Ekdog

I buy almost all of my food in the small shops and greengrocers that line my street. I only go to supermarkets--there are two with 50 meters of my flat--to buy a few items I can't find elsewhere. It makes me feel good to patronize small, family-run businesses. I like to see them prosper in the face of competition from the hypermarkets, and it's good for our local economy. Studies have shown that a large percentage of the money we spend here in our neighborhoods stays here. I thank God we don't have Walmarts in Spain. I encourage the open-minded to watch this video to learn the truth about the high cost of low prices there. When in the States visiting relatives (haven't been in years), I've always preferred Costco, a company that pays its workers a fair wage and still manages to be competitive.

I do have a Kindle and occasionally buy e-books from Amazon. Perhaps someone could recommend an alternative source for them. We don't have large, well-stocked libraries here like the ones in the U.S., alas.

zeppinger

Before leaving on my 10 month long bike tour in Asia I bought a kindle and downloaded free torrents that had thousands of books. I have a hard time finding specific books if thats what I am looking for but its easy to find torrents in groups of several hundred by topic such as history, social science, etc.... Lots of free sites if you search it.

Ekdog

I've done that, too.

By the way, I remember following you on that ride through your journal on the Crazy Guy site. What a tour!

I-Like-To-Bike

Get one of your U.S. relatives/friends with a decent library to send you their library card number. More than likely you could borrow ebooks for free on-line from that library.

Roody

For iPad and iPhone, the iBooks store has quite a few free titles.

Commodus

It doesn't really affect my ability to be car-free. I make a point to be close to essentials when I'm looking for a new place to live. It is handy in other ways though, like many here I often find my efforts to patronize local businesses frustrated by lack of inventory and knowledgeable sales people. Also, I find many local businesses are difficult to deal with in terms of returns, which I find a bit bizarre when many online retailers offer excellent return policies.

bjjoondo 

I only use the internet for buying things IF I can't find them locally. I guess we are a lot poorer than some here, Wal-Mart works well for us and fit's our budget so we use it a lot and it's only 2 miles from our apt. I just don't trust the internet much, we even use a Wal-Mart Money Card to do our purchases via internet with and ONLY put enough money on the card to get what's needed!! For Food we have Wal-Mart, Safeway, King Soopers and Safeway and King Soopers are a LOT more expensive!!!! So I guess that makes us "low life" smucks, oh well, Wal-Mart works for us and makes it so we don't have to use the internet any more than we HAVE to. JMHO, YMMV.

Smallwheels

Almost all items sold at Amazon have other vendors who are just using Amazon as the outlet for their products. One can select the item to come from Amazon or select another vendor who just goes through Amazon. Look for the words "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com." To the right of any opened product page is a column of other vendors for the same item that are alternative vendors who are mostly shops from around the country.

The internet gives us more choices to save money and to find exactly what we need. There is nothing stopping local shops from creating their own online stores to promote their goods. If they aren't specializing in a niche product, and they're selling the same things everybody else sells, then they must compete using pricing and service. Otherwise they won't win against the large retailers.

I want local vendors to succeed. It is always fun to walk into a shop and see new and unique things. Walking into a shop that sells the same things sold at Wal-Mart and other giant retail stores is a bit boring.

JoeyBike

I didn't start this thread to pass judgment on anyone. I was just curious how people who are striving to drive less were shopping in an age when almost anything could be delivered right to our front doors.

The only reason I don't shop at WalMart at all is the fact there are none close by. And to get to one, even by car, I would prefer to just blow my brains out at home and never shop again. Just finding a parking spot for a car is often infuriating. Have not been in a WM for a couple of years now, but I would if there was a more convenient one. There is a Dollar Tree just three blocks from my home. I guess that is my WallyWorld.

If this thread degrades into a cat-fight of judgmental BS over WM vs Mom&Pop vs TaxFreeWeb shopping I shall rat out the offenders to the mods. Those folks can start their own thread. I think by now we all know the ramifications of our shopping habits anyway. So far the comments here have been informative and interesting. Let's hope that keeps up.

I-Like-To-Bike

Are any of them recent releases besides reference books; recent as in published in the last decade?

Ekdog

I've given my opinion about Walmart. If you consider that to be "judgmental BS", go ahead and "rat [me] out to the mods". It seems extremely relevant to me and I doubt it is in any violation of the forum rules. Spending money in such a place does nothing but perpetuate the kind of society (wasteful, car-centric, exploitative) I despise. I suspect I'm in the minority on this around here, but I hardly think that makes my comments worthy of censorship.

Mobile 155

Just for FYI there is a program you can download called Calibre that will allow you to take books from Nook, Kendle and I think Ibooks and save them on your computer. Then you can move them onto your reading platform. In other words I can transfer all of my friends Kindle books onto my computer and then transfer them to my kendle. Same with Nook books it will convert them and download onto my Kendle. Some are pretty new. They were free to me but more than likely not the origional owner.

