Is Amazon the best place to buy labcoats?
Whether it’s groceries, school supplies, clothing, smartphones, or anything else you buy, there’s usually a “first-thought” store (brick and mortar or digital) that comes right to mind when you’re ready to shop.
Maybe it’s the Dahl’s Grocery around the corner, or the Gap where you buy your jeans, or the Apple Store for your next device. We all have diverse criteria for choosing our favorite stores, and while our choices are unique, many of our priorities are shared, like:
- Accessibility
- Variety
- And, of course, price
When it comes to deciding where you’re going to look for something you need, “accessibility” encompasses everything from the store’s location to your capacity to shop there at all. For example, though uncommon now, a digital storefront won’t be accessible to you without internet access. Or, if you need to get groceries and there’s a store next door, being so close does no good, either, if the store requires a membership that you don’t have.
Variety, in comparison (quite literally), is about options—you want different versions of the same product from different sellers and manufacturers. This is important to cater to personal preference and also to specific needs, like the materials used and any allergies you have, or even the politics of the company producing the product.
Prices, naturally, refer to how much the products cost compared to similar products. And even looking at a single product, the price can fluctuate based on sales and seasons. Certain prices may be appropriate for certain products and contexts, and other prices will make sense for other contexts.
Where can I buy a white lab coat?
Where is the best place to buy lab coats? Unsurprisingly, these three key factors each come into play when answering this question. Naming a definitive “best” place to go to buy lab coats is tough since white-coat-exclusive stores are pretty few and far between.
The internet, however, has changed accessibility (in particular) for designer lab coats forever.
Can we definitively qualify Amazon as the best doctors, chemistry, or med student lab coat store? No. We can’t say it isn’t the best, either. What we can do is break down how Amazon stacks up against these three key criteria to help you decide if Amazon lab coats are the best option for you.
Accessibility
Accessibility is a big plus for Amazon—if you have access to this article, you have access to Amazon’s website. Membership shouldn’t be an issue, either, since an email account is the only requirement for an account on the website.
Even being unable to use a credit or debit card shouldn’t be an issue since Amazon gift cards can be purchased with cash at different stores around the world. Depending on your country and region, you might even be able to pay for your Amazon order at local convenience stores.
The only tricky detail that comes with accessibility and Amazon, therefore, is delivery. Depending on where you live, delivery to your house or apartment might not be possible. As frustrating as this is, chances are that Amazon will be able to deliver to your school of place of work no problem. This is especially handy for doctors who spend all their time at the hospital or clinic. Sometimes, after all, it’s not about whether a package can be delivered, but whether you’ll be home during delivery hours if you have to receive it personally.
You have another option for delivery, too: you probably have a friend who is able to receive the package for you. Packages can also be left at your local post office, you just need to swing by to pick them up.
The verdict? Amazon is incredibly accessible, both in terms of free access as well as its reach in delivery. While you might not be able to walk into an actual store nearby to browse the options, you can view them in the palm of your hand, and then delivery will leave your purchased order as close as your front step.
Variety
Variety is a big win for Amazon, too. Just search “lab coats for women,” “designer lab coat,” or simply “lab coat” into the Amazon search bar and you’ll be met with dozens of pages of different options from a variety of vendors. The selection is huge and offers options in lab coat material, lab coat style, and many price points.
Perhaps most importantly, being able to see all the different vendors allows you to check their source websites individually and get to know each option, from the process or production to the politics of the company and anything in between.
To the left, here’s one of our most popular unisex lab coats from Dr James on Amazon, for example. This listing makes Amazon an incredibly useful tool for comparing different products and different vendors with all the options literally posted right in front of you.
Another benefit Amazon provides with variety is the ability to consult the client reviews for each product. Most products will have both a Q&A section as well as a product review section under the product description so you don’t have to rely solely on the seller’s details to know how your order will turn out. While a brick-and-mortar store can win your trust with being able to physically evaluate the product and see it for yourself, it can’t provide real customer reviews on how the product holds up over time, or on how difficult it is to maintain. Internet reviews will definitely provide this information for you.
Prices
Prices, especially with designer lab coats, will vary a great deal depending on the vendor and distributor. That said, just like when we talk about variety, Amazon’s platform serves as a means of checking and comparing prices of multiple products from several distributors. The same product by the same maker might be sold by different vendors, for example, and Amazon allows you to compare these directly. The ability to quickly compare prices can be enormously useful with something as readily marked-up as professional, functional and fashionable designer lab coats.
So, is Amazon the best lab coat shopping tool?
Again, it’s tough to say, and will ultimately depend on your priorities when you’re looking to buy lab coats. What we can guarantee is that, at the very least, Amazon is a fantastic resource to use when purchasing labcoats, especially to compare designer lab coat options. It can help you know what you should expect to pay for your coat, what options you have for materials and styles, which manufacturers fit your preferences and, ultimately, which lab coat provider ends up being the best for you.