When we moved to Lithuania 6 years ago, I gave up my Amazon Prime membership.
In Lithuania, you can buy things from Amazon Germany or UK, but shipping is time-consuming and expensive (and potentially has customs/duty import implications). There are some online shops, especially some new grocery shopping online (Barbora, etc) or electronics (Skytech, etc), but not a clear major provider like Amazon.
So, I mostly didn’t buy anything online for a few years. At the time, I felt like that was good, by making myself less vulnerable to consumerism – I bought less stuff! I still think that’s good, but there are times I miss easy, convenient online shopping.
Over the past few months, I started shopping online again – using AliExpress. It’s provided a surprising amount of happiness for me. I missed online shopping. Selection is great, and the convenience of shopping from home has been wonderful.
Now, AliExpress mostly ships from China, slowly, so it’s a month or two before I receive the items. So no instant consumerism – at least not receiving the items.
In some ways, I prefer waiting; it allows me access to a wide selection of products, but prevents me from getting addicted to that quick feedback loop of consumerism. I’ll keep using AliExpress for now, and enjoy the happiness of online shopping.
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