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Thursday, 20 Mar 2025
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And about 1/2 the time they ship it through Amazon anyway.
Well the next time I need a YHEBKSHVBIHGG bookshelf, a pair of KNFBFOOOOLYLYLYYU earbuds, or a WOOWOOWOOTTR electric blanket, I’ll definitely go straight to the manufacturer.
The first and the only item I’ve checked so far was Radnor Splash Strawberry flavoured water. Excluding the postage costs, Amazon charges £13.92 for a pack of 24 bottles, the same item costs £15.99 on the supplier’s website. Out of the curiosity could anyone else pick a random item and share their results?
Edit: Item No. 2 Reflex Nutrition One Stop Mass Gainer 4.3 kg. £45.89 on Amazon, £82.99 on the supplier’s website.
Edit2: Item No. 3 Auspicious beginning Axolotl plushie. Same dimensions. £17.99 on Amazon, £20.99 (30% discount at the moment) on the supplier’s website.
unfortunately everything i’ve tried this with isn’t a real company with a website outside of amazon. i’m working on just trying to buy local or
live without
The main difference is Amazon offers free shipping and free hassle free returns. Other retailers charge you to return products you order from them and usually charge you shipping to get them
The delivery part is a complete lie. Might work for Americans but I’ve tried this with different brands for the exact same reason of not wanting to give bezos money and wanting the company to get the full sale value.
Amazon always delivers WAAAAAY faster than if I order through the company website. Days vs weeks or even months. Plus on Amazon I don’t need to pay customs so it usually works out cheaper too.
It would be cool if it were true (for me). Most of the things I buy don’t have websites. When they do, they’re usually 10-15% higher than Amazon… and they charge an additional shipping charge on top of the higher price.
2-8 days!!! Damn
Amazon usually fucks with their sellers by demanding they sell cheaper to Amazon than any other company, also a lot of American companies don’t have other ways to sell abroad and I always try to avoid ordering from outside of EU to avoid customs duty
By and large, this makes sense. However, I tend to notice things like Blu rays and books *tend to be cheaper* on Amazon.
Somewhat niche example, but the first season of Sailor Moon Blu ray is $29.90 on Amazon vs $44.99 on Crunchyroll.
I need constant reminders for this, so thank you for this one
I’ve been doing this for years just because it’s cheaper nine times out of ten.
Pro tip: if the manufacturer is a Chinese company, especially in shenzen or HK, chances are they have an official store on AliExpress that sells everything they do on Amazon for half the price.
Used to work for a local mom and pop place.
They would buy products off Amazon, mark them up at least 100% – sometimes as much as 5x the cost, and then say:
“BuT we’Re LoCaL”
So, it doesn’t always help to “shop small”
It is so crazy the number of times I’ve done this and found the product to be listed higher on the companies webpage compared to Amazon. I have no explanation for that. But it’s happened to me so many times, that’s I’ve pretty much stopped trying to use this “life hack”.
Someone needs to build “Amazoff” that lets you browse amazon products but with their original suppliers instead
The cost of shipping is usually enough to keep me from doing this. It’s not a couple of bucks, but it’s often something like $15 on a $30 order, and takes longer to get.
What really upsets me is when they charge full shipping for each item. $5 for that one pair of socks is $10 for two pairs or $15 for three. They’re all going in the same box! It’s a ripoff.
If they would stop doing that I would gladly buy directly from them. It’s all about the shipping
Unfortunately, no.
There is no way any other company besides Walmart that will ship something to you in two days or less without charging you a fortune.
When we buy off amazon, we are doing so for convenience and expedited shipping.
What should happen is billionaires should pay their fair share of taxes.
1. not usually the case
2. coupon codes are also on amazon/ no need for visiting sketchy coupon websites
3. you’ve already paid amazon for fast delivery
4. sending it back is 0 problem
5. if something happens after a few weeks, you can still just ship it back
reduce the stuff you order online instead, most is junk anyway
We had a good experience doing this for Christmas, found a really cool temperature gauge that looked handmade, so looked into the seller and went to their website directly. Turns out seller is an artist who sells on Amazon for the exposure but doesn’t make much. We bought directly from the artist, shared several emails chatting and he even sent drawings and mockups before making the final piece, and he engraved it. It was a fantastic experience.
On the flip side, I wanted to support a writer and buy his book, and on his website it directed me to Amazon. So it’s not guaranteed but it’s worth a few minutes of researching the seller anyway. You might forge a new relationship with an artist!
I pay for Amazon’s consistency in shipping. That’s why it’s the best. Their return policy and refund are better than any other site, by a huge margin. I’m sorry but I don’t trust the shipping of any ecommerce site other than amazon.
This is how I found out 90% of the stuff on Amazon is cheap Ali Express garbage.
Spent way too long thinking OFF was an acronym and wondering what it stood for.
Find a 10% code then pay 20% more in shipping. Takes three times as long to get to you. Customer service non-existent in case there is a problem.
No thanks, Bezos completely redefined E-Commerce and online shopping, no other competitor has come close to the convenience and value Amazon provides; not even Walmart has been able to compete.
Sometimes when you are an actual business on Amazon. And if they’re overloaded or out of stock of your product. The order is sent to the manufacturer for them to ship it.
Amazing, except the company doesn’t ship to my country or charges insane rates, when Amazon charged me less than €20 for shipping and took 3 days with regular shipping option.
So you don’t want to give Bezos money, but you still shop on Amazon?
i believe this has been proven to be BS many times already
Ordered a Fluance turntable direct from their site because I couldn’t find the style combination I wanted on Amazon. Joined the mailing list, got a 10% discount, put in my order on a Sunday evening. Amazon delivered it Monday afternoon.
But do they accept amazon gift cards? 99.9% of the time I’m only on Amazon because I was given one.
I literally just did this and the product was already cheaper than it was on Amazon before the 10% discount they offered.
Yeah that’s definitely wrong tho
I live in Montreal, recently Amazon pulled back and so a lot of us canceled Amazon Prime. There is **a lot** of items that don’t ship to Canada or with an extremely high shipping cost. A lot of products **are not** available without Amazon now and that’s the whole issue about monopoly
Damn, you guys in US wait 2-8 days for deliveries? We in Europe (at least in Poland) wait max 2 days most of time and we even have same day deliveries.
caN uSuALy fInD a 10% oFf cOUpOn
hmmm…my experience has been bad doing that. Not only are returns 10x’s harder, you’ll get the product way slower, and pay for shipping. I hate it but amazon really makes things easierÂ
They always force me to make an account with a password and it’s so annoying.
It’s never cheaper even with signup discounts and you always have to pay for slower shipping.
Most of these amazon sellers just buy in bulk from Alibaba and resell it on amazon/ebay/aliexpress/temu etc. You have to really dig to find the actual manufacturer and most aren’t going to deal with a single item order.
Sorry but I am going to pay the amazon convenience fee for quicker shipping and easier returns.