I know this has come up before but what are your alternative eshops to Dodgers? I’m engaging in a bit of futile gesturing but it makes me feel better. I’m curious where you get books, clothes, tech etc.
Ta
Alternatives to Dodgers
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I always use Thomann for musical stuff, or occasionally Absolute Music or the Eagle Music Shop for folky stuff.
I like a nice local shop but we hardly have any. There’s a Waterstones which I do use.
Good for you, it’s not futile at all.
I’ve found I’ve organically drifted away from Amazon over time because the experience of using them seemed to degrade – too many knock offs, too much mis-selling.
I go to Waterstones or Foyles for books and get vinyl from Fopp or order online from HMV or discogs. Never bought clothes from Amazon. Much prefer shopping in person anyway.
Generally if I can’t find it nearby I just search online for what I’m after and avoid the Amazon links. The whole experience is pretty similar, I just receive things a bit more slowly, which is fine.
We do still have a Prime account for some of the TV stuff, but then this isn’t really a boycott, it’s just not using the retail platform due to enshittification.
I bought books at Christmas from Waterstones for presents. Pretty price-matched on paperbacks.
My clothes choices have simplified somewhat to brands I trust: Levis, Vans, M and S (undies, socks only) etc and I buy straight from the online stores.
Tech – bought the last new telly and the wiim from Richer Sounds – Solihull store is pretty convenient, and 8-year guarantees give some peace of mind.
The only thing that Amazon is essential for for me really is kindle books as locked into that ecosystem. They got me there.
Same here
You can escape the Amazon Kindlejail with this.
https://calibre-ebook.com/
There are versions for Windows, MacOS and Linux plus a portable version to put on a USB stick. It can also be used with Android and iOS devices.
I have used it in the past, to put stuff from other sources than Amazon on my Kindles. It’s completely free, open source and very, very good.
For music & video media, Rarewaves (imports from USA, come to the UK in a container, take a week or more to arrive) and Music Magpie. I’m never in that much of a hurry as I have plenty of other records to play. Both have eBay stores. Both also have regular (monthly) sales which make them significantly cheaper than the dodgers.
Most music I am interested in is on Bandcamp. Otherwise Resident or Proper, last resort HMV. I always use Paypal, moreover, which I cannot use on Amazon, acting as a further reminder against temptation.
My wife hates shops, and will use Amazon willy billy, so we have no shortage of cardboard.
I love supermarkets and always have, with those in foreign parts always keenly anticipated, not least we tend to self-cater on holiday.
Oddly, I have recently started to buy clothes online, shoes and jeans anyway, often direct from Levi’s or Doc Marten’s. Whilst you can purportedly get the same and cheaper from other retailers, there tends often to be a reason why they are cheaper, often seconds, and obviously so.
I only buy music from Amazon. We have no shortage of book shops in Ennis – plenty of choice. This past year I have used Amazon very infrequently for music purchases. For new releases I go to Musiczone.ie in Cork or Bandcamp. For classical I have used Presto Music in the UK. I use Golden Discs in Ireland for most other stuff but if I can’t find elsewhere I might use Amazon, but not nearly as much as I used to.
@max-the-dog I believe Ennis is also home to “Ireland’s largest lingerie section”.
Careful. Ted!
I forgot to mention Townsend Music where I have purchased Thea Gilmore, Van Morrison and Seth Lakeman albums. Large selection of artists, though not a lot of depth in terms of back catalogue.
Presto Music is also a good source for jazz, both physical media and downloads.
World of Books is great for s/h and nearly new books. Great prices and swift delivery.
I’ll second that. It also does games and CDs. Delivery to Ireland isn’t so swift.
More Ireland recommendations here:
https://www.kennys.ie – an online and real bookstore that offers free delivery in Ireland on everything. They are great.
https://spindizzyrecords.com – again the online version of a real store in Dublin that offers free delivery of over €75 but it’s free to pick up in store, which is very handy when picking up stuff on sale before it disappears.
