[ogre_codes]

Amazon is my gross secret. I find much of what they do disgusting, but I still have Amazon Prime, still shop Amazon a fair bit. As abhorrent as it is, it's also just too convenient.

That's why I also own shares in the company. They are just too damned sticky and too damned good at so many things.

It reminds me of that scene from Clerks II. It's the most disgusting company I've ever seen... but I can't make myself move away.

[mStreamTeam]

People are so lazy.

Anything you can buy on Amazon can be bought somewhere else online. Usually you can buy products directly from a companies website and cut out all the middle men.

And its not even much effort to do so. Finding an alternative place to buy a product takes just a single Google search

[ogre_codes]

> People are so lazy.

Why yes, this is why I'm invested in Amazon.

> Anything you can buy on Amazon can be bought somewhere else online.

The problem with other sites is often (still!) I have to deal with annoying setup. Then once I create an account, I end up with yet another damned weekly newsletter[1]. Then I opt out, but I still get changing terms of service emails for the next 100 years.

There are some sites where I don't have these issues, but it is common enough that it makes me averse to signing up for new sites.

It is almost a perfect prisoner's dilemma. If every single site on the net stopped doing this, I'd be more likely to use more sites and they would all benefit. But individually, sites find it more profitable to spam/ newsletter the hell out of their users by default.

Also, often I get thing cheaper on Amazon then on the third party seller's own site. Just recently I was shopping for bike parts and recognized the seller's name and went directly to their site. The product was the same price, but on Amazon I get a 5% rebate plus I use smile.amazon.com so a few pennies goes to the charity of my choice as well... plus I didn't have to deal with setting up and account and dodging an email newsletter.

So yes, lazy, plus tired of the gamble of dealing with user-hostile sites.

[1] I know most sites let you avoid the newsletter sign up, but too often they use dark patterns or opt in by default.

[fishmaster]

Of course I can, but then I need to create several different accounts on different sites to place different orders when I can just order everything in one order on Amazon.

[mStreamTeam]

Most sites have guest checkouts today...

[notdang]

maybe true for US, but not other countries.

In my country, Amazon operates surprisingly well, and the local companies have a long way to go till they catch up.

The only exception is MercadoLibre, they upped their game considerable after Amazon entered the market.