[cout]

If amazon is so bad (and my experience agrees that it is), why hasn't anyone stepped up to offer a viable alternative? The closest competitor I know of is walmart, but given the items they carry in their stores, it's hard to convince myself to visit their website when I want to get something quality.

[dagw]

I don't think it is possible to have a viable alternative to Amazon without running into the same problems Amazon has.

The alternatives that more and more people seems to be preferring is specialty sites focusing on just one or two product categories or the manufacturer making it easier to buy directly from them.