Looks like I’m spoiled for choice. Temu has exactly the same for 11.29. Not that I’d be purchasing from either place; it’s just another example of Amazon’s enshittification.
This far from a solution but the thing I do is do a quick search for it on a search engine and look for websites makes a list of the best ones you can buy at the moment. Here’s an example: I search for “best hiking shoes for national parks” and many outdoor-focused gear websites will recommend shoes from brands like Columbia and Merrell.
Those are all just affiliate spam links, often AI made, generated to get people to spend the most money so they get the best kickbacks.
That’s a sure fire way to land on AI generated affiliate sites that just rank items by popularity or their royalty %
Knife sharpening stones are the same. I am thinking of using a brick instead.
I use the sharpal dual grit… have found it to be a pretty handy… much more convenient than a soap stone as well
My co-worker & I have the exact same lunchbag, except the label has a different gibberish name on it. Yup, both from Amazon.
It’s worse than when eBay peaked.
I deleted my Amazon account last month. No more Goodreads and IMDb is just another plus.
Extracted my ebooks from my Kindle with Calibre, so I am fine.
Feeling good and less targeted and bombarded.
Having really hard time converting Kindle books lately, especially since last time I tried this, the deDRM plugin couldn’t handle the newest Kindle for PC versions. Is there an easy way that doesn’t involve getting a physical Kindle device? Does the Android thing work?
Cannot say. I had a very old Kindle and all my books on device.
I suppose the easiest way is installing an old kindle for PC version, if that’s the problem (not through the kindle website)
Does that work for Google Play books? Is it an app?
Calibre is a program for Windows/Linux. To be able to export books (and deDRM them) there are different plugins, but I never heard about one for Google Play Books.
Google Play Books allows publishers to set the DRM policy. Some titles are not protected and can be just downloaded as EPUB. For the DRMed books, it can send them to Adobe’s ebook reader/sync app, which (last I checked) can be decrypted by the Calibre deDRM plugin.
I will also throw in for a chrome bag. I’ve had a messenger for a decade and its a tank. I got it made left handed. https://chromeindustries.com/products/citizen-24l-messenger
Almost everything on Amazon is cheap trash, and they promote the hell out of all that trash instead of products of any quality. I am also so sick of the click funnels where you search for a specific item and they just give you pages full of knockoff trash as search results even if you go to a specific brand store. It’s nonsense.
Why would they want to sell you a nice thing once when they can sell you a shit thing ten times?
You should check out chrome industries. I’ve had two of these messenger bags and I have a few of the backpacks. Really great build quality and the bags last forever and look great.
https://chromeindustries.com/products/citizen-24l-messenger?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21779439101
My day bag is a Chrome. I got it at their brick and mortar location in lower Manhattan over ten years ago. It goes on every trip with me short or long and has seen multiple lengthy eras of daily use yet it doesn’t have a single fray or tear. And if it did, they have a free lifetime repair policy. Fucking incredible, literally one of the most excellent purchases of my life.
This is why I have a few different bags. Their stuff is bomb proof and the lifetime warranty is solid.
More expensive AliExpress…
It feels like Amazon is flooded with dropshipping beyond repair.
“Hoement” immediately stuck out to me and sounds like a portmanteau of “hoe” and “moment”
Sounds cool enough to be used as slang
I have hoements every day.
Best weird “brand” name on an Amazon product I bought was a “Lokass” cooler. And of course the name is proudly displayed on the lid of the cooler haha.
This shit has literally always been the number one reason I avoid Amazon as much as possible, even back when they were pretty new. As soon as they started selling more than books, it’s been like this.
Same. Companies named 5 random characters that come and go as fast as the sun rises. and thousands of white label products. Amazon is a flea market of shit, hard to find what you need even with exact part numbers.
Just in case anyone actually intends to buy one, buy european: https://blahol.com/
Randomly recommending a 600% increased price bag is crazy.
Difference is the quality.
The listed item may break after 10 months or is not comfortable.
Meanwhipe this holds up for >5 years and feels very good.You pay for actual wages, quality assurance and not being subject to cancerous dyes they use over there without preparing them.
I will never buy anything plastic on Amazon or AliExpress that will enter my body.
Thats the price of a good quality product produced in decent conditions by a small company in Europe. Maybe could be cheaper if it was facory produced, but not much of that going on anymore is there? Anything lower is either sweatshop, low quality material/work or not produced in Europe. I use this stuff and can highly recommend it. You can check my posting history if you think I go around promoting a random buisness.
Lmfao 170€ for a bag. Are you people rich? If Europe can’t produce a good quality 50€ bag ethically, it doesn’t deserve my money either. It’s a fucking BAG
If it holds up longer, start by divind it by each year you use it daily for.
Once break even, determine if it’s still too expensive .
Buy cheap, buy twice.
Buy decent, buy once (for longer time).No, no and no. Artificial tough fabrics and sewing methods are extremely affordable industrially in 2025. I will not pay 170€ for something that should cost, extremely generously, 50€.
You do realize that those things are affordable due to labor exploitation, right?
Give me numerical data for that. I can buy fucking 10 cent microcontrollers and program them at home because 200 years of industrial development have made it that there’s so little labor involved in their production, it’s a matter of economy of scale. Manufacture loads of cheap, resistant fabrics such as viscosa, manufacture loads of cheap, long-lasting messenger bags. But no, it has to be 100 different small-production models because we need 100 different varieties of messenger bags instead of reliable, affordable, mass-produced Eco-friendly options
May be.
Didnt know wages became affordable as well.This aint the US where you don’t pay for the social safety net :)
Also I’m not into sweatshop products if it can be avoided.This aint the US where you don’t pay for the social safety net
Fuck that. In my European country, 25% of young people endure unemployment and nobody can fucking afford housing, where are our safety nets in Spain? Our purchase power is worse than it was 25 years ago, and keeps worsening. Wages in Spain are extremely affordable, we get paid like utter shit, minimum wage is 1300€ a month.
Go and spend 170€ in a bag 150€ of which go to the capitalist owner of the company.
I mean, technically given the layout, that’s a working cycle messenger bag.
Care to explain? I don’t understand your comment, sorry
Amazon’s product search is intentionally bad
Why?
I imagine to keep users on the site longer
Two reasons:
It promotes excessively tagging products with keywords
and
It allows them to seamlessly sort their own promoted products in the top results and actually be considered
Sellers can also pay Amazon to get a higher listing in that shitfest of a result page. It’s all intentional.
Because they’re big enough to get away with it.
I honestly haven’t bought anything from Amazon for a long time. Sure, other online retailers are shit, too, but at least this year most of them like Walmart have been funding the DNC as a result of the tariffs. Amazon is funneling fat stacks into 45’s pockets, doubling down on fascism.
You can also shoplift at walmart.
You can shoplift from Amazon, too, but only if you’re employed by them.
