Shop Thread

Post by **joni** » Fri May 08, 2020 12:56 pm

Want to buy something, but need help finding the best place to buy it? Let's use this thread.

We should all be boycotting Amazon, Whole Foods, and all bad boy retailers as much as possible (disagree? sound off here too), but sometimes it's hard to both find specific things, and to un-train your brain from the artificially low prices these shitheads offer.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri May 08, 2020 1:00 pm

First up: where the heck do we buy books?

As [mention]GARY-19[/mention] outlined in an earlier thread, Bookshop.org is no bueno. My favorite local indie (Skylight Books) has an online store, but it's being fulfilled by Ingram. Is that bad?

I just bought a few books from Powell's via mail-order, but open to other options!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri May 08, 2020 1:03 pm

Yeah. So far during quar, I've kindled it. But that is bad boy amazon.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri May 08, 2020 1:29 pm

Gary will say to just buy directly from the publisher, assuming it’s a small press. As for like if you just want to buy the new Dean Koontz or something though I don’t know, prob just still buy directly from Powell’s or other small bookstores you like? They all have online ordering at this point. He also has told me to use Biblio.com for used books.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri May 08, 2020 1:37 pm

Is bibio better than abe?

alex · Post by **alex** » Fri May 08, 2020 2:52 pm

Bookstores here in Oakland seem to be doing a curbside pickup situation...I bought a cookbook a few weeks ago and just drove by and snagged it. They didn't have it in stock but ordered it from their supplier or whatever.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri May 08, 2020 3:54 pm

I bought a book from my neighborhood book shop too, they ordered it and then I picked it up at their door. Pretty chill and convenient.

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Fri May 08, 2020 4:45 pm

Yah we're either ordering from Powell's through the mail, or through the janky Broadway Books website, and then I pick them up curbside. V pleasant.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri May 08, 2020 5:13 pm

[mention]willowowow[/mention] I'm doing Broadway Books too! Text me next time you go, I live in the hood and we could yell at each other from far away!

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Mon May 11, 2020 8:48 am

Ok [mention]meadows[/mention] I will!

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Mon May 11, 2020 8:54 am

Does anyone have ideas for kitchen things? I just bought a dutch oven online from a dumb big boxy home goods store because I could not figure out a place to get one somewhere smaller/cooler. I guess ebay/etsy would've worked but I couldn't find the one I wanted and was being too fussy to approximate. I DM'd Palace here in Portland because they sell some kitchen things but no dice, and no one else I talked to could think of a place. I still need a couple other things- baking sheets, a lame- and want my $$'s to go somewhere good. Halp?

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Mon May 11, 2020 11:09 am

Just an idea, many restaurant supply stores will sell to the public. There are a few in Portland... If not with proper online stores, maybe they would place a phone order?

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Mon May 11, 2020 12:17 pm

that's such a tough one... palace was a good idea.
ebay and etsy are both pretty great for used/vintage (etsy) and new or used (ebay) house stuff.

you could do kitchen kaboodle? it's not exactly a tiny business, but it is local?

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Mon May 11, 2020 12:34 pm

Thank you for these good ideas!
I tried Kitchen Kaboodle for the dutch oven but their selection was limited... I bet I could get the other stuff there though! Do you know they sell like, couches and patio umbrellas and stuff there? The kaboodle I guess! Perusing their website was funny.

I never thought of a restaurant supply store but that's a great idea. There are also a couple of local thrift stores doing online sales but they're not very kitcheny...

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue May 12, 2020 10:47 am

I accidentally bought a large print book via remote shopping and it's really, really annoying. I keep trying to hold it farther from my face, and the page turning action is frenzied. But, very cool option for people with bad vision!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue May 12, 2020 10:53 am

This sounds like its own high-energy dance party.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Tue May 12, 2020 11:05 am

Hahahaha frenzied page turning

w0lf · Post by **w0lf** » Tue May 12, 2020 7:31 pm

i been buying books from https://www.spdbooks.org/
and ripping ebooks for my kindle (i know, i know) here: https://b-ok.cc/

i'm party of a food co-op we order from https://www.azurestandard.com/
for dry goods prolly a drop near u or you can start a drop

produce using la's many local farms

buying direct when i can. for ex: couldn't find GF AP Flour anywhere so bought bulk from Bob's Red Mill. so much fucking flour.

i think, as always, avoid the big boys as much as you can without overburdening yourself with stress. sometimes you go to 3 stores and no one has it. and if you're ocd and immunocompromised and already freaked the fuck out (moi), just buy that shit on amazon and call it day. i do my best.

alex · Post by **alex** » Tue May 12, 2020 8:55 pm

[mention]w0lf[/mention] I have heard of Azure and I like the concept...but the whole vibe is kind of mid-level marketing/scammy to me? Has it been chill to order from them?