I use Audible and have Amazon Prime. I still use them a fair bit but mainly for mundane things (I bought the dog a new retractable lead, some anti snoring mouth and nose strips and the dog’s renal special diet dog food. I told you it was mundane. They are a good place to get quite niche things (I got a very good heated pad to help with my current painful shoulder. It was £13, works very well and arrived the next day.
Big items are Richer Sounds if its in their scope, Costco if they do what I want and then John Lewis/Marks Electrical plus a bit of a shop around.
I don’t buy clothes from Amazon but I do spend more than enough with them to justfy the Prime membership.
Glad the subject is gaining traction. Just use someone else, you know how frankly unpleasant they are.
As for Prime (Mrs E would not listen to my arguments for not having. it) once they started charging me to not watch adverts, that was the tipping point.
I struggle a bit in Canada, there is Indigo for books, but often pricier. For music, Sunrise (who own HMV in UK), however their online presence here is pretty poor and prices in stores tend to be high, you can get the odd bargain in store. I have bought vinyl from independent stores in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, but if they need to be shipped rather than picked up then apparently reasonable prices can become ridiculous.
So I am still using Amazon, but also trying to ween myself off them
I use Amazon as prime supplier of Music and DVD. Most books come from there too, although I do look at the third party supplier and visit them direct to see if the price is any better direct
(unfortunately, as I have Prime this doesn’t always come up trumps).
Have got the Microsoft Shopping plug-in on Edge which does show ne where music may be cheaper elsewhere on-line (but I often revert to Amazon purely for the usual saving on delivery costs).
For cheapie “gap filling” I tend to use MusicMagpie.
So … Amazon does the job for me (although I did try HMV, but found it over-priced selective in it’s catalogue, and you can’t use HMV Gift Cards non-line)
Amazon does the job for me too, but I think the point is finding alternatives because of their shoddy work practices, putting independents out of business and seemingly getting in bed with Trump
Indeed, and am reading this thread with interest looking for alternatives. rarewaves comes close, but often find price and delivery wins out for a tight get like me
I do buy a fair bit (in truth, a lot) direct from Cherry Red but their offerings are not the broadest.
Having said that, nothing beats a good rummage in a record shop.
It’s the Orange Toddler that’s the breaking point for me.
I read a comment on BlueSky saying they’re getting a streaming pirate dongle thing to scrap all the streamers who, to a greater or lesser extent, are in bed with Nappy Man.
For books I generally use Waterstones, Daunt (great personal service if you have any queries) or Hive which is a UK independent company that links up with independent bookshops so you can choose to collect your order from one if you prefer that to home delivery – they do CDs and vinyl too.
As mentioned above World of Books is great for second hand stuff. I’ve used Alibris as well, and Abe Books although turns out it is owned by Amazon.
My purchases of physical music products are few and far between these days but I use Bandcamp as first option, or the artists website, and have ordered from the likes of Rough Trade (not the cheapest), Norman, Juno, or my local independent Tasty Records.
For other stuff Argos can be good if you know what you want and they have it – ordering and collection from the local Sainsbury’s is dead easy, and, call me middle-class, but John Lewis is your friend.
It is really very easy to avoid Amazon these days although sometimes it’ll cost a little more.
I’m really disappointed that Abe Books is owned by Bezos. I found it a good source of previously lost books from years ago at good value prices. That shark has his teeth in so many aspects of life.
Books from Waterstones and Blackwells, music from eBay, Discogs, Rarewaves and sometimes direct from the artist, blu rays from HMV – but it’s hard to avoid Amazon. With endless stock, next day delivery, no questions asked customer service and Amazon Music to boot, they’ve pretty much got it unavoidably sewn up.
I recently had cause to return a damaged book to Blackwells. I had to explain to them why I was returning it, with photos, before they would accept the return. Then they tried to fob me off with a partial refund if I kept it. On the third email they finally accepted a refund. Too much faff! With Amazon, you stick it back in the box, the postman brings the label and you’re refunded as soon as the postie collects it. That’s why I keep using them.
