The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

Counterfeits, Safety, and Returns

• Many comments say the strongest real-world reason to avoid Amazon is counterfeits and misrepresented goods, especially: supplements, medications, electronics (fuses, breakers, chargers), car parts, and even professional manuals/books.
• Several users report recalls or obviously fake/defective goods, including vitamins, DSM manuals, hard drives, electrical components, and badly printed books.
• Concerns go beyond fraud to physical harm: fire risk from fake electrical parts, unsafe materials in clothing/earpads, and unknown substances in supplements.
• Amazon’s liberal returns policy is seen as a double-edged sword: it encourages scams and leads to opened/used/modified items being resold as new.

Fulfillment, FBA, and Co‑mingling Debate

• There is extended debate about “Sold by Amazon” vs third‑party sellers.
• Multiple people assert that Fulfilled-by-Amazon (FBA) inventory is co‑mingled, enabling counterfeits to contaminate Amazon’s own stock; others say this is overstated or now rare.
• Cited FBA terms explicitly allow Amazon to store identical units from different owners together; how this interacts with “Sold by Amazon” remains disputed and somewhat opaque.

Alternatives and Purchasing Strategies

• Suggested alternatives for supplements and similar goods include iHerb, Costco, NOW Foods, Vitacost, local pharmacies, and niche vendors.
• For general goods, people mention Walmart, Target, Home Depot, B&H, Adorama, AliExpress/Temu (for much cheaper but similar quality), and local stores.
• Common rule of thumb: don’t buy anything from Amazon that goes “on or in your body,” or anything safety‑critical.

Convenience, Prime, and Consumer Behavior

• Many concede Amazon’s UX, speed, availability, and returns are best-in-class and often cheaper, especially with pre‑stocked imports and predictable delivery.
• Others say canceling Prime dramatically reduced their impulse purchases and Amazon usage, and they adapted by planning ahead, buying locally, or accepting slower shipping.

Ethical, Political, and Practical Boycotts

• Some argue individual boycotts barely affect Amazon and mainly serve personal consistency or “feelings”; others counter that values-based behavior matters even if impact is diffuse.
• A few bring in broader concerns: monopoly dynamics, labor practices, democracy/media influence, and “convenience addiction.”
• Philosophical notions like “cooperation with evil” and degrees of moral complicity are discussed.

Critiques of the Article Itself

• Several commenters find the article overwrought, hyperbolic, or factually shaky (e.g., mis-stated education spending, mischaracterization of Ring police access, Rekognition timeline).
• That tone makes some readers skeptical of its broader claims, even if they share concerns about Amazon.

Local Retail, Aggregators, and Competition

• Multiple people wish for a unified search across local inventories with same‑day delivery; past attempts (like Milo.com) struggled because many retailers resisted price transparency.
• Some note examples in Japan and partial implementations (Home Depot, some drugstores) as evidence such models can work.