Last week we asked how the pandemic has affected your online shopping and experience with Amazon. We heard from hundreds of you. Here’s a selection of the responses, lightly edited.
We had structured our life around Amazon and Amazon Prime Now Whole Foods delivery to meet the vast majority of our shopping needs, including groceries. However, since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, we have been forced to give up on Prime Now deliveries.
At the same time as some forms of life are exploding online, one is also made aware of the limitations of relying extensively on technology. Sometimes, you just have to get on your bicycle and go to the grocery store. At least I can still pay with Apple Pay. — Andrew S. Klug, San Francisco
I regularly shop at Amazon because at this retirement home, we are on total lockdown. The experience has been good. I even got a digital thermometer when mine got “lost.” When something is out of stock, Amazon tells me.
I hear lots of bad stuff about Amazon, but Jeff Bezos, in my book, got it right when he started Amazon. I couldn’t do easily without it. — Ruth Zekowski, Evanston, Ill.
The only thing I have ordered online in the last eight weeks is two balaclava-style masks for protection. Have I been tempted to shop Amazon? Sure, for a second. Then I think about the workers forced by economic necessity to keep working in potentially hazardous conditions while I sit at home. What makes me so special? — Sandra Graham, Babson Park, Mass.
I don’t think the current pandemic and how it has impacted Amazon’s priority fulfillment policy will ultimately steer me away from Amazon.com. But it has, at least, encouraged me to rediscover other online retailers.
I think when all this is over, I will definitely be spending more time to shop at multiple online stores rather than defaulting to Amazon. — Darran Hanson, Federal Way, Wash.
Overall, I’ve been very impressed with how well Amazon has done during the Covid-19 crisis. Things I have ordered have come promptly, not always in two days, but promptly. Some items I have ordered were obviously high-demand items and took longer because of manufacturer shortages, not Amazon’s fault.
I could have driven all over town and not found a lot of the stuff I have ordered. — Jeff Hill, Scotts Valley, Calif.
For me, Amazon is delivering. Maybe not overnight anymore, but it is the time of coronavirus. I can’t go to the store because I’m sick but I can order a pair of gloves delivered to my door so I can garden in social isolation. And I can place an order for food when reservation slots open at midnight.
I’ve tried to get groceries delivered from all the stores around me and there are no reservations for someone to shop for me for well over a month. So Amazon is not as good as it used to be, but under the circumstances it is much better than the other alternatives I have, which are none right now. — Lorraine Calissi-Corral, Kirkland, Wash.
I am glad to tell you about those of us who live in small towns and have no delivery services to help us. I sit here and use my iPhone to see all that is available for those who live in the cities, but not for us. Thank goodness for our son who does our shopping.
Hubby and I are over 75 years old, and we need help getting our food and other things. But the stores that I used to go to will not deliver to my house. Hubby just had a hip replacement and can’t drive so we are at home with no help. I just want you to know how hard it is for us.— Sandra Davis
I totally forgive Amazon for being slower, but Amazon, please remember we paid for a very specific delivery time-frame and however reasonably, you cannot deliver on that anymore. When anybody else accepts money for a service they can’t deliver, they have to give the money back. — Sean Deitrick, Knoxville, Tenn.