We use Amazon for everything. And we mean everything. Thanks to Amazon Prime, any item you purchase on a whim can arrive on your doorstep in two days or less — sometimes, even the same day. We live in a magical time.
But with that awesome power comes...strange choices. For some of us, that one-click checkout button can lead to some unusual impulse buys. For others, it's all too easy to start browsing Amazon in a late-night haze, saying yes to things you'd ordinarily never consider you needed in your life. But now that you've got a five-pound bag of Skittles or a dedicated wall-mounted purse hanger in your life, you've got to make the most of it, right?
Here, Refinery29 staffers share the most bizarre item they've purchased from Amazon.
"I upgraded to an Amazon Prime subscription nearly exclusively to get Diet Barq's Root Beer. You really can NOT find it in NYC. Since I started ordering it, the price has gone up and it's gone out of stock. I'm pretty sure that's all me."
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"My weird impulse buys from Amazon are usually single-use kitchen appliances: cake pop maker, silicone baking molds (spheres and pyramids!), panini press, dehydrator machine..."
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"I order everything on Amazon. My trash can, toaster, rolling rack, coat rack, AC unit, heater, candles, vitamins, books, beanies, scarves. I'm just addicted to Amazon."
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"Anything that lets me take things to-go: plastic cups with lids and straws, so I can make all my drinks to-go, mini packets of peanut butter in bulk (so, like, six cases of 24 packets)."
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"I once ordered this round stuffed corgi on a whim as a gift for someone. It really made my suggested purchases weird after that."
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"I just bought this lame purse hanger that's, like, a portable hook to hang your purse on. Is that weird?"
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"A hundred dollars worth of gummy vitamins (today) and $50 worth of black toe socks every winter ."
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"I'm addicted to buying my cat's food in bulk on Amazon. It's SO heavy if I pick it up at the store and lug it home, so it's awesome that I can just order it on Prime and just have them bring it to me."
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"Amazon has a great selection of novelty contact lens cases (ones shaped like tiny pairs of glasses, ones shaped like animals, etc). I rarely invite whimsy into my personal-care routine, but for whatever reason, I can't resist this one thing."
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"One time, I rush-ordered a spatula, because I wanted to step up my omelette game, only to have accidentally ordered a massive pancake-flipping-style spatula."
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"I tend to compile my shopping cart over a few days and don't end up placing the order until late at night before I go to bed, so I'll throw in some random stuff in my half-awake state. After 29Rooms, I ordered metal straws, because I learned from Adrian Grenier that plastic straws are bad for our oceans!"
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"I've ordered 180 pieces of plastic sea-life creatures to paint gold as home decor."
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"I have this weird habit of making late-night Amazon purchases that I don't remember until they arrive, like this past week, when a 15-pound bag of rice showed up at the office with my name on it."
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"I ordered yoga toes. I am not a yoga person, but they apparently help with bunions, etc. Not sure it's working, but they're very weird."
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"Sometimes, when I'm sleepy, I fall victim to Amazon's brilliant targeting...like when I bought a one-pound bag of Skittles, because, 'I wanted to fill up my Prime pantry box to get my money's worth.'"
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"I'm addicted to buying superfoods on Amazon and have spent literally hundreds of dollars on powders, berries, and extracts boasting to detox my body and boost some aspect of my general well-being. I have things like spirulina, maca, acai powder, and most recently, liquid chlorophyll, on auto-refill. Once I'm in the depths of Amazon, I can't get out."
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"I buy these guys on the regular, which are AMAZING toddler stacking toys. They also make your condiments look fancy."
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"Five-pound bag of Sour Patch Watermelons."
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"I bought tampons in bulk from Amazon in college and I'm still working my way through that stash. It was a HUGE order of tampons — for a while, I was bestowing boxes of feminine hygiene products on my friends like Robin Hood. Tampons for all! I haven't purchased tampons at Duane Reade since I made the order. Although I am running a little low these days — end of an era, I suppose."
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"Not me, but my old roommate was sort of obsessed with seeing what the maximum quantity you can purchase for any given item on Amazon. Their finger once hovered over the button for 500 copies of Kazaam on DVD...I think the only time they actually went through with the purchase was when an absurd amount of Bazooka Joe bubble gum turned out to be pretty cheap. Needless to say, our jaws were very sore."
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"Rave toys."
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"Socks! I'm always losing and mismatching socks, so it's super-easy to just order some cheap ones on Amazon Prime — and they'll be there in a day or two!"
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"What haven’t I bought on Amazon? The weirdest things that come to mind are a fedora and flavored toothpicks."
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"A shameful amount of toilet paper."
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"I drunkenly ordered a $10 blow-up chair because some friends and I were reliving the '90s and I thought about how my mom never let me own one when I was a kid (plus, these things used to cost like $60!). It was fun the first night I got it, but my cat was terrified and spending 30 minutes blowing up a chair for giggles is not a great use of time."
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"I have sensitive teeth, thanks to what I assume is a genetic predisposition to weakened enamel coupled with a 10-year addiction to coffee and Diet Coke. So I always always have to use toothpaste for sensitive teeth, otherwise even taking a sip of cold water can send me into screaming paroxysms of pain. I also happen to really like the baking soda flavor in Arm & Hammer toothpaste. But try as I might, I can never find its toothpaste for sensitive teeth anywhere in stores. So I order it in bulk off Amazon. All that just to have the slightly weird (but weirdly addictive) feeling that I rubbed the inside of my mouth with sodium bicarbonate."
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"I ordered some mysterious sour candies that came in a bag that looked like it came straight out of a science lab. They're called Barnett Sour Watermelon Balls."
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"I've ordered three bags of Ketchup Lays for 40 bucks."
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"Minion stickers (I don't know why I think they are so cute)."
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"My friend orders vanilla-flavored Tootsie Rolls in bulk on Amazon Prime."
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