Amazon Alternative?

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Loras1996

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Often, I have used Amazon.com to order books. This web site is convenient, especially since the nearest Catholic book store is over 100 miles away. But I was troubled by a recent headline that said Amazon.com (or perhaps it was someone at one of their high level management positions) has made a donation to the same-sex union movement.

Does anyone know of an alternative to Amazon.com for ordering books?
 
What country do you live in? Here in the US, Barnes & Noble is a major bookseller, both online and with regular stores you can visit in person. And its Nook e-book reader is a popular rival to Amazon’s Kindle.
 
If you know the ISBN number of the book(s) you want to purchase, you can find the best prices by searching isbn.nu

Sometimes the best price will still be amazon.com however.
 
Just my two pennies here but I think we have to take into account that it’s amazon donating not the book writers or publishers , amazon just sell the book , I wouldn’t miss out on a good bargain or indeed book becuase it’s not the publishers or book writers fault . It’s not like ur money goes to the donation . Alternately you could try eBay Or www.tanbooks.com Depends what your looking for but amazon may still be cheaper.

Chuck
 
Amazon is just the outlet; generally when I buy books form Amazon, they’re not “from” amazon, but a store who sells through them. Chill out. If you avoided EVERY company that did ANYTHING you didn’t agree with, you’d spend your whole life doing nothing but finding alternatives, and finding them rarer and rarer.
 
For us in Washington State, it is a little more personal. Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, made a substantial donation in support of defeating a ballot measure preserving marriage - said ballot measure receiving the full support of our Archbishop. This means that we are paying Mr. Bezos to oppose us. A message needs to be sent, and I sent mine. He has the right to his opinion, but not to my money.

Let us not also forget the little dust-up in 2010 in which Amazon assisted a self-publisher in his distribution of a book promoting pedophilia.

abcnews.go.com/Technology/amazon-removes-pedophilia-book-store/story?id=12119035#.UCrGco4xra4
 
AB_Juney said:
Amazon is just the outlet; generally when I buy books form Amazon, they’re not “from” amazon, but a store who sells through them. Chill out. If you avoided EVERY company that did ANYTHING you didn’t agree with, you’d spend your whole life doing nothing but finding alternatives, and finding them rarer and rarer.
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Thats what I was trying to say , thanks much better worded that me ! 👍
 
Go to books.google.com and search for the book you want. When the results come up, on the left side of the screen will be a list of booksellers from which you can buy the book.

Here’s an example.

If you are shopping for something other than a book and you don’t want to buy it from Amazon, you can do the same as above by going to shopping.google.com and buying your item from a list of different stores.
 
Dale_M said:
What country do you live in? Here in the US, Barnes & Noble is a major bookseller, both online and with regular stores you can visit in person. And its Nook e-book reader is a popular rival to Amazon’s Kindle.
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Given the political pressures on large businesses today, I would be surprised if Barnes & Noble isn’t similarly situated to Amazon, in terms of contributions to causes such as “gay marriage,” homosexual “rights,” and “pro-choice” causes. Just a guess.
 
I’d give Amazon a break if I were you. It’s bad enough as it is after its cloud service got knocked out and a recent screw up in its customer service blew the whistle on its security flaws.
 
AB_Juney said:
Amazon is just the outlet; generally when I buy books form Amazon, they’re not “from” amazon, but a store who sells through them.
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That is certainly true some of the time, particularly for books which are not popular. However, it doesn’t seem to be true for books which Amazon feels are good sellers.

For example, here is a Amazon page for a book which it is actually from a different store
amazon.com/Byzantium-Centuries-John-Julius-Norwich/dp/0394537785

And here is a page for a book which Amazon is selling directly
amazon.com/Brief-History-Time-Stephen-Hawking/dp/0553380168/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345036092&sr=1-1&keywords=a+short+history+of+time
 
dcrowmik said:
Go to books.google.com and search for the book you want. When the results come up, on the left side of the screen will be a list of booksellers from which you can buy the book.

Here’s an example.

If you are shopping for something other than a book and you don’t want to buy it from Amazon, you can do the same as above by going to shopping.google.com and buying your item from a list of different stores.
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While Google’s unofficial slogan may be “Don’t be evil,” the OP’s reason for not wanting to support amazon.com almost certainly applies to google as well.
 
That’s not entirely accurate. I can often buy books from “amazon sellers” where amazon’s only involvement is processing the transaction. The only thing to watch out for is a message that states “shipped by amazon.” I’m not sure how that works but apparently amazon will handle shipping for some books even though the seller is not amazon. Anyway, if you see a book on amazon, you can click on, for example, “12 new from 8.99” which should be just under amazon’s price. In this case, they were selling the book for $24.95. Once you click on that, you will see a list of independent stores selling the same book new, starting at $8.99.

My only caution is to check their rating number. I usually go with stores with a 95% or higher rating. The rating reflects customer satisfaction with their order.

