Honestly its just too easy to entirely cut them out of your life, coming from a heavy user previously. Alexas are gone. Prime canceled. Chase card closed. It was tough for one day, but now I feel great knowing I am not contributing to my own disenfranchisement. Also, saving lots of money after killing my consumption addiction.
I highly recommend it!
I’ve been boycotting Amazon since the days when they were an ugly data grabbing bookstore and I’ll happily go on until the end of time.
Do you guys really rely on Amazon so much that one week without feels like a protest? Seriously?
Guys I’m going to take a picture of myself holding up a sign saying that Amazon are racist oligarchs and I’m going to post it online
I will admit it’s been super convenient if I need shampoo or toner or drinks or dozens of other things to just take 60 seconds to order it from Amazon and it’s here in a couple days. Well it used to be. Now things often take many days to ship. I canceled Prime about 6 months ago.
I’m canceling Prime here in Brazil mostly because it’s getting more and more expensive, the selection of products with free shipping is getting smaller and I don’t even watch anything anymore on Prime Video. I realized the only reason I still have it is inertia from the good times when it costed me $2 a month—years ago.
It shows that Amazon was probably operating at a loss before to bankrupt the local competition, but now that they raised prices and offer less, it’s actually becoming a worse deal.
You just listed things that you can pick up at any number of local stores. That stupid convenience of ordering crap instead of just adding it to the shopping list is why people think going a week without using Amazon will “disrupt the system.” This is exactly the problem.
It’s kinda sad, I’ve been back and forth with online ordering actually being a “logistical god-send” for our chaotic consumerism. I mean think about it, one full delivery truck that can bring in a full neighborhoods worth of goods for the week/day versus every single car being driven to only transport a portion or less of a trunk (sometimes driving out for even one item).
In a perfect “non-monopoly/Amazon couldn’t exist world” where everyone could plan ahead and have everything shipped, you could save on store/display costs (including environmental) and just have a smaller distribution center from semi-trucks to box trucks for local deliveries. Could even go from box truck to local end point distribution (biking,etc) so city spaces could go car-less. Keep the local farmers/co-op markets for socializing/freshest produce-shipping and bob’s your uncle.
Instead we have the worlds most horrific amalgamation where you have underpaid people in fucking V8 trucks delivering a few bags of groceries someone has “door dashed” from the local grocery store or just a burger from a local joint so they don’t have to cook because they only have an hour of free time a day.
Yes but when I live 40 miles from a city and hate wandering around multiple stores looking for things they may or may not have. But I know I need to change.
I’ve genuinely never used amazon to shop, not even once, but only because it’s always been the more expensive option compared to smaller shops. Right now seeing 5070ti tuf goes for 1400 on amazon, 1300 at my local store.
It’s so bad and cyclical while just being unavoidable in some areas. On the map, you’ll notice how heavily populated northern europe is compared to a lot of sparse areas which have less options. I’m in a relatively normal size town and there is one big box choice and maybe one defunct “local” store that’s barely getting by.
I had to beg a guy in a corner shopping center “repair shop” for a small syringe of thermal paste when I ran out (I’m not fucking kidding, there’s just no electronics store anywhere nearby, losing Radioshack was fucking hard). Dude at the shop was the only reason I didn’t have to go online and wait a week (he wasn’t selling it, just had spare for his own use). My trades and hobbies make this a common occurrence throughout the week. Most places now are forced to sell on Amazon to remain competitive (Amazon dominates with shipping cost reduction alone for large items), finding a local or even nationally based company through search algorithms becomes harder and harder as they can’t pay to keep up with SEO bullshit. You can try to keep it all legit but with competitive monopolies everywhere you just eventually find out your favorite company no longer really exists.
There are some suppliers I could shop with but each one is an hour drive in different directions and 80% of the time they’re ordering the same shit through the same companies I would be using if I went online. It works sometimes, but takes so much effort it becomes it’s own full-time job that no one has the ability to keep up with.
I live in a small town in Alaska, more than 300 miles from the nearest decently sized city. It’s been more than two years since I’ve given Amazon a single dime. You’ll manage if you care enough to try.