w0lf · Post by **w0lf** » Wed May 13, 2020 7:41 am

[mention]alex[/mention] it's totally chill! not scammy at all. if you order to a drop, i think you need $50/min which is not hard to hit. you can also do freight delivery to your door, min is a bit higher. they have all kinds of goods, site is very easy to use. it gets more complicated if you want to do a big order / coordinate a drop, but i've had nothing but positive experiences. it's p crunchy

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu May 21, 2020 3:36 pm

Does anyone know a good place to buy shipping materials (envelopes, boxes, mailers, etc) that isn’t Amazon or U Line?

astral hellion · Post by **astral hellion** » Thu May 21, 2020 4:26 pm

Dunno about LA but here in NYC there are some smaller local companies for shipping/packing materials (s.o. Pathe!) & I imagine that there would be analogous businesses elsewhere.
This is too deep in the memory banks to be helpful today, but I somehow found a place to buy 20 sheets of 4’x8’ cardboard for an art installation I was building in LA in 1999 without the internet, so I have to believe that those kinds of dudes still exist.

alex · Post by **alex** » Thu May 21, 2020 4:30 pm

It is all a bit much, but here is this: https://abettersource.org/Shipping-Materials

Upon further inspection, this might be more about packaging and not shipping..but there are some boxes and stuff?

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu May 21, 2020 5:35 pm

[mention]alex[/mention] Whoa! Def too fancy for my immediate needs but I'm really jazzed someone is out there making packing foam out of mushroom mycelium and hemp byproducts

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu May 21, 2020 5:35 pm

PS that emoji is supposed to be a "geek" but he looks like a beatnik to me

alex · Post by **alex** » Thu May 21, 2020 8:49 pm

Who is running this place

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sat Jun 13, 2020 3:19 pm

I was looking for some non-Amazon shopping alternatives for durable storage containers & home office stuff, and came across this:

https://www.irisusainc.com/

Technically it's a Japanese company, but they manufacture in the USA and it's good quality. Stocking up on some very MUJI-esuqe UV photo storage containers to stash my growing collection of garden seeds. Thought it was worth sharing to SHOP THREAD

rcnederveld · Post by **rcnederveld** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 10:59 am

yourfriendclaire wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 3:36 pm Does anyone know a good place to buy shipping materials (envelopes, boxes, mailers, etc) that isn’t Amazon or U Line?

I's pretty sure UPS stores are franchises, I don't know this but I get the feeling.
Also.... USPS?

rcnederveld · Post by **rcnederveld** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:35 am

Been looking for a muffin pan local... but ebay is a good idea, anyone else got any Los Angeles local ideas?

Post by **joni** » Wed Jun 17, 2020 12:37 pm

Does anyone have recommendations for shipping supplies? [mention]Phil[/mention], I'm guessing you have stuff dialed in? Specifically, I'm looking to optimize our new "business" of selling t-shirts and donating 100% of the money to Black-run organizations with faster, cheaper, and better supplies that also make a little less environmental impact.

Shipping tape, laser toner, and paper — VS — A used thermal printer like the Zebra LP2844 and free rolls of labels from FedEx or UPS

Poly bags for shipping t-shirts — VS — what's the alternative? I found a guy on Etsy that sells 100 self-adhesive bags for $9.

Now let's talk records. Fucking LP mailers.

Where do you get them? ULINE is bad news.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Jun 18, 2020 11:59 am

Our Bernie lawn sign came packaged in a U-Line box

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu Jun 18, 2020 2:01 pm

I don't know much about these companies except that they aren't Uline? But,
https://www.papermart.com/
https://www.lumi.com/products

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Jun 18, 2020 2:43 pm

Lumi is a great company! They're based in LA. Jona and I went on their podcast once, hilariously. But their offerings are more tailored to brands—it used to be that you could buy small runs of product, but now it's more of an end-to-end solution/platform/tech thing and you have to order pretty large amounts of packaging (i.e. 2,000 boxes, 10,000 mailers) which makes it impossible for us. This Paper Mart thing looks great tho!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu Jun 18, 2020 2:53 pm

I dare you to mail 10,000 t-shirts!
p.s. will you post your bleach dye recipe/technique on an appropriate thread if it is not a company secret? I have an 'i thought the future would be cooler' tee from a previous charity sale that wants a little zhuzhing.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu Jun 18, 2020 5:41 pm

I would also learn how to bleach dye, since I accidentally got bleach on some new light blue pillowcases and might want to make that something... more intentional.

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Thu Jun 18, 2020 8:48 pm

I’ve had like limited success with bleach dyeing — impressed with how good y’all’ve been doing! I tried to do some pants and accidentally sprayed the crotch and it looks … not great??

For books I feel complicated… like bookshop.org is a data grab. But like better than amazon. I’ve been trying to do local stores or like big indie strand/powells.

There’s a good list of black-owned bookstores but a lot have been overwhelmed by demand.

