I wanted to get printer photo paper for my printer, a Canon. I went to Walmart, They had nothing. Went to Target, they had one pack of photo paper and it was crazy expensive, so I went to micro center. That one was just as expensive. So finally I went back to Amazon, which I was trying to avoid, and saw the price 25 to 40% lower than anywhere I had been. Literally everything that I was looking for, I could find within seconds. Not even Best buy has even close to the amount of inventory or variety, even when you’re shopping online…

Therefore, I think Amazon has a literal monopoly in the tech industry right now, you’re literally forced to buy from them, because unless you have the money and financial fortitude to protest with your wallet, you’re going to be buying from them. There’s no other choice. They have so aggressively and dominantly taken over the supply chain market that no other tech company can currently compete with them in any aspect at all. You will be paying 40 to 50% more on everything by cutting out Amazon, and no one has the money for that anymore unless you’re upper middle class or above

  • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
    51·
    3 months ago

    Exactly. For tech stuff, B&H Photo and Newegg are generally pretty good, and there are still niche sites within that depending on what you’re looking for (e.g. keyboards and mice have multiple high quality vendors). At the very least, it’s worth using the “shopping” feature on your search engine (I use DuckDuckGo and check their “shopping” tab to get a feel for which vendors sell a given thing).

    I’ve been buying a ton of stuff recently on eBay because I usually don’t mind buying used if it’s something more expensive (i.e. cell phone, console games, etc), just be aware that they have different standards than other retailers (e.g. if it’s a refurb phone, you could get an aftermarket screen). But as long as you read the listing carefully, it’s usually all spelled out.

    • Final Remix@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Can’t trust NewEgg anymore. They got bought by a chinese company and their support and experience have gone completely to trash.

      • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        That’s fair. However, I’ve never had to interact with their support, or Amazon’s for that matter, so it honestly isn’t something I care strongly about.

        • Final Remix@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          That’s fine. Before I knew about the buyout, I wounder up with several broken or defective items, and finally had to reverse charges on a laptop power supply, because they were so bad to deal with.

      • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Right. I remember their interview w/ Newegg, and it seemed like they handled it really well, and the utter lack of new negative videos by GN seems to indicate that they’ve made some positive changes (or maybe GN forgot to follow up?).

        That said, I haven’t bought anything from them for 2-3 years, so I don’t have any recent experience. I hope they’ve improved, because they used to be my go-to electronics retailer.