Do people not know how to shop online outside of Amazon?

I'm not paying more to buy things through other platforms. If something is the same price on Amazon as it is elsewhere - the other place will lose until they have faster shipping or some other benefit. And this is coming from someone who buys a lot of stuff elsewhere and does a lot more than the average consumer when it comes to shopping. I do buy stuff elsewhere frequently. (I just spent $600 on soldering equipment through TEquipment, Louis Rossman's store, and some Amazon stuff because I couldn't find the stuff elsewhere for cheaper) The reason I do it isn't because I'm anti-Amazon - I buy stuff through various sources because I'm a thoroughbred slickdealer. (And you can bet your butt I looked up all those items to see if there were ever any deals on them or if I could get them used for cheaper - odd stuff doesn't get posted much about, sadly)

So, yeah, I buy stuff outside of Amazon... However, I'm a bit annoyed because I feel like the quality control is really bad at other sources far too often. With some shops I feel like they're gonna call me up and say, "Hey, I noticed you bought X, Y, and Z, do you want to buy this too?" And this just pads delivery time by days. They're slow to ship often enough as well. You buy an item online but you didn't know the shop was closed for 2 weeks. Sometimes - it's good. I remember I got $100 off my vacuum cleaner because they offered free overnight shipping for these vacuum cleaners - but I could get $100 off the price if I chose ground shipping. (Not an option online) That was worth knowing but that's rare! Most of the time I get a call like, "I noticed you bought X which is an accessory to Y, and Y wasn't in your order, do you want to buy Y?" No, of course not. I didn't buy Y because you charge too much for it and I can get it for cheaper elsewhere!

On top of this - even big names mess up too often! I tried to buy an Elgato capture card off through Bestbuy this last week. It wasn't even available anywhere else except Bestbuy. I used Google Shopping in the process because it was quicker/easier than going through Bestbuy's website. In the end - I got shipped a god damn microwave that I had to return today via UPS. Huge pain in the ass. I had to go to the local UPS store twice because I went too early (never thought that would happen!) to the UPS store the first time. (They're open 11-5) Yes, that stuff could happen with Amazon but I feel like they might have slightly better inventory management than that and would recognize when a 50lb+ item is being shipped instead of a 1lb. Surprisingly, the shipping labels (both ways) were only for objects < 5lbs. And yet UPS took them both times.

Target - same crap. Order something for store pickup even - no go. They cancel the order days later saying it isn't in stock. Home Depot? Fulfills half your order when you clearly need the whole thing. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22795970 I avoid store pickup when I can now. It's usually faster for me to find the item(s) in store and go through self-checkout than to wait in line at pickup.

I'm not pro-Amazon but I am not pro-poor experience for the same or more price. There's a reason Amazon is doing well compared to the competition and it's because they've made it much lower friction.