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3a it shows up in an Amazon box delivered by an Amazon truck.
Or you go to their site and they just direct you to Amazon – and not because they’re lazy, to sell on Amazon you need to agree that you won’t offer the product cheaper than Amazon anywhere else, including on your own site.
And, that’s even assuming you can go to the manufacturer’s site. Often instead you’ll just get a facebook page, or maybe not even that.
Some places don’t. 3M, for example, in spite of how big it is. I needed P100 filters. I go to 3M which links me to Amazon. I could go to Home Depot, or buy from the Amazon 3M store and pay 2/3 to half.
WEN. A tool company that actually sells their own from their site. For whatever reason, their stuff is 10% more expensive on their own site, plus shipping.
And let’s not forget returns, which are free, easy and require no packaging most of the time with Amazon. I hate to say it, but they’ve got keeping people hooked figured out.
Walmart does well. The shipping is faster with no membership. And the returns are easier than Amazon. Provided you make sure the “fulfilled by Walmart” box is checked. But it’s Walmart, run by shitheads and associated with Heritage.
Michaels does alright on the crafting materials side. As does Blick, on art supplies. Fabric Warehouse is fairly solid for fabric though their selection is a bit random.
People I’ve talked to actually like shopping in just one place. So you’re combatting the “one stop shopping” thing as well.
I’m happy with slightly slower and non-free shipping if it buys me the knowledge that I get a genuine product. That’s not a given with Amazon.
I think they finally stopped commingling items between different sellers but there still enough dodgy shit floating around that I’d rather go to the manufacturer or a dedicated retailer for anything expensive or commonly faked.
Especially for expensive stuff. Lenient return policy or not, I’d rather not wait for my new phone twice because the first time some fulfillment center worker “accidentally” put something else in the box. And yes, that has happened to me.
