Trying to find my way out of the Amazon

January 9, 2025 9:12 AM

Due to recent events, my wife and I have decided to stop using Amazon. For many years I have been in the habit of buying things for the house, etc. from Amazon on a regular basis. We live in a small community where local shopping options are quite limited. Major shopping meccas are an hour away. What do you recommend to replace Amazon, especially for home goods and such?
posted by Rivvo to Shopping (23 answers total)

You can almost always find the brand you were buying from Amazon via their own web shop. Like, I assume you can get toilet paper and kitchen cleaner and so on locally, but if you like a particular product for your house, just look that product up and ignore the amazon links.

I live pretty rurally and honestly there are things I drive the hour to get. We go into town maybe twice a month and I stock up on stuff for the freezer and go to Target and so on.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:18 AM on January 9 [8 favorites]

Home Depot and Costco both have delivery. Costco is now advertising same-day delivery. And Costco is ethically good, both in terms of policy and how they treat their workers.

Bookshop.org is also very worthwhile.
posted by Dashy at 9:23 AM on January 9 [23 favorites]

Do you want to go exclusively small-business? If not, Walmart and Target each have Prime-like subscriptions that provide some of the same perks as well as some of the same problems.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:24 AM on January 9 [4 favorites]

You might get better help if you clarify more what categories of items you mean.

For kitchen stuff (including cleaning supplies, dishes, cookware, and even some foods/ingredients), I like Webstaurant, the online restaurant supply store. They have high quality stuff and good prices, the only catch is you'll usually want to save up a big order to both get better deals on the items and save on shipping.

For a wide range of tools, clothing, outdoor stuff, I like Scheels. They are an employee-owned store and have a wide variety of stuff you might not expect from a "sporting goods" store, including some home goods and even toys and games.

If you happen to order nicer coffee on Amazon, check out Just Coffee - a worker owned cooperative with a nice variety of ethical and good coffee.

As a tool to find store, I sometimes use Curlie, an old-fashioned web directory that you can use to find smaller local shops that ship. Imo switching out Amazon to Target or Home Depot is a minor improvement but not really worth the hassle, for me they're all big parts of the problem, ymmv.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:27 AM on January 9 [9 favorites]

Some of this may depend on whether you're in the US (your profile doesn't say). Assuming that you may be, since you didn't specify -- seconding what Lawn Beaver said. For example, the filters for my home water system are available directly from the retailer's website, so that's how I order them. Sometimes, when I remember, I'll look for discount/ promo codes online or see if I can get a better price for the same item.

And yes, it does depend on whether you're trying to shop exclusively at small businesses, or are willing to go with big box stores for some stuff (I recently bought a washing machine from Home Depot). If you have specific items that you're looking to buy, I'm guessing the hive mind on here could help with that (see Dashy's excellent recommendation above for Bookshop). E.g., Who Gives a Crap is great for toilet paper and paper towels.

On preview: what SaltSalticid said.
posted by wicked_sassy at 9:28 AM on January 9

It turns out that VEVOR is making a big "fuck amazon, just buy from us directly" push into North America. It's like, what if Harbour Freight / Princess Auto had a quality control department?
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:41 AM on January 9 [9 favorites]

I use Earth Hero for hippie-granola-type housewares and cleaning stuff, especially for first-time purchases when I'm not sure I'll like the product. (I went through a couple different laundry detergents before I found the one that works for my laundry situation, for example.)

Once I've found something I'm sticking with, I usually see if the manufacturer sells it directly for less -- even odds whether they do, IME.
posted by humbug at 9:46 AM on January 9 [3 favorites]

Another piece of advice, when you can't find the silly thing at any places that make sense, try eBay. A lot of those third party sellers that sell on Amazon are also on eBay. This is how I order random things like replacement shovel handles
posted by advicepig at 9:48 AM on January 9 [7 favorites]

This is slightly adjacent advice, but are there any other alluring activities/resources in those 1hr away shopping meccas? Different restaurant options? Hikes? Cinema? I find I'm less annoyed about having to schlep for an errand if I can pair it with something fun.
posted by coffeecat at 10:01 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Cancel Prime
posted by solotoro at 10:17 AM on January 9 [13 favorites]

When we made this shift a few years ago, the biggest thing we had to get used to was not just shopping elsewhere, but getting rid of the expectation of near-instant gratification - waiting until you're in the same area as the thing you need, or waiting for it to ship from elsewhere in a relatively standard timeframe rather than a next-day Amazon one.

