Also not the person you replied to, but I bought something from a private webshop, paid thru that website and was issued a receipt from them, only to receive an amazon box with an amazon shipping label a week later. Sometimes you won't know until you know.

On multiple occasions, I have gone directly to the supplier only to have the products show up in Amazon packaging and delivered by an Amazon driver. Off the top of my head, a robovac from Eufy and athletic shoes from a local shoe store chain. The shoes really fucking pissed me off because I actually went to the physical store so I could "support local", but my feet are an "unusual" size, so I had very few options outside their online stock. And ordered through the in store system, but the shoes were still delivered by Amazon, except I didn't get the easy return options that I would've had if I just ordered from Amazon to begin with.

I'm not the person you're replying to, but I had two books from a small, independent author, I really wanted. You could only get them internationally on amazon, but I was stubborn. The author is spanish and there was this one spanish bookstore that sold copies of her book, but they didn't ship internationally.

So, because I really really really wanted these books and didnt have any other choice, I went to a spanish colleague of mine and asked her if it wouldn't be too weird, if I could buy the books, ship them to her parents' house pay them to ship it to her address and her bringing the books to me at work. I was willing to pay her as well, but she refused and her parents only accepted I pay for the shipping. And that's how I got my books despite Amazon being the only international supplier.

There are lots of artists and authors who sell their works exclusively through Amazon and with those, I just don't bother.

My boyfriend buys dvds and blurays for our collection and sometimes you can literally only get a movie on amazon. Relatively recently, he was lucky to find a used and ridiculously expensive copy of Cadillac Man, but it took months before he found it. If we would have been okay with using amazon or ebay, we would have gotten it much faster and cheaper. I just feel lucky that it became available on the used dvd market in our country at all, because it really is never a given. We are currently looking into getting a copy of The Rabbi's Cat and this also a tricky film to get a hold of without using amazon. We might have to go on some french used dvd market websites that ship internationally to get it. Most of the time, we stick to webshops in our own country, but they don't have everything. Especially not when we get into more niche films that have either been forgotten in the mainstream consciousness or are too indie to find.

... unless you are willing to go on Amazon.