Personally I’m happy to pay 20% extra elsewhere just to know that Bezos is not getting any of my money.
But I’m weird like that; I also think ordering everything online is inherently immoral (provided you are an able bodied person living in a city)
But I’m weird like that; I also think ordering everything online is inherently immoral (provided you are an able bodied person living in a city)
Most things that I buy on Amazon (and other online shops) are simply not easy to get in the city where I live (and it's not a small city). I very recently wrote about this topic in a HN comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50063708
Additionally, keep in mind that getting into the city center means a bicycle ride of nearly 25 minutes (using a tram (or hypothetically a car) wouldn't be much faster) per direction. So, any shopping that I do in the city will automatically have an overhead of at least 50 minutes just for getting there and back again. To this, you have to add the time that you need to find the respective item in the shop (for bigger shops, this can take some time even if it sells what you need).
This is still often worth it if you are very certain that you will get what you want. But if you are not certain about this, you typically wasted at least 90 minutes. I admit that for some kinds of items/shop, this risk is mitigated because some shops (e.g. the next hardware store) let you check online which items are available in the store.
Then, in Germany there are so opening times of shops. Since the city where I live is rather large, most shops are open at least until 8 pm. In smaller cities, shops often close much earlier (say 6 pm). At least if you are living in a smaller city, shopping often thus requires careful coördination with work time.
I (used to) live in big cities in Germany and for me the next big grocery store or street with a lot of small shops for basically everything I need day to day was about 10-15 minutes walking distance. As a laptop worker I usually enjoy being able to move my body a bit. Similar for the 20 minute bike ride for a more specialised shop.
And of course sometimes I would order online if I can’t find it in a normal store. But never from Amazon ;)
Going after the examples you mentioned in your other post:
- books of any kind i can order in a nearby book store, about 10 minutes from my home; sure it sometimes takes a week or so but it’s a real book store with actual people working there who love books. Haven’t yet found a book they couldn’t get, but my reading also isnt very obscure.
- maker supplies i cant really say, but I probably would also have to order them online, no idea
- games i buy online, I can’t remember when I last got a physical copy of a game; but then again I play the same 5 games for the last 2 decades
Just now ordered two Japanese glass sharpening stones, from amazon :)
How am I supposed to get japanese sharpening stone? Local shops carry garbage products. And first online non Amazon search is a site where all 3 of my clicks on various items in the page resulted in error 500 : https://www.knivesandtools.de/de/pt/-shapton-glass-stone-hr-...
recycling isn't convenient, but people do it with an eye to the greater good.
it's not hard to imagine that an Amazon monopoly is not for the greater good.
There are many good moral reasons for ordering stuff online, see my other reply.
But often I see peers ordering in groceries when there is a store literally 5 minutes down the street where they can buy everything - that’s immoral imo.
Not only because of the fucked up working conditions of delivery workers, the wasteful packaging and energy wasted on delivery vehicles but also because it’s an unhealthy and antisocial lifestyle.
And yea it kills small businesses often as well - not always ofc.
Take with a grain of salt.
Like with so many things the 80/20 rule is useful here
Next you will say it is immoral to ride a car, we are destroying horse stable worker's lives.
Good luck though.
Most of those deaths are fault of politicians. Make getting driving license more strict (like Germany). Apply follow distance law instead of idiotic speed limits, fine like crazy for reckles driving. DUI driving? 5 years license ban. Next time: jail.