They must have read my ringing endorsement as they’ve just been in touch to increase the cost of my subscription to Amazon Music. Bezos must be really struggling to make ends meet.
Well he did need to recoup the 75 mil wasted on the melania ‘documentary ‘.
Waterstones, World of Books and the TARDIS like Petworth Bookshop which allows for a half day out and some lunch. Goldsborough Books for “special stuff”
Resident Music for occasional CDs and vinyl, also excellent books.
You musos could do worse than Anderton’s in Guildford, been there donkey’s years.
For cables and other tech CPC are good. Not a big fan of Thomann, they took weeks to send something that was in stock when I clicked it and then wasn’t, plus for bigger purchases, I can usually get a slightly better price.
For music stuff I much prefer the local music shop if there is one – we still have the splendid Coda Music in Old Stevenage but they are quite high end. Having said that I bought a second hand Keeley Compressor there yesterday. I used to live around the corner from Anderton’s actually.
I went to the Thomann shop in Germany which is by some distance the best music shop I’ve ever been in, and possibly in the world. I’ve always found their service excellent but I don’t use them exclusively.
The Beatles… I don’t do dodgers, never have done neither.
Living in a reasonably isolated village is one reason. The other is that whilst supermarkets in France are still mostly a joy, they tend to be be, well, very French. It’s got better over the years, there are now, for instance, aisles full of Eastern & Mexican spices but try, for instance, finding non-French wine. There’s a part of me that says “Good old France, buy local and all that” and then there’s “Amazon can deliver that tomorrow.”
I’m going to hell.
Isolation isn’t necessarily a limitation. I lived in Paris and that was very French too Mind you I was very happy with that
Paris? Very French? Holmes, you astonish me!
Well, it’s very Parisienne, which isn’t true of the rest of France…
One forgets living in Britain that there you can get virtually anything from anywhere in the world especially if you live in a city. You can also in most places find at least five different restaurants serving 5 completely different types of food.
Although things are (very) slowly changing France is French.
My BIL (lives in Lille, has done for 60 of his 62 years) has to go to Paris once a month for work. Every month, without fail, some Paris local tells him to “le bugger off back to the carrots and coal mines”.
When we bought our house we had a car with Parisian plates. We were chatting to the neighbours and they said it was fun having English people in the village. They had been worried that we were Parisian…
We’ve known two Parisian couples who were forced to leave our village because they were from Paris. Around 20% of the houses are now owned by Brits, Scandis, Canadians and, increasingly, Americans fleeing Trump.
“We love all these incomers bringing life back to our village ( and buying our ancient houses so we can move into a brand new villa)..
When you say “forced”…?
Being shunned at social events, mysterious scratches on cars, cats mysteriously disappearing etc etc. one such incident, ok it happens. A year later, shall we move back to Paris?
Good grief!
You seen “Jean de Florette”? Like that.
No – actually I haven’t. But was that not set about a century ago? One hopes (in vain, apparently) that things might have got more, er, tolerant in the interim.
So is much of rural France.
The rural French have a healthy disregard for Parisians nationwide
I shop local whenever I can, but still I use Amazon Prime a fair bit in Oz. Nothing arrives next day of course, but I use them mostly because of the free postage. For things I can’t get locally priced at $20 or less, delivery to my rural corner of NSW can easily double the cost.
Talking of the delights of French supermarkets, I’m going to treat myself to this when it’s back in stock (which could be months of course).
https://www.gourmetplanet.com.au/edmond-fallot-mustard-dijon-stone-jar-250g-moutard
Like to spread it about a bit for. Music but Amazon remains the most frequent go to.
I also use Juno, JPC.de (very good) Rarewaves and sometimes HMV
Did use Resident quite a bit especially in lockdown but didn’t like that they took the money at point of purchase.
Waterstones for books.
Skechers outlet for shoes.
Levi’s for Jeans.
Charles Thwyritt for polos (online)
Next
Used to like Ted Baker but they but the dust.
I second SteveT’s recommendation for jpc.de
For those of us resident in the EU, they’ve got a good range of CDs and vinyl, and they’re generally pretty reliable.
