[LinuxBender]

Not speaking for others but my personal goal is to only use cash 90% of the time, maybe more. I am not quite there yet but I want to delete all my dependencies on banks and online systems. I am currently still depending on Amazon for some items and that is what is mostly holding me back. I will hold onto my ICE vehicle as long as I can or until cash slots on charging terminals has been sorted as well as entirely offline EV's exist. Cash works fine at the car wash.

[nurbel]

I'm curious: What do you get on Amazon that you can't get an equivalent for in a physical store?

[LinuxBender]

Note: I live in the outskirts of a tiny town. I am intentionally in the middle of nowhere.

- Beds and bed frames. Locally beds are marked up 1000%+ over the same bed I can get online. There is only one store.

- Protein drinks. I can buy out the local stores monthly/quarterly stock in one day. They are currently having issues getting my drinks. There is only one grocery store and people come from a neighboring state to shop there.

- Shelves. In fairness the local hardware store does have some shelves. I wanted steel shelves that can hold a lot of weight. They have the RubberMade shelves that don't meet my needs. I could weld some myself but the cost of steel is really high right now.

- Amino acids, Enzymes, High Quality Vitamins, Mastic Gum, Berberine, Garlic Extract, misc other molecules. The vitamins sold in grocery stores are not only low quality, but actually a cancer risk with vitamin E being the prime example. Males should never take alpha-tocopherol without a balance of gamma-tocopherol and selenium less risking prostate cancer. There are a myriad of other examples in this area. Convincing grocery store chains to carry the higher quality molecules is a herculean effort. When the cost of wood and steel come down I will be building a double-insulated geo-thermal greenhouse and will start producing some of my own molecules, but not all of them.

- Inverters, charge controllers.

- Medical supplies. I am trained as a first responder and have to be ready for family and neighbor emergencies. The local store only has what one would find in a grocery store.

- Radio equipment. CB HP/FRS, scanners, HAM, etc...

- Computer equipment. This is a no-win for me. Not only are there no local stores for this but Amazon has burnt me multiple times. Buying computer equipment on Amazon is a huge gamble.

I could continue listing things for a long time but it's easier to list what I could get locally.