Agree with the rest of the commenters that it depends on what you're buying. Outside of doing a deep-dive into all small businesses within reach (so worth it! but we are in a city, YMMV), some of my swaps have been:
-Physical books: local bookshops, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
-Audiobooks: Libro.fm (works like Bookshop.org - your local independent bookseller gets the money!)
-Health/medical: FSA Store (fsastore.com)
-Toys/games: lots of different independent toy stores and game shops online, Google is your friend!
-Cleaning products: Dropps, local grocery store
-Clothes: Smartwool (socks), Bearskn (boxers), Peau de Loup (clothes), really just find the brand(s) you like and. buy direct

Target tends to be our "lazy" option for things we can't find elsewhere or don't have the energy to hunt down.
posted by okayokayigive at 10:25 AM on January 9 [9 favorites]

Ebay & Mercari for us, plus a shared grocery list app that we note stuff down to get on the next Target or hardware store run.
posted by gregr at 10:28 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

getting rid of the expectation of near-instant gratification

As an extension of this, I too left Amazon and now I think a little more when I'm at a given shop at a given time if there is anything I'll need in the coming 3-6 months and should just get it now while I am in front of it. For example, I know my kids are going to grow and I'm standing in front of winter coats, so can I just get the next size up now while I'm there rather than when I need it in 3 months and I have no time and the local store is out of them. Similar with soap and shampoo - can I just buy 5 bars now and be set for a few months. This will depend a bit on your budget if you have the flexibility to shop ahead of when you'll need things.
posted by Toddles at 10:45 AM on January 9 [6 favorites]

Seconding eBay for general shopping. Some sellers use Amazon for fulfillment though and as far as I know, it's not possible to determine that ahead of time unless you ask the seller first. Buying "open box" items tends to avoid the Amazon fulfillment sellers, but of course will also limit the types of items available for purchase. You can use Shopkick or Fetch to earn points for eBay purchases and then use those points for eBay gift cards.
posted by mezzanayne at 11:32 AM on January 9

love this question! I try to go directly to the manufacturer’s website for as much as possible which can come with higher shipping costs but it’s worth it to me. I also do a lot of researching for buying one-off specific items, like when I needed a replacement air filter I found Discount Filters.

i use iHerb for toiletries, makeup, vitamins, and sometimes grocery items. the product reviews on there seem kind of weird and inflated and i have no idea of their ethics but they have a ton of stuff at a variety of price ranges.

I use ebay a lot but always kick myself when I order a non-second-hand item and forget to check the seller’s reviews and then I get drop-shipped from Amazon.

reverb and sweetwater for music gear and some types of cables

vetsource for pet food if your vet is on there although it is possibly more prescription/medical oriented. otherwise chewy but they’re kind of a juggernaut and not sure of their ethics lately

B&H Photo and Video for electronics and computers and stuff

I appreciate the existence of Making Cosmetics for miscellaneous cosmetics ingredient and chemical needs although I’ve only purchased pigments from them

I have previously used esalerugs.com a lot but not sure of their ethics lately and I’ve just started shifting to secondhand or diy for most home things
posted by crime online at 12:12 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]

especially for home goods

homegoods?
posted by HearHere at 2:15 PM on January 9

unfortunately homegoods & its brethren mashalls, tj maxx, etc. are 89% republican on goodsuniteus.com. (amazing site, has already changed what & where I buy.)
posted by changeling at 3:37 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]

I've been amazed how many things I can get from Ace Hardware. If you have one in town, you aren't charged for shipping if you get your order shipped to the store instead of getting it shipped to your house. If you have a True Value or Best franchise instead, they offer similar deals. And that's another thing--although these stores are part of the corporate branding and supply chain, each local store franchise is individually owned and operated, so you really are keeping money locally.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:42 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]

Avery.com has a lot of office type things like labels, file folders, page covers, etc. They ship very quickly but do charge for shipping. Their prices seem to be the same or less than I see in office stores.

Costco just walked away from the table in negotiations with Teamsters. The same day delivery options are pretty limited (if they exist at all) when you live and hour away from the nearest warehouse.
posted by soelo at 7:30 PM on January 9

I deleted my Amazon Prime account about four years ago. It's worked for me so far, but I also happen to live in an area with easy access to most major department stores. For things that I can't find in the area, I've found these online stores to be the most helpful: Target, Home Depot, eBay, Bookshop.org, and Better World Books. Chewy is also great if you have pets.

On a side note, if you have any friends or family who regularly give you gift cards for holidays or other special occasions, you might want to let them know that you no longer have an Amazon account. Amazon gift cards (especially the digital ones) are basically impossible to use unless you have an Amazon account.
posted by carnival_night_zone at 6:59 AM on January 10

FSAstore is about twice the price of anywhere else, in my experience.
posted by Dashy at 8:07 AM on January 10

I look for employee-owned enterprises, and find that their goods tend to be high quality, twofer!

Ace does have a deep catalog, and at least some of them have switched to reusable crates between the warehouses and the stores, so that’s a layer or two of high quality cardboard foregone.
posted by clew at 9:54 AM on January 10

To some degree I am embracing the additional friction to encourage less purchasing. Amazon made it so easy to buy stuff impulsively with free shipping that I bought more. Now I need to really want something. So consider whether all the shopping you are thinking about replacing is necessary, or if it's better to do it in person when you are in town, etc.
posted by metasarah at 8:11 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]