worse service.

    I once ordered porcelain plates from target and they arrived with no packaging. I don’t mean insufficient packaging, I mean four plates just thrown in a giant box with absolutely nothing else. Somehow 3 were not broken.

    Right now I want 1) creatine and 2) cheap t-shirts and I don’t wanna pay for shipping them separately. I can’t find any place where I can get both at a reasonable price besides one of the above. I’m actually considering a costco membership but I’m only going to ever order online from them so I doubt it’s worth their stupid membership.

    • BigBenis@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 天前

      Generally, I believe the convenience of cheap shit delivered to your door comes at the invisible cost of exploitative labor practices and/or excessive consumerism by the means of low quality crap that will need to be replaced regularly or through “buy more and save” deals. If you want to avoid supporting that, you’re probably going to have to spend a few extra bucks buying from a smaller business or buying secondhand.

      Convenience isn’t free and if we want to reduce our dependence on harmful institutions we’re going to have to make some sacrifices.

      • FinnFooted@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 天前

        I do this. But, I’m also lucky to live in a city with second hand shit everywhere. Not everyone lives in a city.

        But, google shopping will tell you an alternative store to buy most things online. And compare costs for you. This gets tricky if you’re also trying to cut google out of your life though. There really is no ethical consumption under capitalism ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      • Jrockwar@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 天前

        I recently discovered dupe.com , which works quite well by giving it an Amazon link and finding it on potentially cheaper, definitely non-Bezos websites.

    • SamboT@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      2 天前

      Either buy more expensive shirts or stop buying creatine if you want to stop ripping them

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 天前

      Walmart and Target aren’t run by worse people. I’ve never heard of Target or even Walmart employees being forced to piss in bottles or a robot will fire them.

      They said, they are still bad people, as retail capitalists, but are you ready to have that conversation?

      • rational_lib@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        2 天前

        Retail capitalists are fine, but Amazon, Walmart, and Target all did the maga loyalty thing after Trump’s win. I don’t need to buy from someone who shares my politics or even doesn’t disagree with me, I just need them to not be outright oligarchs using my money to support dictators.

      • dan@upvote.au
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        2 天前

        Target also have free 2 day shipping and 5% discount if you use their “Red Card”, which is free. It’s available as a debit or credit card. I’m using the debit card version which doesn’t require a credit check or impact your credit score.

        Sure, it lets them track what you buy, but they can already do that if you pay with credit or debit card. The only way to not get tracked is by paying cash or buying prepaid Visa/Mastercard gift cards and swapping them periodically.

      • pahlimur@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 天前

        I don’t want to simp for Target too much, but the union DCs I’ve been in seem to treat their employees pretty good. No idea about the stores though, I’ve only seen their distribution centers.

    • CH3DD4R_G0B-L1N@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 天前

      Just a heads up on the Costco online thing, their selection isn’t that expansive, so it can’t replace Amazon for you. You’re at the whims of what item and brand they decide to carry and when.

    • TechAnon@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 天前

      What’s wrong with Target? Only thing I heard was backlash from putting out certain kinds of lgbtq+ designs and then reacting by pulling those back (and getting backlash again for that).