We are not resident in the EU?
Still very good – never paid any duty on any purchase from them.
I’ll give them a try some time – thanks Steve…
Let’s be honest – Amazon got where they are by being bloody good at what they do. Price matching, customer service available on the phone, easy no quibble returns, and so on. However, they have now got to the point it seems where they have successfully become so dominant that they don’t have to try – for example, shifting delivery dates are a real pain. That and my disquiet about them generally means I try to use local bricks and mortar shops as much as possible or buy direct from people like Cherryred. Badlands are a great record shop and I use them for mail order if possible.
Without Prime, deliveries are slow and unpredictable and even with Prime, don’t seem to be consistently next day any more. I avoid Amazon, partly because of their practises and political affiliation, but also because it feels like they’re trying to put one over on me the whole time.
I have Prime and I generally find the service to be superb. I just want to take some of the higher value business set from them and give it to UK businesses (or EU I guess).
As mentioned above, Daunt is very good for books. They have very well-informed staff who are also very helpful. Over the past few years I’ve used their subscription service as a gift, mainly for my wife. They take a lot of time to understand likes/dislikes, favourite genres/authors and any other quirks you might have.
When my daughter moved to London for work last year I bought a Daunt’s voucher for her. I hadn’t heard of them to be honest – I just picked them out from a Google search. Turns out she was mighty impressed by her visit and uses them a lot now…
hhv.de – based in Berlin – has an absolutely superb stock of vinyl (almost no CDs) from every genre on the planet (probably).
They ship the items using FedEx, which means that a) it’s quick and trackable, and b) freight costs are a little higher than one would wish.
Ha, just needed new kitchen scales when the existing ones died mid cooking. Did a quick on order on Dodgers out of habit, then it occurred to me to try Argos – ordered Salter ones, cheaper than Dodgers plus it’s a local shop. The app is decent too.
Argos is a very good alternative to Amazon. Especially if you have a Sainsburys local that allows pick ups by 10:00 the next morning.
I needed a new door bell push yesterday, not the whole lot, just the button that is fixed to the wall outside. Wickes and Argos had complete sets, Screwfix and Toolstation only order for next day. OK, so it’s not an everyday purchase but I didn’t expect to not be able to get one at all. Ordered online from Screwfix for collection today.
Annoying aside:
A couple of days ago I saw a beautifully illustrated book on FB. Rather than use Amazon I walked the couple of miles to our local independent book shop who, to the best of my knowledge, haven’t spunked $70m on a ‘documentary’ about the First Lady before laying off 16 000 workers.
They didn’t have the book in stock but were happy to order it, except according to their usual suppliers it didn’t exist. The only listing of it that the bookseller could find … was on Amazon.
Amazon have the capability of more or less running off a book from scratch, on demand. Like making a CDr but in book form. Tends to be self published “works”; I know, as my ex-wife has books available. (Not about me, I should add.)
True, I think I’ve bought a couple in the past (not necessarily by your ex-wife!)
In this case though, according to the screen grab I saved, the book has won an Independent Publisher book award and a Moonbeam Children’s Book Award – it seems to be a ‘real’ book but my local shop couldn’t find it.
I think it’s their problem tbh – I’ve just found it on Blackwells’ site.
Yes my wife bought me an excellent motorbike travel book for Christmas from the author’s website (“The Fast Bike Adventures” – Andy Waring – recommended) and it’s a nicely made hard back – and in the inside page it says “Published by Amazon”.)
The Unvarnished Retro.
“Blows the lid off!!” (Books and Bookmen)
I have two namesakes in the music biz – one teaches a music tech course at a college oop north (and did some turd-polishing on a post-split Happy Mondays album); the other is an author of technical books (and a part-time gig reviewer for his local paper). We routinely get sent each others’ emails.
When the latter published a compendium of his music reviews (on Amazon’s print-on-demand service) I ordered a copy and requested it be signed. Back came the message: “Sign it yourself”.
@retropath2 (you hope).
Hmmm; well they are in the zombie/undead genre…….