Here’s the thing. If I could shop somewhere else I would. Do you know what sets Amazon apart from other places? It’s their delivery, pure and simple. I ordered 3 TV’s from Best Buy. It took them a week to ship them. I had to pay for shipping on top of the $600 I spent. On the day I was supposed to receive them I was home all day. I got a notification they were an hour out. So I went outside and waited for them to arrive. They never arrived, but i got an email telling me they had stopped by but I wasn’t home.
So I had to go down to their depot to pick them up. I am stuck using public transit so Imagine trying to get 3 40 inch TV’s home on a bus. I ended up having to get a cab half way home with money I couldn’t afford to spend just to get it all home.
So for me, That is the main reason I buy from Amazon. Although lately I’ve been shopping with Uber from Walmart.
And Fuck Purolator.
I haven’t bought a single TV in my whole life and I haven’t missed anything important. Whenever I am somewhere where there’s a TV and I’ve got nothing better to do or I’m just curious I zap through the channels whithout finding anything remotely interesting or entertaining 99% of the time. I really wonder what people want with these ad-infested, annoying trashcans. Aren’t you dumb enough, yet? Try heavy drinking. Preferrably methanol or break fluid…
A whole 7 days??? Gosh gee willakers!!! You think people can uphold a boycott a whole 7 days???
Look. Boycotts are effective, but you gotta be stubborn. It’s gotta be “boycott from now on” with no end date.
Otherwise, it’ll just look like normal fluctuations in their business.
“Oh, this week was slightly down…ah, but then it stopped. We’re good!”
But if you boycott forever, then their numbers continuously go down. And if you get other people boycotting, those numbers go down faster.
THAT’S how you make an impact.
In 1995 we boycotted Shell for environmental reasons and it worked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Spar
Towing of the platform to its final position began on 11 June. By this time, the call for a boycott of Shell products was being heeded across much of continental northern Europe, damaging Shell’s profitability as well as brand image. […]
On 20 June, Shell had decided that their position was no longer tenable, and withdrew their plan to sink the Brent Spar […]
So it needed more than a week of concerted boycott action to bring big business into trouble, but not unlimited boycott.
Boycott action, and a smidge of arson.
That boycott had a demand attached, to prevent the sinking of the Brent Spar buoy. Effectively “unlimited” boycott until Shell gave into the demand.
This and the last no shop Friday thing seem mostly pointless. I mean fuck Amazon for sure but shouldn’t there be some goal? “Boycott Amazon until X, Y, and Z” not “No buy from Amazon for a week but then we’ll be back so no worries!”
The implicit demand is to stop supporting fascists.
for a week
Implicit demands are for mob bosses and boat owners. If you’re threatening a corporation you need to be clear and direct.
Less
We are boycotting Amazon products until they stop be bad
More
We are boycotting Amazon products until they make another season of The Expanse
Or whatever. Clear, concrete, demands.
We are boycotting Amazon products until they make another season of The Expanse
With the time skip, that’s going to be a long boycott.
This is how strikes are organized generally. You do limited time events too minimize the hurt on both sides, and bring them both to the table.
How do you get people who can’t see themselves boycotting indefinitely? You get them used to it by getting them on board to boycott for a fixed length of time. Ideally, as they warm up to the idea, you get them to boycott for longer.
I have ordered from them line 5 or 6 times, subscribed for a year because I wanted to watch a series by terry Pratchett, and never again interacted with it in the past 8 years or so. You are not boycotting food or water or oxygen.
Good job
True, but 7 days isn’t enough time for that. I’ve gone weeks between purchasing the kinds of things Amazon delivers, so it’d just be normal. 2+ months is probably better. Especially if those months are Nov & Dec.
Some people can’t even handle a 1-day boycott. I think you’re overestimating the average person’s tolerance for discomfort.
I don’t even understand what people buy so often. I can easily go a month without buying a new physical item that’s not like, food
I really don’t get it either, how much shit do people need!?
Yeah but it lets people feel like they’ve boycotted. Which isn’t coddling/faux activism so much as it is starter-activism. We don’t want activism to seem hard… even though we know that effective activism pretty much requires meaningful changes to behaviour which often brings discomfort. People are really out of practice and our goal is getting people into the habit
Okay, so start boycotting Amazon now and don’t stop.
