Amazon in Mexico — it’s a bit different

It wasn’t until I was in college that I realized there were people who hated Walmart for political reasons.

My own personal reasons for hating Walmart were simply related to boredom. The “regular” Walmart was bad enough, and my mom loved it; it was her favorite store. When the SuperWalmart opened, it was game over. I’ll admit though, that by then I liked shopping enough to go with her willingly, and I have some nice memories of being out and about with my mom at Walmart. It eventually became fun.

Once in college with kids who had grown up in upper-middle class households where there was no anxiety during the time between parents’ paychecks, I realized it wasn’t cool for other reasons. I learned about how it pushed smaller, independent stores out of business. I learned about how they depended on sweatshop labor to supply their cheap products. And I learned how they treated their workers, letting the government supplement through food stamps what they as employers wouldn’t pay.

And while no one ever said this, I suspect Walmart was extra easy to hate because it triggered a feeling of superiority in those whose paychecks made it unnecessary to shop for bargain prices. They were better than “Walmart people,” and they were proud of it.

Now, those arguments almost seem quaint. Because really, Walmart was simply the writing on the wall: a harbinger of the global marketplace to come. The country-wide dominance of SuperWalmarts brought about the period the US now enjoys: virtually unlimited products for pretty good prices. At least they were pretty good prices for a while. Is this what people mean by “making America great again”?

The next iteration of Walmart, of course, has been Amazon. And on Amazon, you can get pretty much anything. Asian companies like Alibaba, Temu, and Shein aren’t far behind. I guess we’ll see what new tariff rules have to say about that!

I used to love Amazon. I’d plan my purchases to be delivered to Texas, then bring them back to Mexico. What convenience! And those reviews? Man, those were great — a revolution in marketing, honestly.

Now, I’m more ambivalent about the company. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still use it sometimes. Or more than I should.

Amazon’s Mexico site continues to grow. And while there are certain things I can’t get on it — why don’t they ever have that Revlon Kiss balm? — it often has the best prices for things that aren’t quite as easy or cheap to find “on the ground,” like the air purifier I bought last week. Like Walmart, I don’t feel great about Amazon purchases. But like my mom, I need a good deal.

If you also need to find something unavailable locally, it could be a good option.

Here are some things to know about Mexico’s version:

1. Some things are shipped from the U.S. Many things, actually, are shipped from the U.S. — as opposed to being available already in one of the Mexico warehouses. Thankfully, Amazon will include any importation fees for you to see before completing your purchase. This is a big deal to me because most other things I’ve had shipped have been held hostage by customs. I think they’ve got me pegged as someone who usually goes ahead and pays the exorbitant customs fee because they never miss a chance. But there are never any surprise fees to receive my package from Amazon.
2. Just like Mexican Netflix, Mexican Amazon selections are different here. Using a VPN won’t fix it unless you have a U.S. account, and even then, it will still likely detect that you’re on a foreign internet connection. I’ve found the Prime movie and show selections to be a mixed bag. And just because something’s on Amazon Prime in the U.S. doesn’t mean it will on Amazon Prime in Mexico. Which to me is just silly…I mean, what is the internet even for, then?
3. You can search for things in English or Spanish. While results will always be in Spanish, it’s nice to be able to search for what you want in your own language. Sometimes I’ve even found what I wanted on the U.S. site, and just copied and pasted the product title into the search bar to bring up the same thing on the Mexico one.
4. Reviews have been weird lately. For some reason, I can’t get the Amazon Mexico site to show me all of the reviews, no matter how I filter them. Weirdly, though, they’ll show me reviews in languages that I do not speak. Mostly I get them in Spanish and English, at least, but honestly, I’d prefer to see more than what they’ll let me.
5. Once in a while you’ll wait all day to receive a package and it won’t come. Infuriatingly, you might get an email later that says “Delivery was attempted,” to which you will say “No it wasn’t, I was here the whole time!” and jump up and down like Rumpelstiltskin. This has happened to me a couple of different times. Once it made me so mad that I cancelled my Prime subscription over it. But I was able to resolve it by…
6. Customer service. Call me old fashioned, but when I need something from a company I want to talk to a person, not be sent in circles by their on-site bots. It hasn’t been easy to get to — usually I’ve simply Googled the Amazon Mexico customer service number because it’s nearly impossible to find it on the site — but once you do, the people on the other end are very nice and helpful. They’ve helped me track down lost packages a couple of different times. Best of all, they’ve been patient while I’ve been like, “Okay, so just…let me get this straight one more time to make sure I understand what’s going to happen.”

Should you use Amazon Mexico? I don’t know, man. It’s hard to make decisions under our complex economical system that don’t harm anyone. But if you need a bargain on a specific thing that you probably can’t find elsewhere, Amazon Mexico is worth a shot.

Just don’t count on being able to find your favorite lip balm.

Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com.