US Amazon is heavily dropshippers nowadays, especially for clothing. Reverse image search usually finds the same item with the same image on AliExpress for half the price.

The advantage used to be Amazon'd ship it to you in a couple days, but I'm getting a lot of 30+ day arrival estimates there too now.

The problem for Amazon as well is as their QC and race to the bottom progressed, it becomes harder to justify using them. Unlike the vendors they undercut, they can't play the sympathy/"support local"/"support your favourite producer" card. So I know many people who are splitting their buying habits between niche-specific retailers for the few types of products they really care about actually getting quality out of, and Aliexpress for the rest.

Define "now". In Spain it's been cheaper since AliExpress opened. Now it's more expensive because they have to pay VAT, but it's still cheaper.

And before AliExpress opened we had people importing stuff through eBay which was also cheaper than local retailers and Amazon.

Wait how was that not the case before?

Yeah, and then you get the product in like 2 weeks. Who has that kind of patience? Amazon's main product is "get this stuff to my door by tomorrow" and it works super well.