Your other alternative is to go to any local bookstore, give them the title and author, and they should be able to order if for you with no shipping charge. My experience is waiting for about a week to 10 days for them to get it in. They usually send me a postcard to let me know it’s available.

Peace,
Ed
 
If I’m buying a book, I always check first at my local Catholic bookstore. It may be a couple of bucks more, but they do stuff for my local community - for example, they hosted a Catholic home-school conference in our area.

Amazon doesn’t host Catholic home-school conferences in my area.
 
As a prolife, profamily activist, I try to AVOID the booksellers that have been endorsing the radical liberal agenda and that includes Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. There is USUALLY an alternative for most goods. I have used abebooks.com and most Catholic online book stores that don’t use Paypal (Planned Parenthood supporter). Is it difficult? Of course, but I will not give them my wallet to support their causes. I don’t want to be their customer and give them access to all my personal info.

“If anyone would come after Me- he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me!” (Mt 16:24)
“The Pro-Life Movement will succeed only to the extent that pro-life people are willing to be inconvenienced.” - Douglas R. Scott, Bad Choices​

 
edwest2 said:
Your other alternative is to go to any local bookstore, give them the title and author, and they should be able to order if for you with no shipping charge. My experience is waiting for about a week to 10 days for them to get it in. They usually send me a postcard to let me know it’s available.
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If someone is lucky enough to have an independent bookstore near them, I would highly recommend this route. The cost is a bit more, but you can get to know the owners personally and you can generally by-pass political concerns. When your order arrives, some stores may send out postcards, but I have gotten phone calls and/or emails in the past.
 
I haven’t purchased anything on Amazon.com since they tried to sell that book on how to molest children that was put out by a known child molester. The media had a field day with it and they ended up being pressured to stop carrying it but they will never see my money again. I usually use walmart.com or Barnes and Noble.
 
Couple thoughts.

Ebay may be an option. I don’t know to what causes the company donates, although they facilitate donations going to certain causes - you can list your item and have the proceeds go to a charity on their list, for example. I often buy textbooks through Goodwill on eBay.
edwest2 said:
That’s not entirely accurate. I can often buy books from “amazon sellers” where amazon’s only involvement is processing the transaction. The only thing to watch out for is a message that states “shipped by amazon.” [/QUOTA]

Amazon receives some amount, probably only a listing and shipping fee. I know they’ve set up some special shipping options, including password-protected pick-up boxes in certain urban areas where many apartment dwellers may not be able to receive a package securely.
edwest2;9652822:
Your other alternative is to go to any local bookstore, give them the title and author, and they should be able to order if for you with no shipping charge. My experience is waiting for about a week to 10 days for them to get it in. They usually send me a postcard to let me know it’s available.
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Local independent booksellers are great, but the only ones I know of are actually quite a drive from us and lean left.
Dale_M said:
What country do you live in? Here in the US, Barnes & Noble
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is a major bookseller, both online and with regular stores you can visit in person. And its Nook e-book reader is a popular rival to Amazon’s Kindle.

Bear in mind that if you pick up a free Kindle eBook, Amazon gets no incremental profit from the transaction. You incur no evil that way.
Dandelion_Wine said:
If I’m buying a book, I always check first at my local Catholic bookstore. It may be a couple of bucks more, but they do stuff for my local community - for example, they hosted a Catholic home-school conference in our area.
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Second the Catholic bookstores.
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Tarpeian_Rock said:
Given the political pressures on large businesses today, I would be surprised if Barnes & Noble isn’t similarly situated to Amazon, in terms of contributions to causes such as “gay marriage,” homosexual “rights,” and “pro-choice” causes. Just a guess.
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So something to note here - there’s an organization called the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) whose goal is the advance of GLBT rights. This is the group who organized the boycott of Target, and who targets companies with a listing in the Corporate Equality Index. It’s a negative to be listed on the CEI, and companies can get off the CEI by becoming partners with the HRC. The HRC actively encourages companies who are partners with HRC to push the HRC agenda on their vendors. My company provides services to a number of the 100 largest firms in the U.S., several of whom are partners with the HRC, though fortunately we’ve not been approached (to my knowledge) to adopt the HRC agenda.

Things that the HRC asks partners to do to be in compliance with the CEI:
  • Extend the same benefits to same-sex partners as to opposite-sex spouses (note that opposite-sex domestic partners aren’t included)
  • Extend special transgender health-related benefits in health insurance, including reconstructive surgery and transitional services, extending the network where necessary, and imposing a maximum covered amount no less than $75,000.
  • Senior management evaluations must include LGBT hiring as a basis for compensation
  • Dress code and restroom facilities to assist transgender transition
  • Must include at least three of these in public community engagement efforts:
  1. Recruitment focus on LGBT
  2. Vendor focus on LGBT-owned companies
  3. Advertising/marketing focused on LGBT
  4. Financially support LGBT philanthropies
  5. Support LGBT causes in legislation
 
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