Is a $9 bracket even worth your time to return it? It's going to take your time to return something at Walmart, too.
What Amazon does for me is save the most valuable thing I have - time. Buying printer paper at a store costs me an hour + gas. Buying it from Amazon - 3 minutes.
The time = money equation doesn't really work for my situation. I get a fixed amount of money every month, no matter how hard I work or don't work. I am picking up eggs and milk at Walmart anyways, so sure it's worth my time. Especially if I get to see the same faces every once in awhile. While they may not be paid the best, I'll take a smiling local face over a distant chatbot any day of the week.
As to your example, buying printer paper online, this invariable leads to my box of printer paper being smashed by Amazon's delivery people (probably b/c they are paid like crap), and I have to return it - costing more than an hour + my frustration. So instead, I can drop by Walmart, pick up eggs and milk - and squeeze my tomatoes to make sure they aren't mush - look at my lettuce to check for slime, pick up a box of printer paper and drop off my return/exchange.
Also, Target, Office Depot, Home Depot, Lowe's and Costco have great customer service compared to Amazon too. Walmart just has 3rd party sellers that other store don't offer - so Walmart is getting more of my online orders lately.
I tried to return online merchandise from Walmart at a physical store and they didn't take it. This was a few years ago. I would assume due to your story the policy changed, but have you actually done it or is this conjecture?
I've bought endless stuff from Amazon, and only once got a damaged package (it was inadequately packed, the package wasn't abused). I'm not denying your experience, just that mine is positive.
Ironically by far the biggest issue I’ve had with Amazon shipping is with books, specifically hardbacks with dust covers. They love to just throw them loose in a too-big box.
Annoying when it’s a new release.
Infuriating when it’s a 50 year old, long out of print book.
You might laugh, but I buy the cheapest, most battered books from Amazon. I kinda like the patina of a well-used book, and let the people who like pristine ones buy the others! My LotR trilogy is one of my valued possessions: dirty, smudged, creased, battered, yellowed, dogeared, it's awesome. They've clearly been enjoyed by their previous owner(s).
Sadly, the local used bookstore tries hard to stock books only in "like new" condition. This removes the best "tell" for if the book is good or not - if it looks well-used, it's probably a great book.
I don’t mind patina, but it took my 3 tries to get an acceptable copy of of a rare naval history book.
The first arrived with the spine totally destroyed (some pages literally hanging on my a thread) and the second was shipped in such a large box that it came open during shipping, and every single page had a massive hard crease at varying angles.
Amazon handled it far as refunds, but it still took over a month, and that’s now 2 less copies of that book in existence, and it’s not exactly common.
What Amazon does for me is save the most valuable thing I have - time. Buying printer paper at a store costs me an hour + gas. Buying it from Amazon - 3 minutes.