[blip54321]

I can buy stuff much cheaper on Aliexpress. My experience there is no worse than 2022 Amazon, except for lower prices and slower shipping.

Amazon, even as late as 2019, seemed ahead of Aliexpress on service and quality. Something happened with COVID which seems to have permanently broken Amazon. I understand a blip, but after 2 years, Amazon hasn't recovered.

My basic problem is that if I order medicines, I want to know they're not placebo pills. If I order vanilla extract, I want to make sure it's not produced in a chemical factory with random toxins. If I buy something brand-name, I want to make sure it has that level of quality. If I buy an SD card, I want to know it's not a defective product from a manufacturing run with a forged Sandisk label. I can't do that on Amazon anymore.

That leaves fast shipping as the prime selling point, but Amazon seems to miss delivery deadlines a lot since COVID, not to mention broad ranges of products which don't do fast shipping. Fast shipping I can count on is worth a lot. Fast shipping most of the time has negative value. Most of the time I care about fast shipping, it's because I have some deadline.