Non-amazon online stores?
December 11, 2011 11:36 AM   Subscribe

What online retailers should I use to purchase gifts for my relatives in other states, now that I'm aware of how Amazon treats its warehouse employees and do not wish to purchase anything from them until they improve the working conditions and increase their wages?

Right now all I have on the list is overstock.com, newegg, powells.com, and etsy.

What other non-amazon e-retailers are out there that should be added?
posted by jsturgill to Shopping (11 answers total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Uncommon Goods.
posted by SisterHavana at 11:43 AM on December 11, 2011 [2 favorites]


Newegg is great ! Has a bunch of household items, great customer support and their prices are very close to what amazon charges. I've been using them since '01 or so.
posted by Poet_Lariat at 11:59 AM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


Zappos. Not just shoes, and their customer service is amazing. It sounds like they strive to be a good employer, as well, though I have no idea if they actually are.
posted by imalaowai at 12:02 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


Is your question more 'what's a list of non-Amazon e-retailers,' or more 'what's a list of e-retailers that treat their employees well'?
posted by box at 12:08 PM on December 11, 2011


If you want to stay away from Amazon, you probably want to stay away from Zappos as well, as they're owned by Amazon. Shoebuy is a great alternative, I think.

Also, +1 for Newegg.
posted by Right On Red at 12:15 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


All of the sellers on Etsy determine their own pay and working conditions :)
posted by DarlingBri at 12:19 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


Zappos is owned by Amazon.
posted by dfriedman at 12:45 PM on December 11, 2011


All of the sellers on Etsy determine their own pay and working conditions

As long as you're not accidentally getting stuff from resellers, who get their stuff from who knows what kind of factories. Artfire.com at least tries to separate out the commercial product resellers, and is a marketplace for much of the same genre.

For books, I try to use betterworldbooks.com, which is at least B-corporation certified.

The B-corp certification (sample assessment PDF) does include some assessment of workers as well as 'sustainable' practices. I'm not entirely sure how good it is as metric for this sort of thing, however; I'm only briefly familiar with it and if it's a load of hooey (as some of the companies involved sell hooey), someone more informed can correct me.
posted by cobaltnine at 1:01 PM on December 11, 2011


How about ThinkGeek? They have cool stuff for the discerning geek, and their warehouse monkeys are well fed and cared for.
posted by Dr. ShadowMask at 1:28 PM on December 11, 2011


Costco.com
posted by invisible ink at 3:27 PM on December 11, 2011 [2 favorites]


I am not sure what you mean by on line retailer but you can order on line,a nd have delivery, from COSTCO which has a solid reputation for paying competitive wages, benefits and working conditions. You would have to have a membership. While it is not absolutely true, there is a relationship/positive correlation between the lowest possible price and lower wages.
posted by rmhsinc at 4:38 PM on December 11, 2011


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