I guess it’s a good thing that I’ve always been a minimalist. These things don’t really impact me. I very rarely buy stuff.
Preach
Easy - I stopped using Amazon period.
You know all the twitch streamers hate this.
I’m participating in this on principle, but mostly on bankruptness.
I already started my boycott last month.
With a few exceptions, I haven’t bought from Amazon in more than a decade. I never buy from them unless I absolutely can’t find the thing I need anywhere else.
I stopped buying on Amazon Jan 20. I will cancel Amazon Prime today. Many people will also stop buying and many people will cancel Prime. When they stop buying for a week, they tend to find alternatives that they stick with. I was buying several hundred dollars worth of merch but have found better alternatives. I will not go back. Seven days is just a start. Amazon is noticing.
This is dumb. My wife won’t stop using it.
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Just permanently switch to buying from AliExpress. Or at least check if item is available on temu, AliExpress and Alibaba first.
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Don’t just delay and then buy delayed 5 days later.
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Send money to wfp party instead of Dems.
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have u ever forgotten to pay at Walmart?
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buy a gun while u can. It takes some fucking effort in blue states.
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go on Amazon - you can print a custom garden flag.
Print Luigi and post it in your yard. -
start building a troll farm that can direct protest energy.
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The economy has been helping me boycott for years now. Can’t buy if you don’t have disposable income.
Amazon.com could shut down at any point and Bezos wouldn’t lose anything really. Most of the web runs on Amazon web services. You don’t have to buy anything from them. If you’re online, you’re their product.
I week long boycott will do nothing. If that is the most you are prepared to inconvenience yourself to send a message, then just give up now.
Agreed. Better to make it a month or two. This gives you time to find replacement companies and then hopefully never return to Amazon.
Or just stop using them entirely, right now, because the only service they have an uncontested lead in is, ironically, audiobooks.
I know, I know. You might have to physically go to a store. The HORROR.
Sounds like an excuse to not get started.
It sounds like a call to avoid symbolic action and take meaningful action instead, to me.
I don’t think advocating people do nothing while vaguely gesturing at doing more while offering no alternatives or next steps is meaningful action.
I don’t think what you describe is meaningful action either.
Do I understand that you agree the proposed “blackout” is symbolic, and that you wish there were something more meaningful being proposed; or are you defending the blackout as meaningful itself? Do you agree with the criticism of the blackout’s being symbolic, but want to go along with it despite its lack of meaning (or perhaps better stated, lack of effect)?
For my part, I’d be much more pleased with the idea of the blackout if I could be convinced that it would have useful results, and would generally be in favor of so-called “meaningful action.” This blackout wouldn’t effect me either way since I’ve already given up amazon and google stuff almost entirely except what I need for work. I just need to know what the meaningful next step would be.
If we were to assume that everyone would just wait until the 15th to do all their amazon orders that they waited a week for then I would agree it’s symbolic.
For many, this will be what happens, but for some, they will find an alternative. Then maybe in the future they chose that alternative too. It’s about gradual progress towards better alternatives. For you, maybe finding ways to make your work less reliant on those things would help. Or if that’s not possible maybe working somewhere else that doesn’t make you sacrifice your values.
As an example, one person choosing to educate themselves on animal welfare might not have much effect today, or tomorrow, or even next week. But after years, even small changes can mean the elimination of suffering for dozens or hundreds of lives.
Hard disagree. If you ask people to make a temporary change that still feels achievable, they’re more likely to at least give it a shot, and many of those people will spend some time considering alternatives. Once the week is up, some people may even choose to continue boycotting Amazon, or at least reduce their spending there.
If these measures are not enough; please suggest some more for us to take.
Don’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good”.
I personally haven’t bought anything from Amazon for years now (or really anywhere online, I think maybe 8 things in the past year?), issue is even within the last week I’ve spent hundreds if not thousands on AWS through work… Sure it’s not me paying, but it’s also pretty hard for me to not to given they have such a monopoly