Also ! I signed up for the https://www.haymarketbooks.org/pg/book-club which is fun. Anyways! Books. I want to go to a bookstore.

Post by **joni** » Fri Jun 26, 2020 8:53 am

Update: I bought a second-hand thermal printer (this one) from someone on eBay and there’s a trick to getting free 4x6 labels from UPS that I’m excited to try. So now this replaces the need for shipping tape, printer paper, and toner/ink.

The printer is small and cute. I hope it works.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 9:42 am

Saw this Instagram post today about Amazon alternatives I thought I’d share!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CB1dabtltyD/

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:48 pm

TIL Amazon owns Zappos?!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:22 pm

Thought it could be fun to start using this thread to post things we want to buy but probably won't because nobody needs any more stuff.

These cups are cool:

https://otherwild.com/products/ripple-c ... 37fc&_ss=r

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:27 pm

I think I saw these online and also thought they were really cool and that I didn't need them!

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:41 pm

Gary made this to buy books from:
https://massivebookshop.com

Post by **joni** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:47 pm

Speaking of Gary, he wants help making his own message board on that books website. I keep forgetting to write him back and help him, but also I'm mad at him for really (but only temporarily) killing the loving vibe this board has.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:51 pm

I've already ordered several books and received some! It rules to A)get cool books & B)buy from a friend.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri Oct 09, 2020 6:19 am

Yes, I also got an email with those glasses. I enjoy getting emails from Otherwild full of nice things I can not have.

Gary's business is so great! I'm jealous of all the books you can ethically buy while supporting your (relatively) local Gary.

That was indeed a strange moment in this board's short history. I feel like maybe there is something I didn't fully get? Was something lost without vocal tone? Are we in trouble?

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri Oct 09, 2020 5:46 pm

Sometimes there is trouble in paradise...

I feel partly implicated in board no-no's because I felt like I put a stink on old UrHo. It was the 2016 election and somehow I felt like people were telling me that Trump had nothing to do with white supremacy and I got angry and told some acquaintances off (sorry Megan S., I was too hard on you).

I hope Gary finds me an amazing deal on this one out-of-print book that has sentimental value to me.

("I'm sorry I done it... I'm sorry I done it!")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXW8Pr7SdhU

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri Oct 09, 2020 5:48 pm

~~If you are shopping for shoes, purses, socks, or cute accessories...~~

https://goldenponies.net/

I have ordered custom shoes from them several times and they are each perfect little works of art.
The prices are in pesos. Their products are an AMAZING value, each shoe is made custom by hand.

They take a while to ship but blame it on geopolitics. Golden Ponies!!!!!

GARY-19 · Post by **GARY-19** » Fri Oct 09, 2020 11:31 pm

For inventory management I bought some stuff from https://www.sustainablesupply.com/ They seem like they're maybe just a drop ship company but they say they buy carbon offsets when shipping UPS and they favor recycled materials, for whatever that's worth.

Thanks for the tip on Paper Mart. I have two boxes of ULINE mailers I stupidly bought when I didn't know any better, which happens often.

For books there's no need to feel bad about your bookstore using Ingram. There are distributors that weren't founded on profits gleaned from the deforestation of Wisconsin, but everybody--publishers, smaller distributors like SPD (mentioned upthread)--takes Ingram's money, and uses their infrastructure. The thing that bothers me about Bookshop.org is less that they're using Ingram and more that they're claiming to support "indie booksellers" (a.k.a. "the little guy") plus charging you a premium for that. As a drop shipper relying exclusively on Ingram's fulfillment services, they are doing almost no work. I know because I've been doing the non-work myself! If you're going to pay full list for a book and you want to support the publisher or a bookstore (e.g. Skylight) you respect just buy directly from them full stop.

In western Mass. we have a lot of bookstores but they are not great, particularly for New books. They all want you to support them because they're "the little guy" but then they're selling Obama's memoir or something dumb like that. Like it's a Hudson News amd they're screaming "buy local"!!

Anyway I started massivebookshop.com to meet a local need but also anyone can use it and I have been overwhelmed by the support of friends on this board, which I sadly, apparently and unwittingly, ruined for a short time. The MASSIVE BOOK HOOK-UP part of massivebookshop.com is just a super scaled-down, punk rock version of Bookshop.org that makes it possible for anyone to get discount pricing from distributors (including Ingram) without all the certified B-corp crap about using your money to help "indie" booksellers, many of which don't need or deserve our help in the first place. It's a break-even service, with the bookstore taking 5-10% net (as compared to Bookshop.org's 30% net), but whatever profits we make from it will go towards mutual aid projects in western Mass., which means a lot more to me personally than ensuring the local bookstore continues selling Malcolm Gladwell.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:18 am

[mention]GARY-19[/mention] I have many tabs open with books I want to buy from your shop right now!

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Thu Oct 15, 2020 10:23 am

Guitar Center is "Gitty Cent"