Ekdog

I agree, that's a great program. I use it all the time.

charbucks

There's also Feedbooks, Project Gutenburg, and ManyBooks with lots of public domain books. Most are out of copywrite (though still enjoyable), but some are new authors who've made their books publicly available for whatever reason.

If you like sci fi, I recommend checking out Peter Watts, and I plan to read The Ware Tetralogy. The hard part now is not in finding free books, but figuring out which ones are good!

wolfchild

I have two Wallmarts which are about 25 min ride from my home. I buy few different food items and things such as Whey Protein supplements and few other things , it saves me quite a few dollars. I always go very early in the morning on the weekends so I can avoid crowds, I hate crowded grocery stores and shopping malls.
No need to look for a parking spot ,there are bikes racks where I can lock my bike

zeppinger

Thanks Ekdog! I can't wait for the next one. Life in the US seems pretty benign in comparison....

Richk

Living in the lehigh valley area Amazon has been sited many times for working conditions . Buy what you can locally
https://www.safetynewsalert.com/amazo...gated-by-osha/

JoeyBike

Yes, we ALL know the evils of WalMart, Amazon.com, items made in China, and local business with insufficient inventory and lame return policies. We all know that on some lever burning fossil fuels to move about the world has it's evil results as well as beneficial ones. There are untold arguments to be had about the socio-economic ramifications of shopping for anything other than arrow-head making materials, vegetable roots, and small game - or living in a modern house versus a heap of palm fronds. There are also uncountable numbers of forums and blogs addressing such issues.

THIS particular tiny corner of the Internet (my thread) is dedicated to the fairly simple question: "Does the Internet help you to become/remain car-free or car-light?"

If I hope to get some honest answers here there should be some sort of agreement to NOT beat people up about their shopping choices on THIS thread.

Moderators are pretty good about removing off topic posts here. The topic of this thread has nothing, a.k.a. ZERO, to do with how evil any retail entity may or may not be.

I-Like-To-Bike

Is the Calibre program a source of ebooks for legal downloads? As best as I can figure out it permits converting ebook formats for ebooks already in an individual's possession. If you are converting formats from your friend's books for your use I assume it is nothing more a tool for operating a Peer to Peer scheme for bootleg copying of books among friends.

shipwreck

Wow. I just got an Iphone so I could take credit cards. Really did not want one, but I do like it and so far have not ground any of the brazons off my nicest bikes to make it a fixy or felt the need to wear skinny jeans or ironic tshirts.
Anyway, as an avid Sci Fi fan, I usualy love finding books while out on rides, many times I have come home with an improvised bag full on my roadbike.(sometimes if I find them at a thrift store I buy a fanny pack or other bag to carry them in)
But the fact that I can put a book on the thing is amazing. Just downloaded the Ware Tetralogy, and it seems ok. No Gene Wolf, but usually if I make it to chapter four I will finish it.

One thing I have been doing since I got it is listening to old radio programs while out on longer rides. Working through the BBC's journey to the center of the earth, have listened to Lum and Abner, Fibber McGee, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon. Its pretty awesome, and I just stream it over the internet rather than a special App. All this stuff is so new to me. I could buid an iron foundry from scratch in the wilderness, but find that these things embody Clarkes third law. "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

wahoonc

I use it to convert free books from a variety of sources to the platform I need for my Kindle. None of my friends have e-readers, that I am aware of. I also use it to convert a variety of technical manuals from PDF to something that the Kindle can handle. It allows me to read them without using my laptop or hauling a hard copy along. To me it is just another tool to make things work for me.

Interesting side note, my company has just gone to the Nexus 7 tablets to replace 3 large binders full of Material Safety Data sheets that are mandatory at all of our projects. Projected savings the first year is over $25,000, savings will go up as we have to replace the manuals every 2-3 years to stay current.

Aaron

gerv 

It can be a useful tool for me when I'm too tired, for example, to head off to a big box store to buy shoes. I hate shopping actually.

Recently, I discovered I didn't have a battery left in the house. At the time, the weather was bad and I really didn't feel like a trip to my local store (Walmart). So I went to Amazon and bought some Eneloops... rechargeable.

But..... I am a bit wary of buying clothing and shoes on the Internet. If the merchandise doesn't fit, it's a major pain to return it.

linus

Same here.

I don't care if I have to spend $20 more on a tire, I'll buy when I need it locally.

I-Like-To-Bike

Some people care about the price of the items they buy, some don't.

harshbarj

Only stuff I buy online is stuff that is cheaper. Computer parts I buy online almost all the time. Most everything else I buy at the store, but almost always at the larger chain stores(walmart, sears and such) as they are cheaper than the local stores. I get grief about this from my frinds all the time wanting me to "shop local". If they really want me too they can pay the difference. I'm not paying $3 for a loaf of bread when I can go to aldi and get the same thing for $.75. Not to mention aldi is closer to me than any other store.