Well, at least you’re consistent with your views. Being anti-consumption is a fine stand. In my case, I usually go to these sites for cheap deals on microcontrollers, tit-bits like USB adapters, metal stands, IEM cables etc. I’m not buying expensive/essential stuff from them.
After coming back from a break, I realised I might have leaned too hard into “protecting Chinese companies”. I will say this right now for everyone reading: I have no love for the nationality of said companies. I don’t care if Aliexpress or a clone of theirs was Chinese, Korean, Brazilian, Swiss, Russian, Iranian, Australian or Japanese (incidentally I spend time on buyee.jp because the cheap deals on CDs sometimes). What I care about is providing competition to the bigger mammoths here. If I find a USB adapter for a quarter of the price with free shipping and refunds from a Chinese shop with a decent reputation (Aliexpress, Banggood, TaoBao and now TEMU), I’ll take it. I hope this forces big American retailers to maybe give better, fairer prices to their customers.
I’m not quite convinced that Amazon is no longer the giant with worms as we knew it. Can you explain?