> I mostly buy products direct from the manufacturer these days and virtually all manufacturers have high quality websites with solid ordering experiences.

I can’t say I agree. I’m not defending Amazon here but shipping is a nightmare with literally every other business. You aren’t going to get 2-day and you’re lucky if it ships within a week of ordering. In most cases there aren’t even options for faster processing/shipping for an increased cost.

I was recently at my parents at they have Bartesian (think Keurig for alcoholic drinks). I wanted to try some drinks they didn’t have so I went to the official site and started adding some stuff to my cart. IIRC the free shipping minimum was higher than Amazon (without prime) and there was _zero_ information on when I could expect the stuff to ship or the shipping time. I did some googling and found people complaining about how long it took to ship and I was only going to be at my parents for a little under a week. I went to Amazon and while there was a significant markup (20-30% IIRC) I was able to get it next day or 2 day depending on what I got. I bit the bullet and ordered from Amazon.

Not everything has to come in 2 days or less but some things absolutely do and I rarely see fast shipping from even big names like Apple that that rival Amazon (I just bought a mouse and keyboard from them and it took 4 days vs same day with Amazon, same price). In a number of cases you have literally no information on processing or shipping time to make an informed decision.

Again, not defending Amazon, I wish there were better alternatives, but it’s not as easy as “just order from the manufacturer”. I’ve been burned so many times doing that.