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.
thats the thing though, at that point the USPS is already going to be a problem, in literally every form of online order you make.
Amazon even uses USPS in some places from what i can remember, they mostly use their in house shit when it’s financially competitive.
And yes, the USPS is fundamental infrastructure, it is critically important to the functionality of the US as a whole. It’s the sole reason mail based communication even works. Without the USPS the federal government and most state governments lose a lot of power.
I don’t disagree with any of this but I also dont get the relevance. Amazon is what we have access to. That and Walmart.
yeah, if you’re buying from a single retailer. There are a lot of places that sell products online, and they’re all very accessible. The only thing stopping you from using them is literally your own laziness.
Physical retailers is more of a limit, since there are only ever so many. But that’s part of the utility of something like the postal system.
who are these amazing ethical retailers with a wide selection of available products that can be delivered virtually anywhere in the US in less than a week at a reasonable price?
It’s not lazy. You just have no perspective. Cutting Amazon and Walmart and such out of your life is a privilege. You are privileged. Millions of Americans are not.
Let’s take a look at the products on your desk and on your person. Let’s really parse your alleged ethical consumption. Tell me: what phone and computer do you use?
> why does this large conglomerate mega corp not have any ethical small business competition
you need to reality check yourself, and either pay more for shipping, or just accept that sometimes things arrive a little bit slower than convenient. If you have amazon prime you already know about this.
IDK why people expect services that are entirely separate and different to be the exact same, it’s like they’ve never gone outside before.
As for your ethical reflection into my purchases, i do not care, as i am anti humanist. I simply do not have a leg in the race, whether i die or not is irrelevant. As for my phone, i didn’t pay any money for it, it was free. And my computer, or computers, are built by me, from hardware that i bought, with my own money.
With the exception of my thinkpad collection (entirely secondhand) most of that hardware has been purchased new, as that is generally how people buy computer hardware.
Also to be fully transparent, i don’t believe i ever stated that i am an ethical consumer (i am in some aspects, i just don’t buy very many things, especially useless things, i’m a utilitarian) but for the things i do buy, i don’t spend much time thinking about it for the aforementioned reasons.
Who cares if it was your own money? We’re talking about the ethical sourcing of things you use. You haven’t said a single brand in either of your comments and it’s obvious why.
if we’re talking branding, AMD, EVGA, asus, and a handful of other similar companies. You could argue they’re unethical if you wanted, but again, i’m literally not an ethical consumer. And also, there are no alternatives.
Buying things used/second hand subverts the ethical consumption problem from the get go. So.
Then shut the fuck up if you won’t even practice what you’re judging people for Jfc. You don’t have to comment. You don’t have to grace us with whatever dumps out of your smooth brain when you smash your face against the keyboard. It’s ok to lurk and just shut up.
Bye dude
im not judging you for being incapable of using websites that dont start with amazon, and end in .com, you can do whatever you want, im just pointing out that you have a very silly opinion of how online retailing works.
yeah but then i miss interactions like this one.
Nah, fuck that, you’re just lazy and entitled. Obviously sometimes things come up, but why does everything have to ship in less than a week? Amazon doesn’t even have the best price on 95% of shit anymore, and hasn’t for years - ditching Amazon has saved me money on nearly every single item, I just have to wait slightly longer for them.
You can support nazis if you want - it’s not illegal, despite every rational perspective in the world. But don’t blame your support on bullshit like “I can’t think ahead more than two days.”
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What computer and phone do you use?
What social media do you use?
What are your 5 major pieces of software?
I don’t use Amazon or Walmart. But I understand I have the privilege of choosing. You do not understand that. Grow up.
lemmy and discord, i was an early adopter, and have given them 0 dollars.
90% of it is fully open source software. Very little is closed source, none is paid.